1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider

This car, Lot 355, sold for $22,005,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Monterey, CA, auction on August 20, 2022.

To complete the catalog copy above without spending too much space, this 410S under the ownership of John Edgar and with Carroll Shelby and others driving went on to a successful history in American racing from 1956 through 1959. It subsequently had an honored and well-maintained retirement with a series of important collectors.

The netherworld of crown-jewel car collecting — where extremely wealthy individuals vie for the right, privilege and responsibilities of owning and playing with the most valuable cars in the world — seems impossibly removed from most of our realities. But it is in fact a rational endeavor involving knowledgeable actors and clearly understood protocols. You might think of it as buying memberships in a series of informal clubs, joining a group of peers who know, respect and appreciate each other.

Evolving the breed

In trying to understand the amazing variety of sports racing cars that Ferrari produced during the classic years (roughly 1948–69), the best way to approach the issue is to consider four distinct generations.

The early racers of the first generation were fundamentally the same as the road cars: ladder-frame, live-axle cars with engines ranging from 2.0 to 4.5 liters of displacement and relatively crude suspensions, steering and brakes. The later large-displacement cars (340, 375) basically relied on horsepower to win, and in my experience are not particularly fun to drive. They can be quite fast, though.

Competition is a merciless master, and by 1954 it was becoming obvious that Ferrari was going to have to up its game. This is when what I call the second generation of racers was introduced. They were completely separate from the road cars, using tube-frame chassis with a transaxle layout that moved the weight distribution toward the center and allowed an independent De Dion rear suspension. Coil springs replaced a transverse leaf at the front, and steering and aerodynamics were improved. Bodywork was now bespoke to the racing cars, and lighter, simpler 4-cylinder engines were used for most of them. The best known of these cars are the Monzas and Mondials; virtually all of them were sold to retail customers as racing cars, Ferrari only kept a few for factory team use.

Inevitably, Ferrari moved back to using V12 engines for the factory cars, starting with the 250 Monza and progressing through our 410S to the 290 MM and 335 S of 1957. Lighter, slipperier and more sophisticated than the first generation, these are much better and a lot more fun to drive.

From good to great

The third generation arrived with both a return to simplicity and increased chassis and suspension sophistication. With an eye toward selling racing cars as a profit center, Ferrari put a V12 into the 2.0-liter 500 TRC chassis and called it a 250 Testa Rossa. It was a simple engine, transmission, live-axle layout, far less complex than the earlier transaxle cars, but it was profoundly better as a racer: The horsepower, grip, balance, steering and brakes all worked together.

The 1958 “pontoon fender” Testa Rossas became iconic. Ferrari built 21 of them before realizing that selling retail racing cars was a terrible idea and giving it up forever. After that, Ferrari only built sports racing cars for itself and sold them to privateers after retirement from Scuderia Ferrari. The 1959, ’60 and ’61 TRs are the ultimate, but they are all ex-team cars, hen’s-teeth rare (11 total), and frighteningly valuable.

The fourth generation of Ferrari racers are the mid-engine cars. They are fabulous but can never be driven on the street, which limits their usefulness and market value.

A hierarchy of value

This leaves the reference point as the late third-generation cars. I will argue that a useful approach is to think of any racing Ferrari’s value as a percentage of one of those. No TR 59 or 60 has traded hands publicly in recent memory, nor is one likely to, but consensus is that one would be worth about $45 million (GTOs are a different topic).

A second essential consideration in valuing these cars is the number of cylinders in the engine. With the exception of a few problematic sixes, all racing Ferraris of the Enzo era are 4- or 12-cylinder cars, and any racer’s value is in direct proportion to the cylinders: A 4-cylinder car is worth roughly one third of a 12-cylinder car.

History is the third determinate — the more wins the better — and because the market is international, world (FIA) history is more important than strictly American races. It’s simply a bigger stage; Spa counts more than Tulsa.

A fabulous car, well bought

Our subject 410S is a fabulous car, dripping with history, adrenaline and a wonderfully complicated motor. It would be honored on any tour or Ferrari event in the world, and is clearly worth a lot of money, but it is far from the ultimate racer of this period.

To start with, it is a second-generation car — effectively a Monza with a huge V12 engine. I am sure it is exciting to drive but undoubtedly a monster. There is nothing delicate or easy about it; it’s a bellowing beast of a car, less fun than the later ones.

The other problem is history: It was successful, but strictly at U.S. races after breaking at Buenos Aires. This limits its international appeal.

Let’s get back to the basic approach. With allowance for history, a first-generation car, say, a 375 MM, is generally worth a quarter to a third of our reference. Second-generation cars tend to sell for between half and three-fifths of the reference point, while early third-generation TR 58s are about three-quarters. Applying that rule to the 410S, we come up with a value range of $22m–$27m.

This bring us to our sale price: $22m, all-in. One of the problems with an auction format is that it is cash only, which limits creative deals (such as cash and trades) and thus forces the hammer price to the lower range. Given this circumstance, I think that the buyer should be happy; the car was well bought. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)