2005 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti 6-Speed Manual

This vehicle, Lot 833, sold for $224,000, including buyer’s premium, at Broad Arrow Auctions’ “Cars of Jim Taylor” sale in Gloversville, NY, on October 14, 2022.

In the hands of a skilled driver, a Ferrari F40 will hit 60 mph in 4.2 seconds. A less-skilled driver can get a 612 Scaglietti to 60 mph in the same 4.2 seconds. An F40 will go 199 mph. A 612 Scaglietti will also go 199 mph. Given a small, one-second lead on a lap of Ferrari’s Fiorano test track, a 612 Scaglietti cannot be caught by an F40.

Making this performance more impressive—like Ginger Rogers following Fred Astaire’s moves backwards and in high heels—the 612 matches the performance of the F40 with luxurious grand-touring accoutrements and two extra seats.

Four-seat Ferraris

The 612 Scaglietti was Ferrari’s 2004 entry to its long line of 12-cylinder 2+2 grand tourers. Ferrari normally makes a couple of models based on the same engine. Traditionally, but not always, that includes a berlinetta, a spider and a 2+2. While not the performance flagships of their siblings, Ferrari always made sure the 2+2s performed at an admirable level. Due to the extra content a 2+2 requires, they were often the most expensive model of the series. The extra seats also accelerated the depreciation of the model, making used examples a particularly good value.

Sometimes the 2+2s are the most popular models in the series. The 1960–63 250 GTE 2+2 was so successful that it outsold all other 250s and is often credited as saving Ferrari from bankruptcy. The 1963–68 330 GT 2+2 was also the best seller of the 330 series. Even the 365 2+2 outsold the entire 365 series, excepting the Daytona.

Improving the horse

The 612 Scaglietti was built until 2010. Like most Ferraris, it evolved during its production, with the later cars being the most valuable. Cars with Handling Grand Touring Sport (HGTS) and Handling Grand Touring Competizione (HGTC) packages sell at a premium. The HGTS package added cool 19-inch ball-polished wheels with sticky tires, performance suspension, faster shifting and other tweaks, while the HGTC package added carbon brakes to that list.

In 2007, Ferrari produced a special-edition 612 Scaglietti to commemorate the brand’s 60th anniversary. The 612 Sessanta — Italian for “60” — featured two-tone paint, an electro-chromatic roof and several other exclusive options. The 612 Sessanta was limited to 60 examples, and like many “special editions,” it came out as 612 sales were starting to slow. VIP clients were targeted, with an unspoken agreement that buying one made brownie points toward keeping one’s seat on the supercar list.

In 2008, Ferrari made another attempt to jumpstart 612 sales. It replaced the dealer-based option program with the One to One program. Abbreviated as OTO, this linked clients directly with a division of Ferrari that offered a wide range of exclusive (and expensive) options. There are few OTO 612s, but those that were built are often quite special.

A tough crowd

Jim Taylor is not your normal car collector. Except for leaning towards Mustangs and English cars, his theme is no theme. While he owned oddities like a 1965 Checker Marathon Taxi and a 1935 Gospel caravan, he also had the obligatory Mercedes 300SL and other blue-chip cars. Condition does not seem to matter much to Taylor, as he positioned pristine show cars next to original cars with miles and warts. At the sale of his collection, a bevy of old trucks left rusting outside added a hint of hoarder to his collector madness.

There were three Ferraris in the auction, two 599 GTB Fioranos and this 612 Scaglietti. All three Ferraris are oddities when compared with others of their type. One 599 is known as the 599 GTB Fiorano Panamerica 20,000. It is one of two cars built for a 20,000-mile Ferrari promotional tour across parts of North and South America. The other 599 GTB is one of the rare and debatably desirable 6-speed manual versions. This 612 Scaglietti is also a rare 6-speed.

Surprisingly, the Ferraris did not do as well as expected. The 599 Panamerica bombed at $190,000 against a $450,000 to $550,000 estimate. The manual-transmission 599 faired a bit better, bringing $495,000 against a $550,000 to $650,000 estimate. Selling at $224,000, this 612 hit the midpoint against a $200,000 to $250,000 estimate.

Rare, but desirable?

Some 3,025 612 Scagliettis were built, most with the automatic “F1” transmission. Just 199 had 6-speed manuals. Only 60 of these manual cars were sold in the U.S. That makes the configuration rare, but is it desirable?

Most 612s were ordered to spec, which means that of the people who could choose whichever configuration they wanted, just six out of 100 thought a manual transmission in a luxury GT was a good idea. That confirms the rarity but also indicates that when new, the manual was not particularly desirable.

I suspect today if the value of a manual was on par with an F1 version, the ratio would be the same. This has been skewed, though, by people believing rarity translates to increased value, and that brings us back to this sale.

The high end of public sales of manual 612s is $325k. Taylor’s 612 was an early example with no declared significant options. We can only guess at the condition and when the next $5,000 belt service is due. The car sold for $100k more than the 2023 SCM Pocket Price Guide’s top of the range valuation of an F1, confirming the manual transmission’s premium. Broad Arrow could not be faulted for thinking it was worth more, but I would call the money spot-on for this particular example. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of Broad Arrow Auctions.)