2017 Ferrari F12tdf

This car, Lot 83703, sold for $1,394,000, including buyer’s premium, in a Bring a Trailer online auction on September 9, 2022.

The Tour de France Automobile was a grueling multi-stage race that ostensibly circumnavigated France. The first edition was held in 1899, and it continued off and on through 1986. It was revived again in 1992 as a historic event called “Tour Auto.” This popular race now mimics the Tour de France with a five-day, 2,500-km rally through France with road, racetrack and hillclimb stages.

Ferrari won the Tour de France Automobile 13 times. Its 250 GT long-wheelbase berlinetta was so dominant in the mid-1950s that the company dubbed the model the Tour de France.

Flawed or fabulous?

In 1993, Ferrari introduced the 348 Serie Speciale. The Serie Speciale was the first of a line Ferrari now calls its Special Series. Special Series models are introduced at the end of a model’s run, stimulating sagging interest by offering the ultimate version of the model on which they’re based. They often showcase upgrades developed through Ferrari’s racing programs.

Although initially limited to Ferrari’s 8-cylinder models, a GTO version of the 12-cylinder 599 GTB Fiorano joined the Special Series stable in 2010. The F12tdf followed in 2015. (Ferrari used the “tdf” abbreviation instead of “Tour de France” because the bike race owns the name.) The 812 Competizione and open-top 812 Competizione A are the current V12 specials. Like its historic 250 GT predecessor, the F12tdf honors Ferrari’s Tour de France victories.

MotorSport magazine described the F12tdf as a flawed car, writing that in an era where each new generation of cars is more refined than the last, the F12 doesn’t follow the rules. Ferrari went backwards on the F12tdf, replacing the car’s ability to make itself fast through technology with the need for old-fashioned driver’s input to make it perform. The magazine said that an F12tdf is to an F12 as a Bengal tiger is to a cat. Road & Track put it differently, calling the F12 a “butter knife” and the F12tdf, “a switchblade.”

To be clear, use of the word “flawed” must be considered facetious. In an era where sub-four-second 0–60 mph times are commonplace and electronic aids disguise the driving experience, to many of us, making the driver more responsible for a car’s performance is a feature, not a bug.

Medium-rare

Ferrari built 799 F12tdfs for worldwide distribution. That may not seem like a lot of cars until you compare the number to other collector-grade Ferraris. Early 365 Boxers are not thought of as being particularly rare, but only 378 were built. Ferrari built a lot of 330 GTCs — that is, if you consider 598 examples a lot. The 275 GTBs were built in short-nose and long-nose 2-cam versions, followed by a run of 4-cam examples; the total of all three models was 770 cars. The point is, in the Ferrari world, the F12tdf is not particularly rare.

This F12tdf sold for a record price and well above the SCM Median Value of $825k. The $1,394,000 sale price was slightly over the previous auction record of $1,375,000 set at Mecum’s 2017 Monterey sale (SCM# 6846992). The old record, though, was set when the cars were new and nearly unobtainable to anyone who wasn’t a Ferrari VIP client. Before this auction, only two F12tdfs had broken $1m since early 2019. Based on historical sales, I would have expected this car to have sold for high six figures.

VIP order, VIP price

What made our subject F12tdf so attractive was its low mileage and build configuration. New F12tdfs were allocated to Ferrari’s best customers; in other words, clients who had bought several cars from the company and demonstrated loyalty to the brand. These are the type of clients who bought Californias and FFs they didn’t want, just to stay on the list for the “good cars.”

This car was obviously ordered by one of these clients. It not only included over $127k worth of options, but also featured airboxes signed by the Ferrari employees who built the car. This is the sort of easter egg only a regular would know.

The build made this car unique. It was a premium car in premium condition that attracted buyers willing to pay up for a trophy example. The car sold to a bidder who goes by the BaT ID “LiquidWayno.” LiquidWayno must have LiquidCasho, as this was his third big BaT purchase, previously taking home a Ferrari 458 Speciale and a Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach Edition. Both cars were low-mileage collector-grade examples, and both were bought for over-the-top prices.

Cost no object

Traditionally, collector-car buyers have been enthusiasts who carefully shopped for exactly what they wanted (or investors who were only interested in value). There is a new class of buyers in the market. These buyers are attracted to modern high-profile models and they will drop big bucks based on a seller’s representation and a handful of photos. If two of them are interested in the same car, record sales happen.

The seller of this F12tdf offered it on a different online auction site about a month before the BaT auction and passed on a $1,070,000 high bid. In proof that BaT is the 800-pound gorilla in the online-auction game, the first auction got five bids and three comments. The BaT auction got 52 bids, 254 comments and an extra $324k.

There was a running gag in the comments that the car resembled a C7 Corvette, but when the auction ended, the money was no joke. The seller was the beneficiary of this auction, but I suspect the buyer understood he was paying top dollar and valued the car more than the money.

The Mercedes-Benz 300SL and Ferrari F40 are the only other cars that I can think of that had a production run of over 750 cars and that will sell for over $1 million. This puts this F12tdf in rarefied air. The 300SL and the F40 have passed the test of time. The F12tdf is a special car, but I’m not sure it can stay garaged in that neighborhood. Consider this one well sold for now. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of Bring a Trailer.)