Don't get me wrong, I personally am an addict to the little Ferraris since I felt for it when Tony Curtis drove #00810 in the TV series “The Persuaders”. Funny enough, this series was a big success when transmitted in Germany as they had re-written the dialogues with very cool saying. And beyond all of that, when I was in a state of compiling the “Ferrari Serial Number Manual 1947 – 2007” I frequently exchanged data with the late Denny Schue, founder and operator of the famous “Dino Register” and in 2005 Denny surprised me when he said that he planned to retire and was looking for a reliable caretaker of the Dino Register – choosing me!
Having said this it might be obvious that I am very deep in anything about Dinos ever since. However last year’s auction results have been a surprise already, lifting “Chairs & Flares” cars above the 200 k$ barrier first to then take the 300 k$ barrier obviously easy. Nevertheless, what has happened over the weekend at the Scottsdale Auctions can only be described as being crazy!
#06462 was offered by Gooding & Company and had an estimate of $350,000 - $425,000 what already exceeded the previous auction record from 2012. The hammer price was an incredible $506,000! This US-“Chairs & Flares”-car was delivered new to first owner, Edward Derentz from Camarillo, CA who kept it until June 1998 when it was purchased by Symbolic Motor Car Company of La Jolla (Hi, Bill!). It is not known if there has been a further owner between Symbolic and David Steel from Temecula, CA, who purchased the car in 2003. It further is unknown if Steel owned this car beyond 2005, but I doubt this as the car was registered “4CEW673” when owned by Steel and it came with plates “TIPO E” when offered in Scottsdale.
Remarkable as well was the achieved price for #03392, a GTB in Marrone Colorado, that was hammered at 291 k$ by Gooding as well.
The question, that remains and is obviously unanswered: Is this trend healthy or are we within a new Ferrari-bubble?
A review of all Scottsdale results will be online as soon as all auctioneers have published their results. At the moment I can only say, that there are some surprising record breaking results for other cars of Maranello provenance as well.