Words: Rory FH Smith
Those with a keen eye on the classic car market will no doubt see some similarity with our previous Classic Car of the Week, the 1956 Ferrari 290 MM, which fetched a staggering £19.7million at auction in early December 2015. If you missed your chance to own a piece of motor racing history, gents, then fear not, the 1957 Ferrari 335 S Spider by Scaglietti is calling.
Born in the year of 1957, the car was fitted with a slippery Scaglietti body designed for racing. Sporting a 3.8-litre V12 Tipo 140 engine, the car was entered by Scuderia Ferrari (the motorsport arm of the Ferrari marque) into the Sebring 12 Hours race, driven by British racing driver Peter Collins and Maurice Trintignant. Placing a respectable 6th, the car would go on to compete in the Mille Miglia, a grueling 1,000-mile race around Italy, driven by Wolfgang von Trips, who finished 2nd to Piero Taruffi’s Ferrari.
When taking on the 24 Heures du Mans, the car was placed in the capable hands of yet another stalwart of British motorsport, Mike Hawthorn (who would later go on to win the Formula 1 championship in 1958). Hawthorn saw off competition from Maserati and Jaguar and set the first lap record in the history of Le Mans 24 Hours with an average speed of 124mph.
In 1958, the car won the Cuba Grand Prix with Masten Gregory and none other than Sir Stirling Moss at the wheel. In 1960 the car retired from the racing circuit and was sold to Robert N Dusek, an architect living in Pennsylvania.
‘Both a work of art and the Queen of speed, this represents the elixir of the exceptional: beauty, rarity, racing success, history, authenticity and provenance,’ says Matthieu Lamoure, Managing Director of Artcurial Motorcars.
The Ferrari 335 S Spider will be offered at auction by Artcurial Motorcars in Paris on the 5th February 2016. Click here for more details.
Guide price: £21.4million – £25million
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