Ferrari 275P Set to break auction record

By: Unique Cars magazine

Date: 11.01.2018

Ferrari's last factory Le Mans winner set to break another record

Ferrari's last-ever Le Mans 24-hour winner, the 1964 Ferrari 275 P is tipped to set a record price, in excess of £28 million (AU$44 million), when it is goes under the Artcurial Motorcars hammer at the Retromobile auction in Paris in February.

The Le Mans winner, one of only eight Ferrari factory cars to taste victory in the twice-around-the-clock-enduro is one of the remaining cars in the Pierre Bardinon collection, the Frenchman who passed away in 2012, acknowledged as the greatest Ferrari collector ever.

The last Bardinon collection car sold was the 1957 Ferrari 335 S Scaglietti which also set a record, when it sold in Paris in 2016 for £24.7m at the time. And it didn’t win at Le Mans.

"This Ferrari 275 P represents the ultimate and the truly exceptional," says Artcurial’s managing director Matthieu Lamoure.

"The car has reached the summit in sports car racing worldwide. To look at this automotive masterpiece is to see the best and most prestigious racing provenance. It radiates the DNA of success."

The 275 P, which was driven to 24 Hours victory in ’64 by Jean Guichet and Nino Vaccarella, is one of the most valuable of the remaining cars in the now somewhat depleted Pierre Bardinoncollection.

In its glory days the Bardinon collection comprised the world's most extensive inventory of significant Ferraris. When Bardinon passed away it was believed around 20 Ferraris with a collective worth up to €£200 million remained in the collection.

At its peak Bardinon’s stable of Ferraris exceeded 50 of the rarest and most victorious race cars to wear the prancing horse, including four of the marque's nine Le Mans winners.

And rather than keeping them locked up in a shed, he built his own private race track, near his Mas du Clos estate in rural France enabling the cars to be regularly driven.

Guichet and Vaccarella drove the open-cockpit, V12 mid-engined, 275 P (chassis 0816) to victory in 1964 at an average speed of 196.6 km/h.

Following them across the line in a Ferrari trifecta were Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier with John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini in third. Ferrari filled six of the top 10 places.

Ferrari was also victorious at the Le Sarthe circuit the following year in the hands of Jochen Rindt, Ed Hugus and Masten Gregory driving for privateer team North American Racing Team in a 250 LM. The evolutionary model, developed specifically for privateers, also finished in the runner-up spot.

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