RECESSION PROOF // $12 MILLION DOLLAR 1957 FERRARI TESTA ROSSA

RM Auctions, in association with Sotheby’s made history earlier this week when a 1957 Ferrari 250 TR (chassis 0714TR), sold for a record setting €9,020,000 (roughly $12,000,000) at the third annual Ferrari Leggenda e Passione. The Testa Rossa, having returned to its birth place in Maranello, is now the most expensive car to ever be sold at auction. Follow the link for additional photos, a bit of video and words from Octane’s Winston Goodfellow, who may be the luckiest man on earth... [read more]





Octane contributor Winston Goodfellow (seen above) was asked to give the Testa Rossa one last road test before it hit the auction block. To be featured in the April 2009 issue of Octane, here is what Goodfellow had to say about the most expensive car sold at auction:

“Still pinned in the seat and with 6500rpm rapidly approaching, shift into second. That split-second when you shift is one of the most heavenly events you’ll ever experience in any car, equalling or bettering the feeling of flooring the pedal of a Bugatti Veyron for the first time or running a 250GTO past 8000rpm. The 12-cylinder symphony that bellowed at ten-tenths is momentarily muted as revs drop, the sudden silence bringing the sound of the whining gearbox to fore. You feel a slight catch as you shift out of first and hit neutral, then another slight catch as the lever slots into second. Right foot back on the floor now, and the crashing wave of unabated acceleration and spine-tingling 12-cylinder, four-trumpeting-exhaust symphony once again blankets your being."

"Blast down a straight, brake hard (this car cheats a bit here, for it was fitted with discs at the time of our drive, soon to be changed back to the original drums) and then enter a hairpin. Stand hard on the gas as you exit the turn; the rear hunkers down as the steering wheel slides through your fingers as it quickly centers. The sensation of it all is as fluid and surreal as anything I’ve experienced. And all the while you are looking out over one of the best automotive road views ever – those curvaceous fenders, long hood and sloping metal covering the carbs.”

For Goodfellow's full feature, you'll have to pick up Octane's April issue...