This Rare Ferrari Is Expected To Sell For $5.5 Million
Ferrari, for the most part, creates some of the most beautiful and inspiring cars in the world. Earlier in the automaker’s life, though, customers who were wealthy enough to own one of the Prancing Horse’s vehicles could have any coach-builder turn out custom bodywork for a car. This oddball called Uovo –Italian for egg – is an example of what was possible and is crossing the block at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction later this August.
Styled by Carrozzeria Fontana, the Uovo was built for Italian racecar driver Giannino Marzotoo who wasn’t pleased with the automaker’s lineup of cars. The textile business heir asked the coachbuilder to create a vehicle that had better aerodynamics than Ferrari’s current designs.
To make a design that could slip through the air, the vehicle utilized the Ferrari 166 M’s chassis and 2.6-liter V12 from the 212 Export. The body was lighter than the automaker’s current offerings thanks to the use of Duralumin, an aluminum alloy that combined copper and a few other materials. The result is a bizarre machine that was, surprisingly, competitive in races.
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In the 1951 Mille Miglia, a 1,000-mile race that saw cars race from Brescia, a city in northern Italy, to Rome and back, the Uovo was in the lead before mechanical issues brought the vehicle’s race to a premature end. The vehicle, with Marzotto behind the wheel, did manage to claim a victory at the Coppa della Toscana later in 1951.
Needless to say, the vehicle is a part of Ferrari’s history and one lucky, and wealthy, individual will have the opportunity to purchase the vehicle at auction. The vehicle’s current owner has been in the possession of the car since 1986, with the car participating in historic runs of the Mille Miglia and being on display at the Enzo Ferrari Museum.
The vehicle, obviously, won’t come cheap. As a one-off that was created by one of the most prominent coach-builders of the ‘50s, Top Gear estimates that the car will go for approximately $5.5 million. That may seem like a lot of money for an ugly duckling, but let’s face it, it’s a relative bargain compared to what the Ferrari 250 GTO sold for back in 2014.
Related: Top 10 Most Expensive Classic Cars Sold at Auction
