There are several Ferraris that have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but only one achieved this feat while belonging to a private team: we’re talking about a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM that will be auctioned for an extremely high price.
Ferrari 250 LM: this example is worth 25 million euros and will go to auction
Created specifically to dominate the 24 Hours of Le Mans and ideally replace the 250 GTO, the 250 LM was based on the famous 250 P, which won at Le Mans in 1963. It featured Scaglietti bodywork on a chassis that housed a 3.3-liter V12 engine. An exceptional engine that, however, was never approved by the FIA, which is why the 250 LM never officially raced for Ferrari. It thus became the first rear-engined Ferrari sold to private clients, with the Maranello team producing just 32 examples between 1963 and 1966.
This particular car has chassis number 5893, is the sixth produced, and is also the most famous of them all. Fresh from the factory, it was delivered to Luigi Chinetti Motors before ending up in the garage of the North American Racing Team (NART). NART entered the car in the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans with drivers Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt, managing to beat both Ford and Ferrari Factory itself. After the glorious victory at Le Mans, the car wasn’t able to replicate similar feats elsewhere, though it remained legendary.
RM Sotheby’s, which will offer this example at auction on February 4 and 5, 2025, in Paris, expects to sell it for 25 million euros, a truly enormous sum, although it represents only half the estimated value of the Mercedes Stromlinie Rennwagen present in the same collection.