Tag Archives: Ferrari

News

$26 Million Ferrari Daytona SP3 Steals the Show at Monterey Car Week Auction

Auction week in Monterey always delivers drama, but even seasoned bidders did a double-take when the hammer fell on a Ferrari Daytona SP3 at RM Sotheby’s. The price? A staggering $26 million—more than ten times its original sticker.

This wasn’t just any SP3. Ferrari built the car specifically for the event, a one-off finished in exposed carbon fiber with a bold yellow livery stretching nose to tail, plus a bespoke interior plastered with prancing horse motifs. The sale benefitted the Ferrari Foundation, the automaker’s U.S.-based 501(c)(3) supporting education. If you’re going to write a big check, this was the place to do it.

The Daytona SP3 itself hardly needs an introduction. Launched in 2021 as part of Ferrari’s exclusive “Icona” series, it was essentially a LaFerrari without the hybrid trickery, clothed in bodywork that channels the P3 and P4 endurance racers of the 1960s. Production was capped at 599 cars, each starting around $2.25 million, and every slot was spoken for before the public even saw the car. Predictably, examples quickly began trading well above MSRP. Just not ten times MSRP.

With RM Sotheby’s gavel drop, this SP3 now holds the record as the most expensive new Ferrari ever sold at auction. It also took the top spot for Monterey Car Week overall, edging out another Maranello masterpiece: a 1961 Ferrari 250 California Spyder Competizione that crossed Gooding & Christie’s block for just over $25 million.

For perspective, the next-highest seller at RM Sotheby’s was a Ferrari F40 LM at a mere $11 million—a bargain in this rarified company.

In a weekend defined by stratospheric sales, Ferrari proved once again that nothing tugs at a collector’s wallet—or heartstrings—like a prancing horse.

Source: Ferrari

Sale

1987 Ferrari Alcador by Franco Sbarro is for sale

In the early 2020s, the automotive world briefly lost its collective mind over open-top, windshield-less supercars. McLaren’s Elva, Aston Martin’s V12 Speedster, and Ferrari’s Monza SP1/SP2 sparked a short-lived but thrilling niche segment of radically impractical, eye-wateringly expensive speedsters. But nearly 30 years before these topless titans captivated collectors, one bold Ferrari owner—and an even bolder Swiss designer—did it first.

Meet the Ferrari Alcador, a wildly reimagined version of Maranello’s iconic 1980s wedge, stripped of convention, logic, and most notably, its windshield.

A Radical Reinvention of an ’80s Icon

The Ferrari Testarossa, with its wide hips, straked flanks, and quintessentially ’80s attitude, was a bedroom wall poster car for a generation. But by the mid-1990s, automotive tastes had shifted. The Testarossa’s brutalist lines were fading from favor, and one owner decided to give his example a radical new lease on life.

Enter Franco Sbarro, a Swiss designer renowned for his unhinged one-offs and prototype work. With his team, Sbarro took the Testarossa and tore up the rulebook. The chassis was shortened, a curved underbody was grafted on, and most controversially, the windshield was deleted entirely. Not shortened. Not replaced with a race-style aero screen. Simply gone.

Instead, two thick roll-over bars—reminiscent of industrial scaffolding—were mounted behind the driver and passenger, cleverly designed to double as aerodynamic channels. These directed airflow from the headlight inlets rearwards, bypassing the cabin and adding visual drama in the process.

Doors That Scissor, Seats That Don’t Move

The modifications didn’t stop there. Scissor doors—something no Ferrari of the era featured—were bolted on. The cockpit was radically reworked: the dials were relocated to the center console, and the seats were fixed directly to the chassis, much like today’s hypercars from Pagani or Koenigsegg.

Power came from the same 4.9-liter flat-12 as the stock Testarossa, producing 390 horsepower and mated to a five-speed gated manual. While mechanically unchanged, the car’s visual transformation turned it into something closer to a cyberpunk speedboat than a traditional Ferrari.

Even the side profile, with its sharp creases and dramatic cutaways, seems eerily prescient of modern minimalist hypercars like the McLaren Elva or even the Lamborghini Essenza SCV12. Sbarro may have been dismissed as eccentric in the ’90s, but there’s no denying he was ahead of his time.

Three Built. One Road-Legal.

Only three examples of this Ferrari Alcador were ever made, but just one received road registration—making it perhaps the most exclusive (and road-legal) open Ferrari you’ve never heard of.

Now, nearly 30 years after its Geneva debut in 1995, that very car is up for sale in Germany. The price? Available only upon request, of course.

While it may never be as famous as Ferrari’s own Monza SP1 or Aston’s V12 Speedster, the Alcador stands as proof that good ideas sometimes come a few decades too early. It’s a fascinating time capsule from the future—dreamt up in the past.

Source: Thiesen Automobile

News

Ferrari Details Multi-Stage Reveal for First-Ever Electric Model

Three years after Ferrari sent shockwaves through the automotive world with the announcement of its first fully electric car, the Prancing Horse is finally ready to show its hand—at least in part. On October 9, during Ferrari’s Capital Markets Day, the marque will unveil what it calls the “technological heart” of its inaugural EV. This marks the beginning of a multi-phase reveal process that will stretch into 2026, culminating in a full public debut later next year.

Though the car remains cloaked in secrecy, Ferrari has confirmed that an interior design preview will follow in early 2026. Beyond that, details are scarce—but expectations are not. For a brand built on the passion of naturally aspirated engines and track-honed dynamics, moving to electric propulsion is no small shift.

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna struck a confident tone during the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call, stating there is “not a single hour of delay” in the development process. He even disclosed that he had personally driven a prototype on track just weeks prior, describing the experience as exhilarating. While Vigna remained tight-lipped on specifics, sightings of test mules using Maserati Levante bodies suggest that the new EV could lean more towards a grand tourer than a pure-bred supercar—though not necessarily an SUV.

What it won’t be, at least officially, is part of a broader EV lineup—yet. Recent reports from Reuters claimed Ferrari’s second EV has already been delayed twice due to “zero demand,” citing unnamed sources. But Vigna swiftly shut down such speculation, emphasizing that Ferrari has never announced a second or third electric model. “There’s nothing to delay if nothing has been planned,” he said. Whether internal projects exist behind closed doors is another story, but publicly, Ferrari is sticking to its script.

Pricing details for the EV remain under wraps, although early rumors place the price tag north of $500,000. The model is expected to be a low-volume offering, setting the stage for future electric endeavors—should customer response and regulatory pressures align.

Ferrari is still targeting a bold sales mix by 2030: 40% EVs, 40% hybrids, and 20% pure combustion models. Despite this electric pivot, the company has pledged to preserve its iconic V12 engine as long as regulations allow. The naturally aspirated 6.5-liter unit lives on in the Purosangue SUV and the new 12Cilindri, and it’s likely to return in limited-run specials from the exclusive Icona Series.

As Ferrari prepares to enter the EV fray, rivals are taking different approaches. Lamborghini has delayed its Lanzador EV until 2029 and may still include a combustion engine via a plug-in hybrid setup. Pagani and Koenigsegg have voiced skepticism about customer interest in full electrification, and even Bugatti Rimac has admitted demand for electric hypercars is weaker than anticipated, despite the Nevera’s record-breaking feats.

Ferrari, however, appears to be taking the long view—eschewing headline-grabbing specs in favor of a more measured, strategic rollout. In an era where instant torque and straight-line speed are no longer the exclusive domain of exotic marques, it may be that emotional appeal, driving engagement, and heritage will define success in the electric age.

And in that realm, Ferrari still plays a very different game.

Source: Ferrari; Photo: Derek Photography