Gooding Christie’s will offer the 1967 Ferrari NART Spider first owned by Steve McQueen at its first New York sale in November, with an estimate of US$15–20 million.
Plenty of cars have a famous former owner. Far fewer have also never been sold at public auction. The 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider first owned by Steve McQueen is about to give up the second of those.
Gooding Christie’s has named the car as a headline lot for its first New York sale. The auction runs alongside Rétromobile New York at the Javits Center on 20 and 21 November. The auction house has set its estimate at US$15 million to US$20 million.
One of Ten, With a Rarer Colour
Ferrari built only 10 NART Spiders, and chassis 10453 is the sixth. It was also the first of just two finished from new in Blu Sera, or Evening Blue.
The car was completed in September 1967 and invoiced to Luigi Chinetti Motors. McQueen then bought it through Hollywood Sport Cars. He didn’t keep it standard for long. Almost straight away, he had it repainted a darker metallic blue and retrimmed the seats with a distinctive stitching pattern. He also made other cosmetic changes.
So this isn’t simply a rare Ferrari with a celebrity name in its history. McQueen’s changes are part of how it looks today.
Four Decades Out of Sight
Its history includes a crash on the Pacific Coast Highway, after which McQueen had Junior Conway repair it. By 1971 it belonged to J. David Kopf of Tujunga, California. The current owner bought it in 1986 through Long Island Ferrari dealer Grand Prix SSR.
It has stayed in that collection ever since and has been preserved rather than restored. According to Gooding Christie’s, it keeps its matching-numbers engine and transaxle, its original Scaglietti body, its metallic blue paint and the details added in McQueen’s time.
It has rarely been on public display. The car appeared at the 1996 Louis Vuitton Classic at Rockefeller Center and at a 2003 Ferrari exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.
Reading the Estimate
The US$15–20 million figure is only the auction house’s estimate, and the bidding will set the real price. Even so, the case for a big number is clear. Production was tiny, the first owner is well documented and the car has spent 40 years in one collection without restoration.
For us enthusiasts, the preservation may be the most interesting part. Many significant cars get restored back to factory specification, which removes the marks their owners left on them. This one still carries the changes McQueen asked for.
A New Sale for New York
Rétromobile New York is the first North American edition of the European collector-car show, and Gooding Christie’s is its official auction house. The NART Spider isn’t the only Ferrari consigned so far:
1965 Ferrari 275 GTB: estimated at US$2.25 million to US$2.5 million
1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso: estimated at US$1.4 million to US$1.6 million
Both have Scaglietti bodies. A public preview runs from Wednesday 18 November until the sale ends on 21 November, and more lots are due to be announced.
Thirty years after it was shown at Rockefeller Center, 10453 is going back to Manhattan. This time, anyone with enough money can bid on it.
