Ferrari 290 MM Driven By Fangio Fetches $28 Million At Auction

RM Sotheby’s Driven to Disruption event has seen a wide array of unique cars cross the auction block in New York, with some units fetching incredible amounts of cash, while others failed to sell.

From the 31 vehicles gathered at the event, a Ferrari 290 MM driven by Fangio – a car that we covered in detail, not so long ago – managed to set itself apart from the lot by fetching an eye-watering bid of 28 million dollars.

You might think that’s an excessive amount of money for a car, but the model, one of only four 290 MM constructed by Scaglietti, is an automotive piece of art that holds incommensurable racing heritage and pedigree.

According to Bloomberg ,the RM Sotheby Auction included nine Ferraris of which two failed to find an owner. The cars in question were a $3,800,000 – $4,500,000 1953 Europa Vignale and a $2,000,000 – $2,400,000 212 Inter Coupe Vignale – two exquisite, ultra-rare examples of fine Italian craftsmanship; but this is actually good news for those who wanted one, but missed the opportunity.

Speaking of missed opportunities, the factory race-prepped 300 SL Gullwing Mercedes that was presumably driven by a plethora of legendary drivers, failed to find a new home as well. Its $5,000,000 – $7,000,000 potential price tag proved to be a little overwhelming for a car without a clear history, even though lesser automobiles were sold for more than that (like Rowan Atkinson’s McLaren F1, for example).

Contrasting the aforementioned models is Janis Joplin’s psychedelic Porsche 356B; a car that was estimated to fetch $400,000 – $600,000, but instead was auctioned-off for $1.76 million. A remarkable achievement, considering the fact Joplin bought it in 1968 for $3,500.

Another highlight of the event was one of only 19 Aston Martin DB4 Zagatos built, which fetched $1 million under its estimated $15 million target value. Talk about first world problems…