Classic Ferraris from the 1950s and ’60s consistently rank among the highest-ticket items at collector car auctions, where models from the 250 series – GTO, LM, Testa Rossa, California Spider – often sell for tens of millions. The Superamerica coupe you see here won’t sell for that much, but it’s bound to fetch several million when the gavel drops next month in Arizona.

What you’re looking at is a 1961 Ferrari 400 Superamerica SWB Coupe Aerodinamico – one of only 32 ever made. It was based on the powerful and elegant grand tourer that Ferrari built specially for the US market, with a 4.0-liter V12 that was larger than the 3.0-liter version on which it was based, smaller than the 5.0 in the 410 which it replaced, and more powerful than either.

With 340 horsepower on tap (at a time when the Jaguar E-Type offered only 265 hp) and more class than a university professor, the Superamerica was the Bugatti Veyron of its day. It also featured disc brakes where the preceding 410 Superamerica got by with drums, and all the luxury and prestige any business tycoon or Hollywood star could ask for.

Lately they’ve been selling for big bucks. RM Sotheby’s alone has sold six of them in the past three years, with prices rising from under $3 million in 2013 to $4.4 million earlier this year, breaking the $4 million recoed for this model set by Gooding & Company the year before. At that rate you might expect this stunning example to sell for even more, but for our part we’ll be content just sitting back and admiring the photos captured by Karissa Hosek for RM Sotheby’s, which will auction off the car as part of its sale at the Arizona Biltmore near Scottsdale on January 19-20, 2017.

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