• A billionaire optometrist paid $40 million for Ferrari’s Luce EV.
  • All proceeds from the sale will go to The Ferrari Foundation.
  • First production Luce is painted white with a matching cabin.

Heading into Monterey Car Week, the first production-spec Ferrari Luce carried an estimate of $1.1 million, with room to climb a little past that if the room got excited. The room got more than excited. Saturday’s hammer landed at $40,000,000, and no, that isn’t a stray digit or a typo that slipped past an editor.

The Man Who Wrote The Check

The buyer turned out to be Dr. Herbert Wertheim, affectionately known as Dr. Herbie, the 87-year-old billionaire optometrist and inventor who Forbes said “built a fortune over five decades of investing in stocks,” hailing him as “the greatest investor you’ve never heard of.”

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Wertheim was born in Philadelphia in 1939 to working-class parents who moved to Florida and lived above a bakery, per Supercarsforsale on Instagram. In 1969 he established that UV light causes cataracts, then invented the UV-absorbing dye for plastic lenses. His company, Brain Power Inc., became the world’s largest maker of optical tints, and he holds more than 100 patents. From 1970 the profits went into the market, into Apple and Microsoft at their IPOs, and eventually into the largest individual stake in Heico. Which is how $40 million for a car becomes a rounding error in your bank account.

Now, you may be wondering why anyone would pay this much money for an EV that has been kicked around as much as the Luce. The answer starts with where the money goes. All of the funds raised by the auction benefit The Ferrari Foundation, a recognized 501(c)(3) public charity.

Read: Ferrari Boss Was Thrilled When Fans Trashed The $640K Luce

What this means is that the winning bidder has effectively written a $40 million check to charity and can claim the gap between the Luce’s fair market value, presumably somewhere near its $640,000 MSRP, and the final price as a tax write-off. Call it $10 million to $15 million in savings on a $40 million outlay, which leaves him around $25 million lighter than he started.

Wertheim Has Done This Before

An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore

RM Sotheby’s

None of this is new to him. Wertheim was the buyer when Ferrari ran the same charity formula on a one-off Daytona SP3 at Monterey last year, and he took that one home for $26 million. The difference is what happens next. Standard Daytona SP3 values are climbing hard, with one selling this past weekend for $17.8 million, so give it long enough and the $26 million car might actually be a $26 million car. The Luce is unlikely to ever see its number again.

An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore
An Eye Doctor Paid $40,000,000 For The $640K Ferrari EV Everyone Says Is An Eyesore

RM Sotheby’s

Is there actually anything special about this particular Luce? Yes, there is. For starters, it is painted in a bespoke shade of white known as Madreperla Semi-Gloss, which reflects green and violet depending on the viewing angle and light. The EV also sits on matching white wheels.

Ferrari’s Tailor Made department also worked extensively on the EV’s interior, using special Le Mans metallic leather from carefully selected Swiss hides, and also tinted white to match the outside.