This Le Mans Winner Ferrari Will Be Auctioned, The Banderol Is Exorbitant

Ferrari 250 LM winners of the 24 Hours Le Mans 1965 race. (Doc. RM Sotheby's)

JAKARTA - A classic Ferrari car entered the well-known auction hall, RM Sotheby's. Not just any Ferrari car, this is a 250 LM Ferrari that contributes to giving victory to manufacturers bearing the title logo in the legendary 24 Hours Le Mans race in 1965.

Launching from the official website of RM Sotheby's, Friday, December 27, the car entering the auction market is the sixth unit of 32 units of 250 LM as well as making it the favorite supercar for Ferrari.

Another special thing is that 250 LM is the only Ferrari car built in the era of Enzo Ferrari's leadership which competed in six 24-hour endurance races, including three Le Mans andmen's editions, from 1964 to 1966, respectively.

In addition, the 250 LM racing car is the last V12-engined Ferrari to win Le Mans. In its heyday, this exotic design supercar was equipped with a 3.3 liter V12 engine and became the first rear engine production model to be sold to customers while starting a persistent trend to this day.

In fact, this car was distributed to Luigi Chinetti Motors, a Ferrari racing team and distributor for North America owned by businessman Luigi Chinetti at the end of 1964 code 5893 and sold to Irene Young from Wilton, Connectitut, USA. Please note, Young and her husband also have another 250 LM model coded 5901.

However, this car apparently did not match their urgent needs so 250 LM 5893 had to exchange it back to Chinetti. However, this is where history began.

Back in Chinetti's hands, these 250 LMs are direct candidates for use in various competitions under the North American Racing Team (NART) or the racing team owned by the Italian US man. For 1965, 250 LM was redesigned by Piero Drogo who gave him a long nose so that it was efficient in terms of aerodynamics.

At that time, 1965 was the most competitive of its time. What's more, his rivals like Ford intend to beat this Italian manufacturer at Le Mans as a form of revenge for failing to acquire Ferrari.

Ford, who collaborated withUS American Inc, fielded five Cobraguide Coupe, four GT40, and two GT40X models with the latest 7.0 liter V8 engines in this French nation race. Meanwhile, Ferrari includes 12 cars including five units of 250 LM.

The NART team itself included Ferrari 365 P2 number 18 driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Nino Vaccarella. Not only that, the 5893 chassis car under racing number 21 was driven by US racer Masten Gregory and then F1 racer, Jochen Rindt.

Having to settle for starting the race from 11th position, 250 LM number 21 driven by Gregory and Jochen Rindt managed to win this iconic race by winning the other two Ferrari cars on the podium.

This car is offered from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection and will be auctioned off in Paris on February 4-5, 2025 with an estimated price exceeding 25 million euros (more than IDR 421 billion).