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1959 Ferrari 250 GT California sells for nearly $18M, exceeding expectations

RM Sotheby's just wrapped up its auction in New York, where it sold off a pair of gorgeous silver roadsters, with one of them selling for the incredible price of $17.99 million. That car was a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California that we covered previously, and Sotheby's was only expecting it to go for between $14 million and $17 million. Apparently someone felt the car's rare aluminum construction and racing history was worth the extra cash. View 11 Photos The other roadster went for considerably less money but was notable because of its previous owner, late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The car is a 2000 BMW Z8 that the tech mogul had for around three years. The final sale price only met expectations, though, at $329,500. The original auction estimate was between $300,000 and $400,000. Related Video: Featured Gallery 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione by Scaglietti View 30 Photos Image Credit: Diana Varga courtesy of RM Sotheby's, RM Sotheby's Celebrities BMW Ferrari Auctions Convertible Racing Vehicles Performance Classics bmw z8 ferrari 250 gt california

Race Recap: 2014 US Grand Prix goes the English way yet again

Thankfully, the weekend's Formula One dramas all concerned events that happened off the track, with both Caterham and Marussia going into administration, after which a rumored boycott by the small teams was avoided. That gave the 18 drivers left on the grid freedom to focus on making the most of the Texas sunshine for Sunday's US Grand Prix.
Having finished two Free Practices behind teammate Mercedes AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton, the second one just .003 behind, Nico Rosberg said he had speed in hand and proved it during qualifying, beating Hamilton to the top spot by four-tenths of a second. Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa came behind, followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, Kimi Räikkönen in the second Ferrari, and little-team Sauber bursting out of the storm clouds into tenth, Adrian Sutil making the team's first-time Q3 appearance all year.
When it came time to race, the carbon-fiber fisticuffs began on the first lap.

Would you pay $2 million for a Ferrari F50? [w/video]

The F50 may not have been the finest of Ferrari's flagship supercars, but it remains a collector's commodity just the same – and its value keeps rising. F50s are already trading hands at upwards of $1 million apiece – and this year, at least one is expected to fetch upwards of $2.5 million. Ferrari launched the F50 in 1995 as the successor to the legendary F40 that came before. It eschewed the twin-turbo V8 that powered the 288 GTO and F40 for a naturally aspirated V12, setting the stage for the Enzo and LaFerrari that followed in the series. That high-revving 4.7-liter engine, according to Ferrari, was derived from the unit used in the actual F1 car from 1989 (known as the F1-89, naturally). This engine served as a stressed member of the chassis, mounted behind a carbon-fiber tub. With its removable hardtop, the F50 remains the only model in Maranello's flagship series (excluding the Enzo-based Maserati MC12) that offered an open cockpit. It was all very F1-like, but was barely any faster (if at all) than its iconic predecessor. Only 349 F50s were made, each carrying a half-million-dollar price tag. That would be a good $750k in today's money. Still, it is part of a highly collectible series. Only 349 were made, each carrying a half-million-dollar price tag that seemed astronomic at the time in the mid-'90s. That'd be about $750k in today's money, but it's still a far cry from what they're trading at these days. Last year alone, RM Sotheby's sold two F50s at auction: one in May at Villa d'Este for just under $1.4 million, and another at Pebble Beach (as part of the Pinnacle Portfolio) for nearly $2m. This compared to just a few years ago when they were selling for six figures, not seven, prior to 2013. At this early point in the year, two major auction houses have already announced consignments of F50s. RM has one (pictured above) on the docket that's estimated to sell for a good $1.5m. It's sure to be one of the top sellers in a couple of weeks at its sale in Paris during the Salon Retromobile (where Artcurial has another Ferrari for sale at over $30m). Gooding & Company has one lined up as part of the Tony Shooshani Collection. That example (depicted in the video below) was displayed at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show and was owned by Jacques Swaters (of Ecurie Francorchamps fame). It has only 1,100 miles on the odometer and is expected to fetch between $2.5m and $2.9m, which would set a new record for the model.