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Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider tops Gooding's Saturday auction at $15.18 million

During the weekend's automotive smorgasbord in Pebble Beach, Ferrari has played a huge roll. Twenty examples of the ultra-rare 250 TR, better known as the Testa Rossa, were prominently on display at the Concours d'Elegance, and the Prancing Horses have been top sellers at many of the auctions. You can chalk up one more on that list with a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider with a scarce, optional hardtop included going for $15.18 million at Gooding & Company's sale on Saturday night. Ferris Bueller would find it so choice.
In all, the auction house brought in about $60.4 million during the night, and 17 of the cars on the block sold for over $1 million. None of the other cars on Saturday managed quite the stratospheric highs of the California, though. A 1955 Aston Martin DB3S was the second-highest seller at $5.5 million. The next four top vehicles were all Ferraris with final prices ranging between $2.09 million and $2.365 million. Clearly, investors are in love with the Prancing Horse these days.
Check out our gallery, and scroll down to read the auction house's announcement of its top Saturday results.

Ferrari 488 GTO would be fastest V8 car ever from Maranello

It should surprise absolutely no one to learn that Ferrari may be cooking up an even hotter variant of the 488 GTB. If a report from Autocar is true, the new car will resurrect the hallowed GTO moniker and pack more than 700 horsepower from its twin-turbocharged mid-mounted V8. It would be the successor to the wild and wonderful Ferrari 458 Speciale, the swan song for the naturally aspirated V8 in Maranello. This will be the fourth time Ferrari has used the name GTO. The first was in the 1960s on the 250 GTO and then again in the 1980s on the 288 GTO. Most recently, a more track-oriented variant of the 599 GTB was released as the 599 GTO. Each of these cars eschewed most pretense of comfort and civility in the pursuit of power and performance. While they didn't carry the GTO moniker, the 430 Scuderia and the 458 Speciale were designed with a similar philosophy. Since the standard 488 GTB already makes 661 horsepower, it doesn't seem like a stretch to up the boost and strengthen the internals to move the needle past 700. Ferrari can't let the new 710-horsepower McLaren 720S have all of the fun. The 488 GTO should use lighter components and lose some interior trim and sound deadening to drop weight. Autocar believes the new model will dip below 3,000 pounds, absolutely svelte for a car this size. The car should have better aero, a revised suspension, and higher performance wheels and tires. For non-Ferrari comparison, think Porsche 911 GT3. We've seen some s py shots of a new Ferrari recently, but at the time we thought this might be the rumored Dino. It's unclear if that's still the case, but either way, look for something big from Ferrari sometime later this year. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Driver limps away from massive Ferrari crash

The safety of modern racecars is absolutely astounding, and few videos show that better than this crash from a race in France's GT Tour at Nogaro. Driver Sacha Bottemanne in a Ferrari 458 GT3 bumps a fellow racer in another Ferrari. The slight hit is still enough to throw Bottemanne off balance, and his Prancing Horse slams hard into the wall. The high-speed crash causes pieces to explode off the car, but you can immediately see the driver moving inside once the Ferrari stops spinning. Bottemanne climbs out the space formerly occupied by the windshield, and a corner worker helps him limp to the side of the track. A translated tweet from GT Tour says the driver went to the hospital afterward, but he only suffered some bruises. After a shocking crash straight into the wall at such high speed, it says a lot for GT3 safety that his injuries were so minor. Related Video: