Is this the world's most expensive Ferrari?

The Ferrari 250 GTO is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful cars ever built by Ferrari. It is also, quite possibly, the most valuable car in the world.

View images of the Ferrari 250 GTO and compare it to Chris Evans’ £5.5 million Fezza

A couple of years ago, a 250 GTO reportedly changed hands for almost $28.5 million – that’s just under £19 million. What we do know is that a 1962 250 GTO was sold at Sotheby’s Monaco in 1990 for £5,499,471.

This car could well make Chris Evans' £5.5 million 250 GT California Spyder look like a viable daily runaround.

The classic Fezza – chassis number 4675 GT and factory finished in Rosso Cina – is one of only 39 250 GTOs originally produced, and one of four with Series II GTO bodywork.

When new, the GTO – which stands for "Gran Turismo Omologato", Italian for "Grand Touring Homologated" – cost just £6,000 with each buyer personally approved by Enzo Ferrari.

It’s certainly a worthy investment: most of them may have been crashed by now but each model carries an eight-figure price tag. What could possibly go wrong?

The GTO was a seriously successful race car, securing the World Championships in 1962, 1963, and 1964 for the Modenese car builder.

This particular model was raced by Guido Fossati, Jean Guichet, Oddone Sigala, Vincenzo Nember and Luigi Taramazzo and proved itself a capable race car, rarely finishing outside the top three in its class and achieving numerous race wins.

The current owner, Yoshiho Matsud, acquired the classic Ferrari in 1996 and he has since maintained it in his world-renowned Japanese collection.

Most recently it participated in a number of private GTO owner events, such as the 35th and 45th GTO Anniversary Tours in France and California.

By Rhian Angharad Jones

Pictures courtesy of Simon Clay and RM Auctions

View images of the star cars from January 2010’s £12.1 million car auction in Arizona

We were at the 2009 RM Auctions event in Battersea which raised a whopping £10.9 million - click below for images

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