Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the shabbiest million-dollar car we’ve seen in ages. No, this isn’t just a case of inflation gone wild — this crumpled mass of metal is a very rare Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider, and it’s up for auction. Beyond stretching the definition of car, it could be a great example of how resources and love are the only real automotive limits.
What makes this car so expensive, other than being a Ferrari, is that it’s the second 500 Mondial through Modena’s gates and one of just 13 Pininfarina-bodied Spiders from the first run. Of course, it’s hard to tell what this sports car originally was now, but the laws of physics are cruel and absolute. Imagine this roofless machine easing away from the factory, red paint gleaming in the sun, oil slowly warming up to temperature, Lampredi four-cylinder thrumming away in anticipation of the moment you could open the taps. It’s a bit difficult to picture given the car’s current state, but come on.
Alas, this 500 Mondial wasn’t meant to live a life of leisure. Instead, it was quickly put to work in competition, placing second in its class at the 1954 Coppa della Toscana with former Ferrari factory driver Franco Cortese behind the wheel. Cortese would go on to place fourth-in-class at the 1954 Mille Miglia, after which, the car was reportedly rebodied by Scaglietti for a leaner look.
After a few years of mixed success in Europe, this 500 Mondial set sail for America, and after a few years, the inevitable happened. In 1963, the original engine was reportedly replaced with an American V8 and has since been lost to time, which seems sacrilegious, but this was the 1960s and a used Ferrari was just another funny European sports car from a small marque. However, hacked-up engine mounts are likely the least of a prospective owner’s worries. As you can probably tell from the photos, this 500 Mondial Spider was crashed at some point in the mid-1960s and has essentially been left untouched ever since.
So, what we have here is a car with a predicted hammer price of $1.2 to $1.6 million that has no numbers-matching engine, very little, if any, straight coachwork, and extensive fire damage, but at least that left headlight looks usable. Still, there’s the chance someone will want to restore this crumpled mass of metal.
See, a car isn’t dead unless people give up on it. They aren’t living creatures, no matter how emotive the thrum of a V8 or the whiff of old leather might be. With enough time, money, and resources, anything can be Ship-of-Theseus’d back together. Remember, it’s all just metal, plastic, rubber, and glass. I’ve seen rotten S13 Nissan 240SXs stitched back together with sheetmetal and a 120-volt welder, Subarus with head-sized holes in them patched up to hit the gravel again, and the heroic tale of Project Cactus. Cars only die when you run out of resources and love.
Could this Ferrari run again at some point? It would take an awful lot of time and money to complete, but I reckon it could. It’s not like they made tens of thousands of them, chassis aren’t easy to find for less than what this heap should sell for. With a little bit of love and a swimming pool full of money, this little red Spider can breathe through carburetors once again. However, here’s the important thing: Heroic acts of restoration aren’t exclusively for old Ferraris. If you really love a car, stick with it through thick and thin. It may not always be economical to repair, but can you put a price on love?
(Photo credits: RM Sotheby’s, Bring A Trailer)
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I’ve had a rustbucket 1972 Super Beetle since I was 11–and I’m 30 now. Time, space, and money have kept me from repairing the rust, but I’ve gone through most everything else including a full engine rebuild five years ago. I won’t add up my 19 years of receipts, because I know they would amount to far more than the car is worth. I can still find rust free Super Beetles for between $5k and $10k. But my Beetle means a lot to me. I learned to drive on it. I learned so much of what I know about auto mechanics on that car, with nothing but forums and repair manuals for support. I made friends because of that car. I’ve been told that it’s not worth fixing more times than I can remember. But that doesn’t matter to me. Classic car ownership isn’t always logical.
As for that Ferrari…I would love to see it brought back, if for nothing other than to know someone cared enough to put it right. It’ll never be worth what you’d have to put into it, but most of the time classic cars make horrible investments anyway.
Call in the Aussies!!!
Maybe we’ll get to see the Belgian maestros of the English wheel at SLG Classic Cars turn this wreck back into a work of art.
And this is how you know that not only are we in an even worse Gilded Age, cars are a top money laundering method.
Not only is this pre-standardization on the VIN, the only thing you have to go on is the seller’s word. There’s no real documentation. “Documented with copies of the factory build sheets and CSAI homologation papers,” well guess what? If I give Porsche a VIN and some money, they’ll give me factory build sheets for that VIN. We have extensive research on the VIN, sure. And some parts. With a truly broken chassis that has fire damage, severe corrosion, a damaged chassis plate, and rot through.
Could it be restored? Sure. I’ve personally seen first-hand and even helped on worse. But there’s quite a world of difference from a numbers matching ’69 Charger 440 6 pack with registration papers and title going back to new, and a “this might be this rare Ferrari but there isn’t enough left to verify any fact.”
I’ve asked this many times, but how is this a method of laundering money?
The same way high-end art, NFT’s and anything without intrinsic value can be used to launder money.
Because the thing itself, the pile of parts, the painting, the make-believe internet token, whatever… has little actual value. The ‘car’ in this particular example is basically just a pile of scrap metal. How much did it cost the seller? What is their *actual* investment? What is it worth without its history?
So lets imagine the seller has very little money in the pile of scrap with a good story. Let us also imagine they have a big pile of hundred-dollar bills that they don’t have a legitimate paper trail for… Well with the right ‘buyer’ (you know an offshore account with hidden origins) they can turn that not so legit cash into a legit income.
Speaking of “money laundering,” it is interesting that Walter Medlin, the Florida-man owner of the “Lost and Found Collection” Ferraris went to federal prison — twice, 15 years apart, for tax evasion. It looks, per RM, that a number of his Ferrari acquisitions were part of “trades” which get very murky as to relative valuations.
Mmhmm, and now that somebody else has broached that particularly topic… well. Let’s be honest. Walter Medlin is not just a repeat offender when it comes to tax evasion.
See, he’s allegedly a ‘financial wizard’ who somehow amassed his Ferrari collection through a series of ‘land’ and ‘business deals’. Who in 1970, was arrested for (please hang to your hats, because shit is about to get weird): possession of narcotics – meth and barbituates – and performing illegal abortions. I shit you not. Then he owned an aviation museum that included a mock-up of the Concorde, which was sold off at auction when he failed to pay the mortgage.
And he’s been engaging in tax fraud since the 1970’s – just ask the IRS. Who seized two of his Ferrari race cars (valued at $20M) for failing to pay over $540,000 in taxes. Then he went to prison for hiding his Ferraris from the IRS during an audit. Then he got caught hiding Ferraris AGAIN in 2004 when Hurricane Charley exposed a barn with 18 Ferraris and an Avanti. Just before the IRS came in to seize assets, once again, cars went missing. And mere days before the IRS was to auction every car they HAD seized, including a Formula 1 chassis (est. $1.5M,) he paid the $3M+ he had owed dating back to the 1980’s. In 2004.
Then he got convicted again in 2014, but somehow, there were no Ferraris to be found! And he’d been buying more while the case was in the courts, too.
What we do know is that in one of the IRS seizures, they took a 308 GTB, a 1966 P3, a 1967 P4, a boat, a coin collection, and a significant number of guns. And that since the 1980’s his favorite trick is to let property go to tax auction, then buying it back in cash, over and over again.
Allegedly he also got the money for the IRS by seeking bridge loans with these same cars as collateral. (But that came from a Ferrari forums, so, may or may not be true.)
I was just coming here to say, “this is identical to fine art money laundering.” Unsurprisingly, rootwyrm got here first with the insider take. 🙂
One man’s treasure is another man’s junk.
There’s a lewd riposte about men’s junk being treasure out there somewhere, but I can’t nail it.
That’s what his boyfriend said!
I’m 12k into an MG Midget that’s worth about $8500 on its best day. I get it.
If you’ve had $3,500 or more worth of fun with it, you’re covered and then some.
Try horse ownership. Or actually, please don’t because I appreciate seeing old MGs being driven around.
Also, have you priced out one of those 3-wheel motorcycle things people use now instead of small sports cars? Your MG is a bargain compared to that.
This just reinforces my long-held belief that money is stupid and it makes people do stupid things. I get that this was once a rare and historically significant automobile, but the idea that it’s “worth” as much as a nice hobby farm in this condition just makes my stomach turn.
Money is just a tool, it’s feelings and emotions you have to worry about.
Good that this is not a Jeep product. Because if it was DT would already own it…
Well at least the left headlight is still usable. We recently learned we can easily pop a sealed beam headlight into it.
Man it is hilarious a multi million dollar car has the same $10 headlight every other car had. I bet it is more expensive when using the Ferrari part number.
There’s (long forgotten) better.
Back in the late 80’s – early 90’s, when all Ferraris went through the roof after Enzo Ferrari’s passing (and exotic cars became an investment with banks purchasing BMW Z1’s and such, and every manufacturer rushing to release something to cash on – Jaguar XJ220, where are you 🙂 ) there was a craftsman in Switzerland who got sued because his (perfect) 250 gto restaurations had duplicate VINs with other cars.
Turned out a burnt out body from a racing car had been split in three, each chunk sold, a whole car built out of each, and each one claimed to be the original. If memory serves, it was an interesting case, as each chunk had a VIN. I could be wrong on that one.
To be fair, the Swiss guy’s was the best.
Brings a whole new meaning to the term Swiss Cheese.
Sbarro ? He didn’t limit himself to ferraris
It’s always amusing to see the ways people do money laundering
Interesting bit from the Sotheby’s page:
Wait…what?
You saw that too?
Wasn’t Ferrari part of Chrysler when David Tracy worked there? Here’s the proof 😛
Rough what a single Michigan winter will do to a car
Not rusty enough. Especially for Italian steel from that era.
This seems like the automotive equivalent of taping a banana to the wall.
UCOTD
(Especially pertinent since it’s basis is of Italian origin.)
(U=underrated)
This reminds me of the old story about a man who claimed to own the hatchet young George Washington used to cut down the fabled cherry tree. “Well, the head has been replaced three times and there have been seven handles, but it’s still Washington’s hatchet.”
So how much of a 500 Mondial would this wreck be after it was “restored?”
Yeah, that’s what I don’t get. Someone is paying 1 million for a piece of paper. Nothing on that car is salvagable.
There’s a weird beauty to it just as it sits. I think if I were the kind of rich weirdo to buy this, I would put it on display in exactly its current condition, simply as an art piece.
“Ship of Theseus”?
More like corpse of Icarus.
The only thing this can be is a re-production. Anyone who gives a shit that an entirely new car has a VIN plate off some dead car is a moron.
Do people consider collecting million+ dollar cars to be the sport of the sane?
The highest budget David Tracy project ever.
But where is he going to find parts car?
This could be the EV conversion the FC Jeep was going to be.
This Lost and Found collection boggles the mind; the real question isn’t what happened or will to this car, it’s how does a garage full of Ferraris get lost in the first place–especially after being relocated this century! Not one, but TWO 512 BBs! A Daytona! Around the corner from Indianapolis! Craziness.
It’s not lost. It’s marketing. Don’t fall for it.
Interesting, just a ploy to drum up interest…I wouldn’t put it past the auction house, but I’m still puzzled as to who benefits, given that a guy with tax problems wouldn’t be selling to raise funds to pay the IRS, they’d just seize it and sell it themselves, wouldn’t they? I’m still stuck on the behind-the-scenes nuance. I guess I’ll have to wait for the movie.
Ferrari for sale. 1.6 million dollars. Bring a trailer, doesn’t run. Probably just a fuse or something. Don’t have time for it anymore, too many projects. My loss your gain. No tire kickers. Price firm, I know what I got.
” No tires to kick.”
My old man is a television repairman, he’s got this ultimate set of tools, I can fix it
I could have sworn that this was a “gnarly set of tools” but ultimate does seem correct according to google and YouTube. Another cultural signpost David likely missed, please add “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to his summer viewing list – but please have him watch the original “Blues Brothers” first! Fast Times has an amazing number of memorable scenes and quotes, but on the whole is a bit of a depressing vignette about the early 1980s young adult suburban culture. Of course we would have to explain to David what a stoner was…
My first guess from the pic and dollar value alone was a destroyed Shelby Daytona was found!
A $1.6MM VIN. Just wow!
When Nick Mason’s 250 GT goes racing he takes the chassis plate off and puts it in his pocket. That way if the the driver bins it the really valuable bit will be fine!
To me, Nick’s the really valuable bit in that equation. But I get it.
How Nick stayed clean and classy through that whole storm…. Icon.
Nah, when he goes racing, he just take the exact replica. Like they all do. Some have several.