This 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider is ready to hit the auction block about a month from now in Monterey, California, and according to RM Sotheby’s, it will likely fetch between 8 and 10 million dollars.
Obviously, it’s a classic Ferrari and it’s gorgeous, but that’s not the main reason why the pre-auction estimate is so high.
In fact, it’s because this car is ultra-rare.
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Ferrari only built 19 examples of the 500 TRC Spider.
However, two of them were modified to create a slightly more powerful version called the ‘625’.
So technically, only 17 still exist.
Like most cars with the Prancing Horse badge from the era, it was designed by legendary Italian coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti.
And, like every other Ferrari from the 1950s, it was built for the racetrack and not for the road.
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Back in the late 1940s, Enzo Ferrari founded the company with a clear idea in mind: he wanted to win races.
He was always very straightforward and honest about this, openly saying he only started making and selling road cars to fund Ferrari’s racing ambitions.
This open-body racecar amassed 30 starts in several different competitions in the 1950s, including a 7th place at the 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It is powered by a long-block V12 delivering around 180hp (134kW).
While that doesn’t sound like a lot, don’t forget this car only weighs 680kg (1500lbs).
The car is in excellent, concours-ready condition and eligible to be used for classic car rallies such as the Mille Miglia Storica or Le Mans Classic.
This is not the first that RM Sotheby’s foresees the sale of a Ferrari TRC.
Back in 2012, one of the two 625 models derived from the 500 was sold for $5 million.
That record is likely to be broken, but let’s wait and see.
