Man discovers rare Ferrari 456 GT at auction with a shocking 970,000 miles…but there’s a twist

A Ferrari 456 GT has been bought at auction with a colossal 970,000 miles on the clock.

The supercar was bought on an impulse for $50,000 at an auction in Pittsburgh.

Originally, the burgundy color and manual transmission hooked car fanatic and popular YouTube personality Doug Tabbutt, who was stunned to see its mileage.

But, speaking on VINwiki, Tabbutt found that this near-million-mile car wasn’t all that it was made out to be.

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This million-mile Ferrari was debunked through an odometer fault

Tabbutt was drawn into the local auction in Pittsburgh, run by the owner of a body shop, and while filled with a bit of Dutch courage, out-bid fellow auctioneers for this Ed Bolian-style Ferrari.

The odometer’s reading of 970,000 miles would have put the Ferrari on the brink of being one of few cars to pass the million-mile mark.

It wasn’t to be believed though.

After further inspection through Carfax, the new owner found that this GT was closer to 180,000 miles, which is still extremely high for a Ferrari, but doesn’t come close to the million mark that it displayed.

Instead, it was found that the odometer had undergone a rollback, and the mileage began to count backward for the last 30,000 miles.

Was the ‘million-mile Ferrari 456 GT’ worth $50,000?

Unfortunately, the Ferrari 456 GT wasn’t quite in as good condition as it was described either. 

The VINwiki interview explained that after having the car shipped back to their body shop (despite being told it was road-ready), red hydraulic fluid had poured from the engine and soaked into the driver’s mattress.

“It looked like somebody had been murdered on this mattress,” Tabbutt said.

The $50,000 car turned out to have a whole catalogue of woes, starting with the rear shocks leaking. 

The power steering system was ‘non-existent’ the spoiler was ‘ineffective’, the climate control system was faulty, bent aftermarket rims, decade-old tyres, dry rot on the windows, and the entire interior had been redone.

“It has all of those issues and then some. It smelled like a washed up cigarette model inside. It was pretty bad,” Tabbutt continued.

“But, it started and ran. And, it shifted great, other than the fact that the fuel injectors were leaking, so if we had driven it more than the little bit that we did, it would have caught on fire.”

Still, there is hope from Tabbutt that another driver will be able to take this car over its fanciful million miles and catch up to the 2.8 million mile Mercedes,

He intends to sell it on after a bit of a glow-up.