Most expensive car I have ever seen...

[vaughant]

Actually on the road and running I saw a Ferrari F50 (or maybe a F40?) on a roundabout in Newbury house after I'd collected my brand new fiesta zetec s.

Looked fucking fabulous.

This was y2k.

Otherwise probably a few museum pieces over the years of which I can't recall many.

[Sigmund Fraud]

That 250LM is definitely impressive, but if a multi-millionaire wants to show the world they are a proper petrolhead they need to do something like this :

[delux]

Years ago I worked in a small country garage. One of our customers used to store exotic stuff. The cars would come in for MOTs with less than 10 miles on them from the previous MOT. Got to MOT Ferrari F40s and Testarossas, Jaguar XJ220s and XJ15s and similar stuff. The guy let my boss and I have a go in some old Ferrari once. It was horrible, coarse and vicious. When we returned he told it had recently sold for £5,000,000!

Nowadays I get the odd shift in 'prestige' dealerships. I think if people saw how these things were put together or what you were actually getting for your money it would shock them! Some brands are worse than others but there is a lot of 'borrowing' parts from lesser brands in these cars. Cant really give any current examples as I'm not allowed to advertise the fact I was called in to them in the 1st place and I've got bills to pay. 😄 Paying for the badge I suppose!

[FakeConcern]

Back when I was in my 20s I worked with and was good friends with a guy who owned Ferraris and stored various others for his mates  as he had two large heated garages. The first time I met him he was driving a red Ferrari 246GT Dino which I later got a ride in. He had previously owned a yellow one with the plate TOY14. Later he also had a GT4 which I got to sit in and he described as looking like an Avenger! His mates that stored cars in his garages had several Daytonas which I also got to sit in. I liked the Coupe best, but they had what I believe was an original Spyder and (my memory may be playing tricks here) several that I believe started out as Coupes and they converted to Spyders to sell at a profit. I got to go in a few Daytonas as well, but never actually drove any of the Ferraris.

Nothing like as impressive as the 250LM in the op, but still fun!

[Tayne]

6 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

Not sure, but I guess you could self-insure.

 

I guess that most wouldn't though. There are presumably specialist brokers for the mega, mega wealthy who basically just sort out insurance on everything

 

Harry Metcalfe does a yearly round up of mileage driven and costs on youtube, I seem to remember his overall insurance bill being £7k (not sure if that was recently with more classics or at his peak with 20 cars including a Zonda).

Shmee150 does a similar thing with cost and mileage but I'm not sure of he's mentioned insurance (26 cars worth approx £6million).

Paul Bailey (80 cars worth £59million) was on the Cars and Money podcast and lumped his insurance, tax, maintenance costs together at £20k per month. 

 

@martc The Schlumpf Museum is twice the size these days but I'm not sure the full value runs into billions, Bugatti built over 10,000 cars before the war and I think most of them are "only" worth 6 figures. Those who remember and desire them from period are rather elderly these days.

 

I'd always reccomend a vist to the big european classic car shows in Essen and Paris for the wide variety of obscure euro-chod (OSCA, Loyd, Panhard, Matra, Bitter, Borgward, Goliath, Glas etc), but also the ability to get very close to 7 and 8 figure cars such as a Ferrari 250 California Spider, 250Gt SWB, 250 Lusso, 275GTB, Maclaren f1, Porsche CGT, Singer ACS, 908, 904, 911 Tag Turbo, Fiat 8V, Muira, DB4 Gt Zagato etc.

Outwith those shows I've sat in 300SL Gullwing (when I was a kid), seen a couple of Countachs on the street and we had a customer at work who had an F50, XJ220 and a Countach.

[sierraman]

The Daytona looks fabulous even now, especially a black one as per Miami Vice. That said there’s a number of excellent replicas about running a Jaguar V12 that would be infinitely more useable and difficult at a glance to differentiate. And probably £20,000 not £500,000…

[mk2_craig]

On 20/05/2026 at 13:44, DirtyDaily said:

 

I reckon that would sell out really quickly at €590k per ticket. 

Or 2 for a million multibuy?

Needs to have working aircon though. If it doesn’t, AH’M OOT. 

[warch]

Italians have a marketing advantage with this sort of thing because everyone and everything has a dead sexy name.

Much easier to get work as a car designer if your name is Sergio Scaglietti not Colin Peabody. 

[Bmwdumptruck]

A friend of ours is PA to the original owner of Wolfrace wheels.  He now has a business that makes locking wheel nuts for just about every car factory in europe.  Pretty wealthy chap.  His garage starts with an Enzo, both an F40 and F50 and a Testorosa as well as 3 more red Ferraris.  Then there’s things like Mk2 Jag, XK150, a huge pre war Rolls Royce. A ZR1, Lightweight all alloy Cobra, a mk1 Golf GTi Wood n Picket special.  Minor convertable, Early Fiat 500, A model T, and A Car.  No brand name, built about 1890, so just A Car.   There’s others and loads of memorabilia including Senna and Schumacker Race suits and helmets.  He did have a flat in Monaco and apparently use to let David Coultard keep a scooter in his garage as his flat didn’t come with one.
Oh and all of them are taxed, insured and used as regularly as he can.  He has a husband and wife cleaner team come round each week to clean whichever he has been out and about in.  

[Crankshaft]

The most expensive car I’ve ever seen has to be Nick Mason’s Ferrari GTO in his front garden 2-3 years ago.  He has a charity fund-raising event every year - there’s lots of his collection & loads of visitors’ classics to see. This year’s event coming up soon https://middlewickhouseopengarden.com .

I seem to remember reading in an old SupercarClassics magazine that he paid 37 grand for it in 1977, so he’s ‘done alright’ I suppose!  We moved to a 3-bed detached house in Swindon that year - that was £14,250, probably about £300k now.

[Crankshaft]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

The Daytona looks fabulous even now, especially a black one as per Miami Vice. That said there’s a number of excellent replicas about running a Jaguar V12 that would be infinitely more useable and difficult at a glance to differentiate. And probably £20,000 not £500,000…

The Miami Vice car was a replica - it was a Corvette underneath!  Apparently Ferrari contacted the production company and said something like “We’d rather you used a current car, please borrow this white Testarossa.”  So they did.

[Volksy]

On my last trip to Los Angeles we went to the Petersen Automotive Museum. 

There is some serious $$$$ sat there, If folks want to see I'll post the photos up.

[DirtyDaily]

The Miami Vice car was a replica - it was a Corvette underneath!  Apparently Ferrari contacted the production company and said something like “We’d rather you used a current car, please borrow this white Testarossa.”  So they did.

I think they gave it to them didnt they? So long as they blew up the corvette rep on screen?

[Volksy]

3 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

16 minutes ago, Crankshaft said:

The Miami Vice car was a replica - it was a Corvette underneath!  Apparently Ferrari contacted the production company and said something like “We’d rather you used a current car, please borrow this white Testarossa.”  So they did.

I think they gave it to them didnt they? So long as they blew up the corvette rep on screen?

Here it is, as seen at the above Museum...

[DirtyDaily]

Here it is, as seen at the above Museum...

Eh?

[Volksy]

The Backstory

• The "Ferrari" that wasn't: Real Ferrari Daytonas were far too rare and expensive for a weekly television budget in the 1980s. Producers commissioned McBurnie Coachcraft to build fiberglass replicas to look like the real thing.
• The Ferrari lawsuit: Ferrari eventually noticed the show's massive popularity and sued both the producers and McBurnie over the fake cars.
• The dramatic ending: To settle the dispute, Ferrari dropped the lawsuit on one condition: the fake Daytona had to be destroyed on screen. It was famously blown up by a missile in the Season 3 premiere and replaced with a real white Testarossa. [1, 2]

Car Details

• Under the hood: The Petersen's exhibit is the screen-used "Car Four", featuring a 350-horsepower Corvette engine and automatic transmission.
• Location: The car is typically displayed on the third floor of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. [1, 2, 3]

[MrBig]

Just remembered that in Monaco last year I saw and F40 and an Aston Valkyrie out on the road being driven. Didn't manage to get photos of the Aston annoyingly.

[martc]

12 hours ago, Tayne said:

@martc The Schlumpf Museum is twice the size these days but I'm not sure the full value runs into billions, Bugatti built over 10,000 cars before the war and I think most of them are "only" worth 6 figures. Those who remember and desire them from period are rather elderly these days.

I may have exagertated the value a bit...

But, according to wikipedia they have 123 Bugattis, if we say the cooking ones are worth £50,000 each + 3 Royales at £10,000,000 each we're looking at £36,000,000 then add in the 7 Hispano Suizas and 14 Rolls Royces and 4 Bentleys and 13 Ferraris and 8 Maseratis and the Trabant (+ all the others) I reckon we'll be getting towards a US billion if not a proper one.

[Tayne]

It’s all a bit theoretical really, they don’t publish values. I’d thought several hundred million, there’s a few heavy hitters (including a 250LM) but also lots of little things that aren’t worth much and very few are in running condition.

I’d kinda like to go back, it was roasting the day I was there (high 30s) and I think I may have been a little de-hydrated that day.

 

Edited May 22 by Tayne

[bangernomics]

Two F40’s and a 356 in the same place in the arse end of Walkden near Manchester. All on ramps having annual service work done between being pit back in their bubbles.

Madness.

[andy18s]

Over 10 years ago and still the most expensive car I've seen being used. 

The owner was picking up milk from the Spar in Loggerheads where we were living  at the time.

Someone else nearby had a few XJ220 as well,including a yellow one which they raced iirc.

[Marina door handles]

9 hours ago, andy18s said:

Over 10 years ago and still the most expensive car I've seen being used. 

The owner was picking up milk from the Spar in Loggerheads where we were living  at the time.

Someone else nearby had a few XJ220 as well,including a yellow one which they raced iirc.

Don Law racing is not that far from Logger heads, they specialise in XJ220s, Group C racing Jags and related cars like the XJR15.  I saw an XJR15 in the wild on the A51 Stone Rd, it was quite a surprising site!

[panhard65]

22 hours ago, martc said:

I may have exagertated the value a bit...

But, according to wikipedia they have 123 Bugattis, if we say the cooking ones are worth £50,000 each + 3 Royales at £10,000,000 each we're looking at £36,000,000 then add in the 7 Hispano Suizas and 14 Rolls Royces and 4 Bentleys and 13 Ferraris and 8 Maseratis and the Trabant (+ all the others) I reckon we'll be getting towards a US billion if not a proper one.

Really 50k Bugatti's sign me up as that is a bit of a bargain. Type 35's run 1.5 to 5 million each and they have a whole room full. The 3 Royale's are very hard to value as the last one sold 20 odd years ago for 10 million so it would probably be double now. Oh and the 20 to 50 million Merc might push things up a bit. It is an amazing museum even if some of the cars are in poor condition most are extremely rare

[Tayne]

I think a £50k spend on a a Bugatti is either a  shit replica or an oil service and tyres on a veyron but not all of them are into the millions.

 

 

[Metal Guru]

On 20/05/2026 at 19:10, Dobloseven said:

Wonder if he'd let moulds be taken off it so we could build a MGF based replica?

MR2 surely?

[Metal Guru]

On 20/05/2026 at 13:44, DirtyDaily said:

I work in wilmslow and there are quite a number of expensive houses and cars about. One of the cars i regularly see is on a street thats on my way back to the office from my daily walk. Its a ferrari F40. However today i saw this being delivered. 

For reference that is a 1964 Ferrari 250LM.

For reference...

silly really. After considering it, it just becomes such a vulgar amount of money, even in this extremely wealthy area there isnt a house worth half of this car. 

Le Mans winner. That has probably increased the value 10 fold from an equivalent road car.

[New POD]

38 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Le Mans winner. That has probably increased the value 10 fold from an equivalent road car.

So, the engine has been "properly" thrashed/run-in at maximum revs on a race circuit, and that makes it worth 10 times one that's been cosseted all it's life. 

[New POD]

On 22/05/2026 at 07:43, Bmwdumptruck said:

A friend of ours is PA to the original owner of Wolfrace wheels.  He now has a business that makes locking wheel nuts for just about every car factory in europe.  Pretty wealthy chap.  His garage starts with an Enzo, both an F40 and F50 and a Testorosa as well as 3 more red Ferraris.  Then there’s things like Mk2 Jag, XK150, a huge pre war Rolls Royce. A ZR1, Lightweight all alloy Cobra, a mk1 Golf GTi Wood n Picket special.  Minor convertable, Early Fiat 500, A model T, and A Car.  No brand name, built about 1890, so just A Car.   There’s others and loads of memorabilia including Senna and Schumacker Race suits and helmets.  He did have a flat in Monaco and apparently use to let David Coultard keep a scooter in his garage as his flat didn’t come with one.
Oh and all of them are taxed, insured and used as regularly as he can.  He has a husband and wife cleaner team come round each week to clean whichever he has been out and about in.  

I'd get them around to clean the ones I planned to take out the next week. 

[New POD]

On 21/05/2026 at 21:34, delux said:

Years ago I worked in a small country garage. One of our customers used to store exotic stuff. The cars would come in for MOTs with less than 10 miles on them from the previous MOT. Got to MOT Ferrari F40s and Testarossas, Jaguar XJ220s and XJ15s and similar stuff. The guy let my boss and I have a go in some old Ferrari once. It was horrible, coarse and vicious. When we returned he told it had recently sold for £5,000,000!

Nowadays I get the odd shift in 'prestige' dealerships. I think if people saw how these things were put together or what you were actually getting for your money it would shock them! Some brands are worse than others but there is a lot of 'borrowing' parts from lesser brands in these cars. Cant really give any current examples as I'm not allowed to advertise the fact I was called in to them in the 1st place and I've got bills to pay. 😄 Paying for the badge I suppose!

27 years ago when Rolls Royces were still made in Crewe, I worked at Garrett making turbos.

There was an assembly line for the twin Turbos for their V8. 

One side was identical to the Turbo in an Escort Cosworth (by then discontinued), apart from the spring rate in the waste gate actuator.  The other side was a mirror copy.

I was shocked by how crude the assembly line was. Some benches and simple assembly fixtures. No mistake proofing, manual click off torque wrenches. Very simple vacuum gauge for setting the waste gate pre-load.  Low volume, 2 assembly operators. 30 turbos a day maybe.  

Compared with an assembly line my colleague put in for a mondeo diesel.  Automated DC tooling, vision scanning of component part numbers and digital recording of component serial numbers, laser making of fully tested unit.  In-built measurement of certain dimensions, with automated statistical process control. 

1 operator, 80 an hour, 3 machines 240 per hour. 

In comparison the line for RR was not much better than a bloke in a shed. 

[quicksilver]

The sad thing is that could be the last time that 250LM was seen in public in decades as it'll probably disappear into a secure vault never to see the light of day again until the owner decides to sell it.

As for the most expensive car I've seen on the road, I did see an F40 but it was on its way to or from an MOT and didn't seem to get much use otherwise so I'm not sure it counts. The best was a Jaguar C-type that I actually saw twice as the owner appeared to drive it to Bicester Heritage one day and back home the next. Not quite as valuable but I've seen loads of vintage Bentleys and their owners clearly believe in using them judging by one I spoke to who had been all over Europe in his 100-year old car.