This year has seen a plethora of special Ferraris hit the auction block, including even a disassembled 250 GTO discovered in a shipping container, but now perhaps the most storied Ferrari race car of all time was just listed for direct sale by RM Sotheby's. The car is a 1963 275 P, chassis number 0816, a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1963 and 64 (which was Ferrari's final overall win) and also winner of the 1964 24 Hours of Sebring.
The incredible car has sat for 48 years in the Mas du Clos Collection, and RM Sotheby's claims it is still bears the numbers-matching engine, gearbox, and body that lapped Le Mans and Sebring all those years ago. And speaking of chassis numbers, the detailed Sotheby's listing recounts the almost comedic nature of #0816's first overall win at Le Mans, when the originally-scheduled chassis number 0814 suffered a practice accident while running tests at the Nürburging one month before the race. According to RM Sotheby's, Ferrari factory documentation reveals that 0814 was still undergoing repairs by the time race-day arrived, and 0816 subbed in for the unassuming win.
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Number 0816 made further history when Scuderia Ferrari allowed it to compete for Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team, with John Surtees at the helm, before returning to the Ferrari factory to prep for the 1964 season. Other famous drivers to have piloted 0816 during the 1964 campaign include Michael Parkes, Umberto Maglioli, Jean Guichet, and Nino Vaccarella. At the end of the successful season, Ferrari sold the car outright to Luigi Chinetti's team, who in 1970 sold it to Pierre Bardinon, arguably the owner of the world's most extensive Ferrari assemblage ever, the Mal du Clos Collection.
The 275 P featured a 3.3-liter V12 mounted amidships and sending 320 horsepower to the rear wheels. Though those figures may not seem extreme today, for its time 0816 was a proven winner, and to this day is one of only five cars to have won the strenuous Le Mans race twice (the others being a Bentley Speed Six in 1929 and '30, a Ford GT40 Mk1 in 1968 and '69, a Porsche 956 in 1984 and '85, and a TWR-WSC 95 in 1996 and '97).
With Sotheby's hoping to fetch a world-record $45-60 million for the 250 GTO that will sell next week, pricing for 275 P #0816, which has not been publicly revealed, should be around the same level.