Source: Hemming.com

1964 Ferrari 250 LM. Photos by Darin Schnabel, courtesy RM Auctions.

When the 10-percent buyer’s fees were added to the hammer price of the 1964 Ferrari 250 LM sold by RM Auctions in Arizona last weekend, the total reached $9.625 million, enough to set a new record for a car sold at auction during Arizona auction week. More remarkable than the selling price was the fact that the Ferrari, chassis 5899 GT, was once considered nothing more than an old race car, rebodied with a Porsche 906 Carrera 6 body to save money and improve performance.

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Such blasphemy is unthinkable today: Ferrari only built 32 examples of the 250 LM, which makes the car rarer than a much-coveted 250 GTO. Factor in the winning record of chassis 5899 GT, which captured victory in its first two events under ownership by Scuderia Filipinetti, followed by a string of top-10 finishes in the hands of its next owner, Werner Biedermann and Ecurie Basilisk, and the car becomes even more desirable. Biedermann’s luck with 5899 GT was somewhat short-lived, though: On October 16, 1965, while practicing for a hillclimb event, the driver ran off the road and flipped the car on its roof.

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Though Biedermann emerged largely unscathed, the same cannot be said for the Ferrari, which was promptly sold to its next owner, Hans Illert. Instead of shipping the Ferrari back to Scaglietti for repair, Illert opted to work with materials at hand, substituting the Porsche 906 body for the handcrafted Italian original. To make it fit, the Ferrari’s wheelbase was shortened, and the Porsche body was reworked to resemble that of the 250 LM, albeit in slightly smaller scale. The modifications shaved an estimated 440 pounds off the car, which Illert referred to as his “250 LM-P.”

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The car sold again in 1968, and its new owner, Pierre Sudan, replaced the Ferrari’s original 3.3-liter V-12 with a more potent 4.0-liter V-12 pulled from a Ferrari 330 P. It soon passed to yet another owner before a 1970 crash severely damaged the Porsche-derived bodywork. By this time, chassis 5899 GT was merely a seven-year-old race car, and it would see a series of owners before any steps were taken to restore it.

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Under the ownership of Paul Schouwenberg, the Ferrari was reunited with its original 3.3-liter V-12. Before restoration of the body could commence, Schouwenberg sold the car to Eric Stewart (of rock band 10cc fame), and under the musician’s ownership, a complete restoration was funded. Completed in May 1981, the Ferrari made its public re-appearance at that year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

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In the years since, it’s seen owners in Europe, the United States, Japan and England, and has undergone at least one more restoration and one mechanical refreshing. Though its value now precludes it from being raced as hard as in its early days, chassis 5899 GT has been campaigned in vintage events by its last few owners, a fitting tribute to the days when a car’s worth was measured solely in race wins and podium finishes.

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1971 Lamborghini Miura SVJ. Photo by Sean Smith, courtesy RM Auctions.

Other cars in the RM Auctions Arizona top-10 included a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4, which sold for a price of $3,657,500; a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider, which sold for a price of $3,300,000; a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB, which sold for a price of $2,750,000; a 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO, which sold for a record-setting price of $2,750,000; a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTS, which also set a record by selling for a price of $2,365,000; a 1971 Lamborghini Miura SVJ, which sold for $1,897,500; a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series II, which sold for $1,705,000; a 1965 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, which sold for $1,650,000; and a 2005 Ferrari FXX Evoluzione, which sold for a price of $1,622,50.

For complete results from the Arizona sale, visit RMAuctions.com.