To celebrate its 15th year of presence in Arizona, RM Auction will offer more than 120 exceptional motor cars, at its annual sale scheduled for January 16 – 17, 2014. A highly prized 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider leading the two-day auction, estimated to fetch between $7 – $9 million. According to RM’s auction description, Ferrari originally built the car, chassis number 1055 GT, as 11th of only 50 long-wheelbase California Spiders ever constructed.
With Ross Durant at the wheel, it run as high as first place in class at the SCCA 1962 Osceola Grand Prix in Geneva, Florida. The car also passed through the hands of Ferrari Market Letter founder and publisher Gerald L. Roush in the early 1970s. in the early 1990s, 1055 GT was fully restored and won first place in class at the 1994 Cavallino Classic III Concours d’Elegance and appeared at the Concorso Italiano, the Ferrari Club of America International Concours and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in that same year.
More recently, the California Spider has received an engine rebuild by Roelofs Engineering in the Netherlands, along with a fresh service by Ferrari of Newport Beach, and is offered for sale in remarkably well-preserved condition in its original color of Rosso Rubino with a black top and black leather interior.