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MOTORING M6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 JULY 2018 Most expensive car: 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO auction could top $70 million Buy a car like a candy bar: Automobile 'vending machine' may come to Memphis 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, chas- sis no. 3413, presently owned by renowned car collector Greg Whitten, former chief software architect at Micro- soft and present chairman of Numerix, will be up for grabs at an auction at the annual Concours d'Elegance mo- toring week event in Pebble Beach, Monterey, California, on Aug. 24 and 25 and could be the most expensive car ev- er auctioned. "We are thrilled at the rare opportunity to offer a leg- endary Ferrari 250 GTO at auction," said Shelby Myers, car specialist at auction con- signer RM Sotheby's, Forbes reported. "This is just the third time that a GTO has been offered for public sale in the new millennium. The fact that the GTO exists as it did in the period along with Dr. Whitten's long-term enthu- siastic ownership only adds to the car's impeccable pedi- gree." The racing car's pre-auction price is estimated to be $45 million – a sale amount that can easily shoot up once the auction starts. Ferrari expert Marcel Massini recently said he expects Ferrari 250 GTOs to go for over $100 million in the next two to three years. If records of expensive Ferraris sold at auctions in the past are drawn up, then it would seem Massini's prediction is not far off. Racing car driver Christian Gläsel sold his 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, chassis 4153, in a private sale to David MacNeil, founder of the car floor mats maker WeatherTech, for at least $70 million in June. Pri- or to that, a chassis 3851 was auctioned for $38.1 million in 2014. The third example was the rumoured private sale of a 250 GTO by American collector Paul Pappalardo in 2013 for $52 million. What makes a Ferrari 250 GTO a collectible is the fact that the Italian car designer has manufactured only 36 of the particular model over the years. As for the 1962 model, it was only the third 250 GTO ever built by Ferrari. "The GTO was essentially the final true road racer, marking the end of an era when drivers really got their hands dirty," Myers said. "This was the last car that you could park in your garage, drive to the track, win the race, and then drive home." The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is one of its kind as it won 1962 Italian National GT Championship and nine other races that year with Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi, the driver who owned it before it was sold to another private owner, Gianni Bulgari, who continued the vehicle's streak of participating in races, Auto Blog reported. It was last sold in 2000 by Sir Lindsay Owens-Jones, former Chairman of L'Oreal and cur- rent Ferrari board member, who sold it to Whitten for $7 million. For the last eight years, the car has been pop- ping up in various classic events and vintage races. Mi- raculously, it never crashed in any of the races and, accord- ing to Myers, is in a "highly original" condition. AN automobile ''vending machine'' may soon rise along Interstate 40 in Memphis. Carvana, the online seller of used auto- mobiles, has applied for zoning changes so it can erect a fulfilment centre, which the company more colourfully calls a "vending machine.'' Customers who make an online pur- chase and who live in the Memphis area would schedule a pick-up time, come to the site, insert a large coin token into a slot and watch as the vehicle they bought is robotically moved from upper-level stor- age to the ground. The centre would be the second in Ten- nessee; three years ago in Nashville, Car- vana opened a fulfilment centre encased in glass so the vehicles and their automat- ed deliveries could be seen. Carvana would build the 5,800-square- foot building — up to 75 feet tall — on two acres in the Appling Farms Planned Development owned by Belz Investment Company LP. The now-vacant site fronts the north edge of I-40 and is between Main Event on the east and Great Ameri- can Home Store on the west. The six-year-old, Arizona-based compa- ny requests the Land Use Control Board to approve changes to the planned devel- opment to allow the building. The plan- ning board will consider the request at 10 a.m. Aug. 9 at City Hall. The existing rules of the planned devel- opment restrict building height to 65 feet; Carvana requests up to 75 feet. The company also seeks permission to install four attached signs and five logo placards. The existing rules allow up to five attached signs. Carvana on Monday declined to com- ment specifically about any plans for Memphis. But he did say in an email re- sponse: "Carvana is the new way of buying a car, so we are always looking for opportuni- ties to potentially expand our services in new or existing markets, including the construction of new Car Vending Ma- chines. "There's a lot of background and ex- ploratory work that goes into these op- portunities, and this application is one early step in the process, so we are unable to provide further commentary.'' But Carvana's letter of intent to the Land Use Control Board touts what the company says are advantages to the way it sells used cars. "... Carvana's proposed use differs signifi- cantly from a traditional automobile sales facility,'' the letter states. "Rather than uti- lizing large surface parking areas to store and display inventory on-site, Carvana fa- cilitates the sale of used vehicles online at Carvana.com. "The cars are then transported to the state-of-the-art Vending Machine Fulfil- ment Centre (the 'Vending Machine') lo- cated nearest the customer. Through the use of the Vending Machine, Carvana has transformed the stress-filled car buying experience into a user-friendly and excit- ing customer experience,'' the letter states. The Memphis location would be Car- vana's 13th vending machine centre. Besides Nashville, the others are in: Dal- las, Austin, Houston and San Antonio in Texas; Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando in Florida; Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina; Tempe, Arizona; and Gaithers- burg, Maryland. The company with no dealerships claims to be disrupting the used-car industry. The firm offers more than 7,500 used ve- hicles on its website. Browsers can see high-resolution photo- graphs, complete with 360-degree virtual tours of vehicles. They can zoom in for a closer look at any imperfections. After choosing a vehicle, customers can obtain a loan, do a trade-in, sign the con- tracts and schedule a delivery or pick-up at one of the "vending machines.'' Buyers are given a seven-day test period; if they are unsatisfied, they can return the vehicle for a refund.