It’s no secret a car that rolls out of Ferrari’s factory in Maranello, Italy, will cost you a small fortune to get your hands on. But that’s apparently true even if the car in question doesn’t have an engine.
The wind tunnel model of the Ferrari 812 Superfast is set to go up for auction, and it’s expected to sell for more than the actual road-going 812 Superfast, according to RM Sotheby’s. RM Sotheby’s is hosting a special Ferrari Leggenda e Passione auction Sept. 9 to commemorate the “Prancing Horse’s” 70th anniversary, featuring cars from throughout the manufacturer’s history.
The 812, unlike most of the vehicles on the docket, can’t be driven on a road or track. It doesn’t have an engine, windows or functional doors — and even if it did, it’s a 50-percent scale replica, so a human couldn’t fit inside it. Yet despite its relative pointlessness, RM Sotheby’s predicts the wind tunnel model will sell for between  €280,000 and €320,000 ($332,539 and $380,045).
For perspective, the actual 812 Superfast road car has a starting price of $315,000. That’s still not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s more than $15,000 less expensive than the auction house’s conservative estimates of what the scale model will fetch.
Why?
Because the people who will attend the Leggenda e Passione won’t look at a car in terms on its functionality, but rather based on its historical value. Anybody who places a bid on Sept. 9 will be vying to own part of Enzo Ferrari’s legacy, and therefore, a piece of automotive history.
The 812 is the most-powerful front-engine car that Ferrari has ever made, so even though the model that RM Sotheby’s will auction off will spend it’s entire life on display, it’s far from worthless.
Thumbnail photo via Ferrari
