Although Ferrari had been producing celebrated performance vehicles for both roadways and racetracks for a couple of decades, one could argue that Enzo and his design team truly hit their stride in the 1960s. Unsurprisingly, vehicles from that era are in high demand at auctions and tend to fetch some of the highest sales numbers. This was certainly the case for a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 NART Spider convertible when it was offered up in 2013.
If you’re curious, the NART designation stands for North American Racing Team, for whom the Spider was commissioned. The story goes that NA Ferrari dealer Luigi Chinetti convinced Enzo Ferrari to give the 275 the Spider treatment, initially ordering 25 of the vehicles. Ultimately, only 10 were ever built, ranking them among the rarest Ferraris around.
However, that only accounts for part of this Ferrari’s massive auction price. What makes the particular Ferrari 275 NART Spider that sold for close to $30 million even rarer is its ties to a Hollywood legend, Steve McQueen. Yes, the Spider that sold in the 2013 auction is the very same “red Italian thing” that made a brief cameo in McQueen’s 1968 classic “The Thomas Crown Affair.” This combination of scarcity and a bona fide Hollywood tie-in pushed the price of the ’67 Ferrari up to a whopping $27.5 million.
