With the notable exception of homologation specials, classic->ke503 race cars->ke148 don't usually sell for really noteworthy sums of money. This is partly because they often aren't street legal, and also because they simply don't offer the glamour or good looks of high-end sports->ke506 or grand-touring cars. So when a race car does sell for several million dollars, it's the sort of thing which gets our attention. At RM Sotheby's Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, a 1952 Ferrari 212->ke3512 Export Barchetta race car went for $7.5 million, a huge sum of money for anything, but especially a race car.

Though Enzo Ferrari had been involved in car making and racing->ke447 for many years prior, the company as we know it today has only existed since 1947, so this 212 Export is a very early model. It is a rare model, with only 28 units made, and even the 212 Inter (the road-going model that the racer is based on) only had 82 units produced. And this particular car is a matching number example that is Ferrari Classiche certified.

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Why it matters

At his period in automotive history, the line between race cars and road cars was still a bit hazy, though not nearly as much as it had been before WWII. So even though they shared many components, Ferrari ->ke252built the 212 Inter and 212 Export to serve different functions, and the racing version even had a slightly shorter wheelbase. But both cars used the same 2.5-liter version of the Colombo V-12, which here makes 160 horsepower. As with other early Ferraris, the “212” in the name represents the engine's unitary displacement, meaning 212cc per cylinder.

The 212 Export first debuted in 1951, but largely lived in the shadow of the bigger and more powerful 340 America, which both debuted and won the Mille Migla->ke2659 that same year. This specific 212 Export participated as an “also ran” in a number of different races at the hands of its first owner Baron Luigi Chiaramonte Bordonaro. But the Baron did manage a couple of wins, at Coppa dei Templi and the Passo di Rigano-Bellolampo Hill Climb before selling it to a Swiss man who raced it at the Mille Migla in 1956 before retiring the car after that year.

The car then went to the show circuit surprisingly quickly, being shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance->ke2839 in 1965, where it also took second place at the same event the following year. The car has since been going back and forth between Europe and the U.S. between different owners, and got its first complete restoration in 1973.

The car is so valuable partly because of its rarity, partly because of what good condition its in, but also in a large part because it is eligible for so many historical racing events. Many of these such events only allow models which had competed in those events when they were new, the Mille Miglia being a prime example. And since the 212 Export competed in many of these events, its new owner will be able to run it almost anywhere he pleases.