As expected, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that was tipped to sell for $45 million at the RM Sotheby’s auction over the weekend beat its own expectation, selling for a record $48.4 million at the auction’s sale in Monterey, California. The sale not only beat the previous auction record for a Ferrari 250 GTO — another model sold for $38.115 million in 2013 — it also became the most expensive car ever sold at an auction.

This 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, chassis number “3413 GT,” is all sorts of extra special beyond the fact that it’s a Ferrari 250 GTO. It’s the third among all 36 units of the 250 GTOs to be built. It was also used as a test car by Ferrari before embarking on a racing career that began at the 1962 Targa Florio where it was driven by 1961 Formula One World Champion Phil Hill to a rousing citron. The car’s racing career was full of achievements, too. In the same year it won the Targa Florio with Hill at the wheel, the car also won the Italian National GT Championship. It also came first in class at both the 1963 and 1964 stagings of the Targa Florio. Used in racing from 1962 to 1965, this 250 GTO won more than 15 class and overall races, while also finishing over 20 races, all without any incidents.

The rich racing history attached to this 250 GTO is one of the biggest reasons why it just became the most expensive car ever sold at an auction. But the fact that it’s an authentic 250 GTO means that its price will always dwarf any other car that you can find in an auction setting. According to reports, the unit’s starting bid was already at $33 million, a staggering number considering that over 95 percent of all cars ever auctioned have never reached $30 million, let alone $33 million.

If none of those achievements aren’t impressive enough, try this one for size. This specific model is one of only four Ferrari 250 GTOs that were upgraded in period by Scaglietti with series II GTO/64 coachwork.

The provenance behind this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is without question. That’s why bidding for the car went back and forth among different bidders even with the $33 million starting price. The winning bid ended at $44 million with fees bringing up the total to $48.405 million. It’s still not the most expensive Ferrari 250 GTO to change hands — WeatherTech founder David McNeal agreed to a private transaction that involved him paying over $70 million for a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO that Ferrari historian, Marcel Massini, calls the “third or fourth” best example of the model in the world — but at just under $50 million, it’s more than enough for this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO to enter the record books as the most expensive car ever sold at an auction.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 1962 - 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO.

Read more Ferrari news.