Every year, many of the most valuable cars in the world make their way to Monterey, California for Car Week. It’s possible to still enjoy the event for relatively little money, but really, this event isn’t really for people like us. It’s for the billionaires and mega-millionaires who can afford to collect Nazi cars and drop seven figures at an RM Sotheby’s auction. Still, sometimes something breaks through and ends up being pretty damn cool. This year, it might be Tom Hartley Jnr and his numbers-matching Ferrari 250 GTO.
Hartley Jnr announced plans to show off his 250 GTO at Pebble Beach this year on Instagram, highlighting the car’s racing history, unique paint color and largely accident-free history considering how much time it spent on track. He said they’ve been working with Ferrari to restore this car he bought it back in 2021, and now it’s finally ready. What makes this announcement much more interesting, though, is the 24-minute video he also released, that dives deep into the history and restoration process required to get it Concours-ready.
Of course, at this point, Ferrari 250 GTOs aren’t really cars anymore. They’re so valuable, they’re more like art pieces for the ultra-wealthy to pass around when they’re not laying off employees, doing stock buybacks, and groveling at Mar-a-Lago for tax cuts, but come on. If you were going to buy a car to display in your house instead of driving, you could do a lot worse than a 250 GTO. These things are just objectively gorgeous and arguably more beautiful than even the legendary Jaguar E-Type.
More importantly, it’s just a fascinating, incredibly well-done video even if you don’t really care all that much about ludicrously expensive playthings for the 0.1 percent. It is, after all, an important part of automotive and racing history. Also, it looks gorgeous. Have I mentioned that it’s gorgeous?