Schumacher's Ferrari Sells for $3.3 Million in Italy

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June 29 (Bloomberg) -- The Formula One race car that Michael
Schumacher drove to victory in five Grands Prix last year fetched
$3.3 million at an auction yesterday of historic Ferraris and
Maseratis. Collectors spent more than $12.2 million in total.
The sale, organized by Sotheby's Holdings Inc. in Maranello,
Italy, was the first hosted by Ferrari SpA. About 62 percent of
the lots were sold, the auction house said in a statement.
Ferrari, which was founded by race-car driver Enzo Ferrari in
1947, is now a unit of Turin-based Fiat SpA.
``The Sotheby's at Ferrari auction has been a positive
experience for Ferrari, another strong display of the boundless
passion for the prancing horse brand,'' Giulio Zambeletti,
director of brand development at the automaker, said in a
statement e-mailed to news organizations. ``The price paid for the
F2004 is a record for a Formula One car.''
Ferrari's decision to sell the F2004, in which Schumacher won
the Australian, Malaysian, Bahrain, Imola and Spanish Grands Prix
last year, marks the first time the company has offered a Formula
One car from the past season.
To protect its industrial and technological secrets, the car
will have to remain at Ferrari until January 2006. Until then the
anonymous buyer will be able to drive it at the Maranello race
track. The F2004, the 50th single-seater built by Ferrari for F1,
crushed the competition with 16 Grand Prix wins and 14 best laps.
The 1940 8CL Maserati that competed in the Indianapolis 500
race was bought for $2.28 million. A 1946 Maserati 4CL single
seater, one of three driven from 1946 to 1948 by race team
Scuderia Milano, which included pilot Tazio Nuvolari, sold for
$512,000.

Gift for Pope

The most expensive car of the auction, a 1958 Ferrari 412S
once driven by racing stars Phil Hill and Ritchie Ginther and with
an estimated value of as much as $12.3 million, failed to sell as
the owner didn't accept an $8.6 million offer. The record auction
price for a car is the $10.7 million paid for a 1962 Ferrari 250
GTO at a Sotheby's Monaco auction in 1990.
A U.S. collector paid $1.3 million for a Ferrari Enzo car,
Zambeletti said. The 400th of its model, the car was originally
intended as a gift for Pope Jean Paul the II. The proceeds of the
Enzo's sale will go to help victims of the Tsunami that struck
countries around the Indian Ocean last year.

Le Mans Trophy

Topping the list of Ferrari memorabilia at the auction, the
1949 Le Mans trophy won by driver Luigi Chinetti, who drove a
Ferrari V12 for 23.5 of the race's 24 hours covering 1,970 miles,
was bought for $83,000. The Formula One overalls Schumacher wore
in races last year fetched $24,900. The carbon-fiber steering
wheel of the 2001 Formula One car in which Schumacher won the
Australian Grand Prix, raised $83,000.
Ferrari sold 84 percent of the memorabilia Ferrari it put up
for auction, for a total of $635,740.
Enzo Ferrari inherited the prancing horse symbol from Italy's
World War I ace Francesco Baracca, who shot down 34 enemy planes
in his single-seat fighter, firing a machine gun with one hand
while controlling his plane with the other.
A former Royal Piedmont Cavalry officer, Baracca had a black
horse painted on his plane. In 1923, Baracca's parents gave the
symbol as a lucky charm to Ferrari, then an Alfa Romeo race-car
driver. He went on to found his own company, which has won 14
Formula One constructors' championships -- the last six
consecutively, with Schumacher as driver.

Maserati Takeover

In 1997, Ferrari took over Maserati, founded 91 years ago in
Modena, Italy, providing it with Ferrari technology in a bid to
revive the brand. Maserati, which built 700 cars in 1997, sold
4,600 in 2004, including the Quattroporte driven by singers Bono
and Jose Carreras. It is targeting sales of 10,000 vehicles a year
by 2007.
Sotheby's, which has its main salesroom in New York, charges
18 percent for the first 200,000 euros ($240,670), and a lower
percentage for the amount above that.