Chris Evans buys £12m Ferrari GTO

You bastard. Chris Evans, Radio 2 DJ and Friend of TopGear, has bought himself a 1963 Ferrari 250GTO... for £12,000,000.

One of only 36 250 GTOs ever built - and one of the very few featuring Series II GTO bodywork - Evans's new purchase has a stellar racing heritage and has been described as the ‘Leonardo da Vinci of motoring'. No, it doesn't paint rather nicely or devise complex mechanical inventions way ahead of their time, but it is bloody gorgeous.

Under that sleek, curvaceous bonnet is a 3.0-litre V12 developing 302bhp. In its prime, the GTO would crack 62mph in six seconds and run all the way to 174mph.

Evans is a voracious Ferrari collector, and boasts a garage including a 275 GTB, 288 GTO, F40 and an Enzo - and, of course, the 250 California Spider SWB for which he paid £5.5m in 2008.

To make space on his driveway for the 250 GTO, Evans last month sold a 250 GT LWB California Spyder and 250GT SWB Berlinetta for a combined figure of £4m.

Evans almost bought a 250 GTO 15 years ago, but backed out of the purchase. "Will there ever be a day when there is a GTO in the Evans garage?" he asked at the time. "The Ferrari 250 GTO is, without a doubt, the most sought after car in the world."

And last summer, when TopGear joined Evans and his Ferrari collection on a Children In Need charity run, he told us: "I want to earn enough money to get a 250 GTO. It'll never happen, they're making £16m these days. How the hell am I going to manage that?"

You tell us, sir. We'll try and get some more from Chris as soon as possible, but for now, just look at that car. A snip at £12m, no?

Sam Philip

Watch Chris Evans' chat with JC back in 2005

Watch Chris Evan’s practice lap of the TG test track