For sale: one Ferrari 250 GT. Price? £5.5m

There are many great and wonderful cars being offered up for sale in RM Sotheby’s upcoming London sale. They include a Peugeot 205 T16, a record-breaking Lamborghini Murcielago, and, um, this.

This is a race-proven, rare and quite gorgeous 1958 Ferrari 250 GT ‘Tour de France’. And its estimated sale price tops £5,500,000. Which is a significant sum of money by any reckoning.

What do we know about this car, then? That after an unsuccessful race in Monza, it was sold to Prince Zourab Tchkotoua in September 1959 and raced in the Tour de France, where it finished 2nd in class.

It was later sold to clients in the US, had its engine removed, then ultimately replaced back with its original V12 (don’t ask), restored, passed into Germany and campaigned regularly in historic racing events. Including the Mille Miglia. On five separate occasions.

It was recently given a full rebuild by GTO Engineering and is reportedly in excellent driving condition – which means this is no trailer queen, but ready to continue its life being fully lit at race circuits.

What you get for your £5.5m then, is a race-ready classic Ferrari, complete with a 3.0-litre V12 producing 263bhp – more than the 240bhp most 250 GTs developed on their day – and of course, that glorious alloy body designed by Pininfarina and hand-built by Scaglietti.

The sale takes place on 7 September. We suspect you might be interested...