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OCT 22, 2026 · 11 min read

The most expensive cars ever sold at auction, and why the lists disagree

In August, a brand-new Ferrari sold for $40 million at auction. It doesn't even make the top five. The car at the top sold for more than the next two combined.

The short answer

The most expensive car ever sold at auction is a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé. RM Sotheby's sold it in Stuttgart on 5 May 2022 for €135,000,000. Guinness World Records converts that to $142,769,250, buyer's premium included. No other car has come within €80 million of it.

The rest of the top ten is mostly Ferrari: seven of the ten cars wear the prancing horse, and four of those are 250 GTOs. The top sale of this year's Monterey Car Week, in August, was a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe at $42,905,000, now the most valuable American car ever auctioned.

The ten most expensive cars sold at auction

Each price below is the final figure the buyer paid, in the currency the car sold in. It includes the buyer's premium, except on the charity Luce, where RM waived it. Nine come from the auction house's own announcement; the Mecum price comes from published reports of the sale. Where a car sold in euros, the last column gives a dollar figure: the auction house's own where it gave one (for the 250 LM, from RM Sotheby's review of 2025), Guinness's for the Uhlenhaut, and a contemporary report for the 335 S. The cars are in order of that dollar figure.

CarSoldAuction house, cityPrice as announcedIn US dollars
1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé2022RM Sotheby's, Stuttgart€135,000,000$142,769,250
1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Stromlinienwagen2025RM Sotheby's, Stuttgart€51,155,000$53,017,370
1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO2023RM Sotheby's, New York$51,705,000$51,705,000
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO2018RM Sotheby's, Monterey$48,405,000$48,405,000
1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe2026Gooding Christie's, Pebble Beach$42,905,000$42,905,000
2026 Ferrari Luce "Tailor Made" (charity lot)2026RM Sotheby's, Monterey$40,000,000$40,000,000
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, factory white2026Mecum, Kissimmee$38.5 million$38.5 million
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO2014Bonhams, Carmel$38,115,000$38,115,000
1964 Ferrari 250 LM2025RM Sotheby's, Paris€34,880,000$36,073,245
1957 Ferrari 335 S2016Artcurial, Paris€32,100,000$35,711,359

Two notes on the table. The Mecum price comes from the Osceola News-Gazette's report of the sale, not from Mecum's own results page. And the 335 S has two euro figures: Artcurial's lot page says €32,100,000, while Sports Car Digest's report of the sale gave €32,075,200, or $35,711,359.

Just outside the ten sits a 1996 McLaren F1 GTR, sold for $34,655,000 at RM Sotheby's Monterey sale this August. That is the most valuable British car ever sold at auction.

RM Sotheby's sold six of the ten.

Why does every list give a different number?

Search for the record and you'll find the Uhlenhaut at $135 million, $142 million and £115 million. One top-ten table, Auto Express's, prints $135,000,000 in its dollar column. That is the euro figure with a dollar sign. Guinness converts the same sale to $142,769,250, or £115.1 million, or €135.1 million.

Three things cause most of the confusion.

The currency. Four of the ten sold in euros. Turning them into dollars means picking a day's exchange rate, and the choice can move cars up and down the list: the W 196 R stays above the 330 LM / 250 GTO only while a euro buys more than about $1.011. Even RM Sotheby's has two dollar figures for the W 196 R: $53,017,370 on the day of the sale, and $53,112,190 in its review of 2025. They are $94,820 apart.

It can decide a record. When the 335 S sold in Paris in 2016, Sports Car Digest reported that it beat the all-time auction record in euros and in pounds. In dollars it came second, behind the GTO that Bonhams had sold in 2014.

Bonhams announced that 2014 GTO at £22,843,633 on the night, and at $38,115,000. Convert the dollars at a later exchange rate and you get a different number of pounds.

The hammer price versus the final price. The hammer price is the winning bid. The buyer then pays the auction house a premium on top. The 2018 GTO hammered at $44 million; with fees it was $48,405,000, 10 % more. The 335 S hammered at €28 million and finished about 15 % higher. RM Sotheby's 2018 release notes that its results include the buyer's premium, and Gooding called the Daytona's $42.9 million an "all-in figure."

Charity lots. A car sold for charity is priced by different logic. More on that below.

Which Ferrari is the most expensive ever sold at auction?

The 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO, at $51,705,000. RM Sotheby's sold it in New York in 2023. At the time, Sotheby's said, it was the second-highest price ever paid for a car at auction and the most valuable Ferrari ever auctioned. It is the only GTO of the 1962 type raced by the Scuderia Ferrari works team.

Since then the W 196 R has passed it in dollars, which puts it third overall.

Ferrari's hold on the list is mostly one car. Four of the ten results are 250 GTOs, and RM's catalogue for the 2018 car says only 36 GTOs were built. That 2018 car, chassis 3413, was the third. It sold at RM's Monterey auction for $48,405,000 after almost ten minutes of bidding. It took the record from another GTO: the one Bonhams sold in 2014 for $38,115,000.

The 250 LM in the table has a story of its own. It was the Chinetti/NART entry at Le Mans in 1965, where Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt won outright. No Ferrari won Le Mans outright again until 2023. When the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum sold it through RM in Paris in February 2025, it made €34,880,000 against an estimate of €25,000,000.

Why are the top two both Mercedes?

Neither came from a private collector, and both sold through RM Sotheby's in the same room at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.

The Uhlenhaut Coupé is one of just two prototypes, named after Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the chief engineer who created it. It was based on the W 196 R Grand Prix car, with the engine enlarged to 3.0 litres for sports car racing, and it could do 180 mph. Mercedes-Benz had owned it since it was built in 1955.

The auction was by invitation, for selected Mercedes customers and international collectors of cars and art. RM says the bidding opened above the price of the 2018 GTO, which was the record at the time. The final price beat that record by more than €90,000,000.

Mercedes put the proceeds into a fund for scholarships in environmental science and decarbonisation. The buyer agreed the car will still be shown in public on special occasions. Its twin stays with Mercedes, in the museum.

The W 196 R Stromlinienwagen is a 1954 Grand Prix car with streamlined bodywork. It was the car to beat in the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. Daimler-Benz donated this one to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1965, and the museum sold it on 1 February 2025 for €51,155,000. It was the first streamliner-bodied W 196 R ever offered for private ownership, and it is now the most valuable Grand Prix car ever sold.

What sold for the most in 2025 and 2026?

2025 belonged to the Indianapolis museum's two cars. The W 196 R was RM Sotheby's top result of the year, listed at $53,112,190 in its year-end review. The 250 LM followed in Paris a few days later.

2026 has put three cars in the top ten so far.

The Daytona is one of only six Cobra Daytona Coupes, built to beat Ferrari's 250 GTO. This one was owned by Carroll Shelby himself. On the auction block the GTO still wins: the Daytona sold for less than the 2018 and 2023 GTOs, though more than the other two.

The same Monterey sale at RM sold the McLaren F1 GTR for $34,655,000 and a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport for $18,705,000, the most valuable Corvette ever sold at auction. RM's sale alone made $380 million.

Does a charity sale count?

It counts, but it is a different kind of price.

The Luce is Ferrari's first electric car. The "Tailor Made" example was offered exclusively for charity, with all proceeds going to The Ferrari Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. RM calls the $40,000,000 the most valuable new car ever sold at auction. The record it beat was RM's own from 2025: a Ferrari Daytona SP3 "Tailor Made" at $26 million.

Charity prices follow different logic. Under US tax rules, if you pay a qualified charity more than fair market value for goods, the excess may count as a charitable contribution (IRS Publication 526). Nobody outside knows the buyer's tax position. But the rule means a charity bid is not only a judgment of what the car is worth.

RM itself keeps the two apart. That weekend a 2023 Daytona SP3 sold for $17,825,000, and RM listed it against a "previous non-charity record" of $7,265,250.

The record holder raised money for a cause too: the Uhlenhaut's proceeds went into Mercedes' scholarship fund.

On the street

You won't pass any of the top ten in traffic. Most are prototypes and race cars. The Uhlenhaut's twin is on show at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, and the buyer of the auctioned one agreed to show it in public on special occasions.

The same August weekend set records for road cars you might actually spot. RM counted 38 existing world auction records broken at its Monterey sale, including these:

CarSold forPrevious auction record
1985 Ferrari 288 GTO$11,555,000$10,914,012
2015 Ferrari LaFerrari$8,695,000$8,580,000
1991 Ferrari F40$8,365,000$6,600,000
1989 Porsche 959 Sport$7,045,000$5,505,000

Prices for the same model can still swing hard. A yellow 2003 Ferrari Enzo made $17.875 million at Mecum in January. An Enzo sold at RM Sotheby's in August for $9,410,000.

When the next auction headline lands, four questions sort it out:

FAQ

Is the Uhlenhaut's price $135 million or $142 million?

It sold for €135,000,000. Guinness World Records converts that to $142,769,250. A "$135 million" figure is the euro price with the wrong currency sign.

What is the most expensive American car sold at auction?

The 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, at $42,905,000 at Gooding Christie's Pebble Beach sale in August 2026. It beat the previous American record by more than $20 million.

What is the most expensive new car sold at auction?

The 2026 Ferrari Luce "Tailor Made," at $40,000,000 at RM Sotheby's Monterey sale in August 2026. It was a charity lot.

Is a McLaren F1 in the top ten?

Not quite. The 1996 McLaren F1 GTR's $34,655,000 puts it eleventh by our count, just behind the 335 S. It is the most valuable British car ever sold at auction.

Sources