- Scraps of a rare 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider Series I were just sold for about $1.9 million.
- The buyer could end up investing another $2 million just to restore the car, a Ferrari expert said.
The remnants of a Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider Series I were recently sold at RM Sotheby's auction for about $1.9 million, and it may take another $2 million just to restore the car to its glory racing days, a Ferrari historian told Insider.
This specific 1954 model is the second of 13 Mondials built, with its curvy design by Pinin Farina, now called Pininfarina, according to the auction listing.
Franco Cortese, an Italian race car driver who helped Ferrari achieve its first racing victory, drove the Mondial at the Mille Miglia race in Italy in May 1954, according to RM Sotheby's. Cortese finished 14th overall in the race.
The car soon suffered a crash and fire damage before Ferrari collector Walter Medlin purchased the vehicle in 1978, RM Sotheby's wrote. The car was kept in storage for nearly five decades.
What's left of the factory-original vehicle includes the rusting body, the car's rear-axle corners, matching-numbers gearbox, and the factory-issued chassis plate that contains the serial number "0406 MD," according to the listing.
A full restoration, in this case, will almost certainly cost between $1.5 million to $2 million, Andreas Birner, a Ferrari broker and historian, told Insider in an email.
Birner wrote that a "legitimate reconstruction" of this Mondial, "with an almost completely new frame and an almost entirely new bodywork," could likely only be done by Ferrari's Classiche program, which restores and certifies old Ferraris.
"Only if it's done by Ferrari on behalf (of) the new owner, the reconstructed car will be a legitimate car because it will have been resurrected by the manufacturer who once built it, not by some restoration shop in a different part of the world," Birner wrote. "Ferrari Classiche will also be able to grant the reconstructed car their blessings by issuing a Ferrari Classiche certificate that explains which parts of the car are still original and which are new, but corresponding to the original specifications which were on the car when it left the factory in Maranello back in 1954."
The process includes a deep inspection and research into the vehicle's history, according to a 2008 New York Times article on the Classiche program.
The Times reported that the vehicle would have to be shipped to Italy, where restoration processes could take up to a year.
It's unclear if Ferrari would restore a Mondial in such disrepair. A Ferrari spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment sent during the weekend.
"A Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider Pinin Farina in restored or at least very good condition is currently in the wide range between $4M and $5.5M," Birner wrote. Part of the price will depend on the car's history and how much of the original vehicle is preserved, he added.
Purchasing classic cars or historical racecars is always about "preserving history," Birner said, and in this case, "there is not too much left to be preserved."
He estimated that this Mondial would probably go for the lower end of the price range since the car's history "isn't really spectacular," and the car doesn't come with the original engine lost in the accident.
Ferrari restorers could build a new engine block produced to its original specifications. Still, it won't have the matching numbers with the chassis. Having the original parts and numbers "are so important in the classic car world," Birner said.
"So, it's a numbers game: A collector who always wanted to own a freshly restored 500 Mondial that additionally has an interesting history to tell … will most likely still end up within the market value after buying the remains for almost $2M and after investing $2M in the restoration," Birner said.
He added that the buyer should not expect to immediately flip the car for profit if that was their intention.
"A buyer who intends to have this car restored just to resell it for a profit after it will have been finished in two or so years would have overpaid in my opinion at $1,875,000. In short, I hope for the new owner that he (or she) intends to keep #0406MD for a while and doesn't plan to flip it for a profit," he said.