Broadcaster Chris Evans bids a record price at auction for famed 1960s soft-top Spyder.
A 1961 Ferrari once owned by Hollywood tough guy James Coburn has just sold for a record £5m – making it the most expensive car ever auctioned.
The new owner is Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans. With personal wealth estimated at £45m, he can afford to write the cheque, even though he has ended up with a car that’s worth more than his £3m London home.
The car is a 250 SWB California Spyder. Coburn, who appeared in The Great Escape and also numerous Westerns, sold it in 1987 and since then it has had several private owners. The auction house responsible for the sale expected it to raise £2.5m, knowing that its celebrity past would increase its value hugely. But the sale saw intense bidding from a number of would-be buyers, before Evans placed the winning bid.
Evans has long had a passion for exotic cars, having previously owned a 1964 Daimler V8 Vicarage Convertible and another Ferrari, a 328 GTS.
