Ferrari parked in office 33 years heads toward $3.4 million sale

A guy in David Gooding’s position is used to strange calls concerning cars. Whether it’s a description of a faded hood ornament poking through hay in a barn or whisperings about a model that experts thought didn’t exist, the auction company founder is typically unruffled when it comes to “Do I have a story for you” tales.

But not this time.

“The phone rang, and I was told about what was promised to be a very nice Ferrari that was sitting inside its former owner’s office,” says Gooding. “I didn’t know quite what to make of this.”

So he went to see the car. What he found startled him: a rakish 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 parked in something that blended a den, office and garage. The Ferrari was more stationary sculpture than resting racer. But it was all there, and it was beautiful. “I walked in and didn’t want to leave,” says Gooding. “If I could have pulled up a cot, I would have.”

This 275 GTB/4 — which could bring between $3.4 and $3.8 million — is one of the highlights of Gooding and Company’s upcoming Amelia Island auction on March 13, one of the big stops on the year’s classic-autos calendar.

Besides the elemental appeal of this increasingly prized Prancing Horse — a GTB/4 owned by actor and racer Steve McQueen sold for a staggering $10 million at auction last summer — its rarity is compounded by having lived with the same family for the past 43 years. What’s more, it was parked in the owner’s auto-themed office in 1982 — and was never driven again.

“Bob, the owner (last name withheld by the auction company), worked in the office and simply liked to be surrounded by gorgeous things,” says Gooding, noting that the light blue Ferrari was kept company by a Porsche 911, a Triumph TR3 and a few open-wheeled racers. “After 10 years of driving the car regularly, he was concerned about keeping the car safe. So he just stopped driving it.”

Bob’s recent passing prompted the family’s call to Gooding, who soon enough had the full story. The car spent its first five years zipping between three Roman owners (the car still features that city’s squared off rear plate). It was then imported by an American exotic-car reseller who quickly found a buyer in Bob, who shared the car with friends and fellow enthusiasts for the next decade in and around his eastern Massachusetts hometown.

Call the car an “office find.” While it was hermetically sealed in a heated and cooled space and therefore spared the ravages of weather, the 275 is far from perfect, says Gooding.

“We had to get the brakes unstuck to get it rolled out of there, and the paint has a few flaws and some of the chrome has issues, but it’s all very real,” he says, adding that the car’s next owner will want to spend a solid sum getting it in running condition. But, he adds, the result will be worth it.