The 10 Most Expensive Cars Ever Sold at Auction

Every major auction week seems to reset the record books, and 2026 has been no exception. Between a one-off electric Ferrari, a Le Mans-winning Mercedes-Benz streamliner, and no fewer than four different Ferrari 250 GTOs, today's top ten most expensive cars ever sold at public auction reads like a rolling history of automotive obsession. Motorious first ranked this list back in 2018, when the group topped out at $48 million. Today it takes more than $35 million just to squeak onto the board.

This ranking counts only public auction sales, hammer price plus buyer's premium, and leaves out private treaty deals no matter how large the rumored numbers get. Here is the current top ten, counted down from ten to one.

No. 10: 1957 Ferrari 335 S

$35,730,510 — Artcurial, Paris, February 15, 2016. Ferrari built only four examples of the 335 S for its 1957 works team, each fitted with a 4.1-liter V12 tuned for the brutal endurance races of the era. Chassis 0674 carries exactly the kind of genuine factory competition history that collectors chase from the last golden year before Ferrari shifted its sports racing program toward smaller-displacement cars.

No. 9: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM

$36,344,960 — RM Sotheby's, Paris, February 5, 2025. The 250 LM was Ferrari's answer to the mid-engine revolution sweeping sports car racing in the mid-1960s, and only 32 were built. Chassis 5893 sold in this RM Sotheby's Paris sale, and a sister car delivered Ferrari's last outright win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965, a feat that still underwrites the value of every surviving example of the model.

No. 8: 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

$38,115,000 — Bonhams, Carmel, California, August 14, 2014. Chassis 3851GT was a record-setter in its own right when Bonhams sold it at Carmel. Just 36 250 GTOs were built between 1962 and 1964, and every surviving example is tracked individually by collectors and marque historians, which helps explain why the model claims four of the ten spots on this list.

No. 7: 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

$38,500,000 — Mecum, Kissimmee, Florida, January 18, 2026. The most recent entry on this list, chassis 3729GT crossed the block at Mecum's Kissimmee sale for $38.5 million, proof that GTO values have not leveled off even as the model keeps reappearing near the top of this ranking. For more on what makes these cars so coveted on track as well as on the podium, see our feature on racing a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.

No. 6: 2026 Ferrari Luce "Tailor Made"

$40,000,000 — RM Sotheby's, Monterey, California, August 16, 2026. Ferrari's first electric production model had barely been revealed before chassis 0 sold as a charity lot at RM Sotheby's Monterey sale, with proceeds benefiting the Ferrari Foundation. It's a record for a new car, a record for an EV, and roughly 60 times the model's sticker price. We covered the sale, along with the rest of the week's records, in our Monterey Car Week 2026 auction results roundup.

No. 5: 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe

$42,905,000 — Gooding Christie's, Pebble Beach, California, August 14, 2026. Carroll Shelby built the Daytona Coupe to beat Ferrari at its own game, and in August 2026 it beat Ferrari at the auction block too. Gooding Christie's sold CSX2300, one of six built and Shelby's personal car for more than two decades, making it the most expensive American car ever sold at auction. Read the full story in our coverage of the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe's record sale.

No. 4: 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

$48,405,000 — RM Sotheby's, Monterey, California, August 26, 2018. For four years this was the outright record holder. RM Sotheby's sold chassis 3413GT at Monterey for $48,405,000, a figure that stood as the highest price ever paid for any car at public auction until the Mercedes-Benz sale further up this list. It was also the sale that headlined Motorious' original top-10 ranking back in 2018.

No. 3: 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO

$51,705,000 — RM Sotheby's, New York City, November 13, 2023. Chassis 3765LM is one of the strangest and most valuable Ferraris in existence, built as a 330 LM prototype and later rebodied to 250 GTO specification, blurring the line between two of Ferrari's most desirable competition models. We covered the sale's unusual backstory in our report on the 330 LM / 250 GTO's record result.

No. 2: 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen

$53,917,370 — RM Sotheby's, Stuttgart, Germany, February 1, 2025. The streamlined-bodied W196R is the car in which Juan Manuel Fangio piloted Mercedes-Benz's dominant mid-1950s Formula 1 effort. Chassis 00009/54 became the second most expensive car ever sold at auction, and the priciest Mercedes-Benz until its own sibling, below, blew past it three years earlier.

No. 1: 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe

$143,000,000 — RM Sotheby's, Stuttgart, Germany, May 5, 2022. Nothing else comes close. RM Sotheby's sold one of only two 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupes ever built, at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, to a private collector. Based on the W196S sports racing chassis and named for engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, it more than tripled the previous auction record in a single sale. Proceeds were directed toward a global scholarship fund focused on environmental science and decarbonization, giving the record-breaking sale a philanthropic footnote to match its price tag.

What It Takes to Crack the List Today

A decade ago, an eight-figure result was itself newsworthy. Today it is the entry fee. Every car on this list combines rarity, motorsport pedigree, and, in most cases, a factory-backed racing history that can never be replicated. The Ferrari 250 GTO's four appearances here are no accident: with only 36 built and every chassis individually documented, it remains the benchmark against which every other collectible car is measured.

For a broader look at how a single week of bidding can reshape this list, see our full breakdown of the 2026 Monterey Car Week auctions and our ranking of the ten priciest cars sold during that single week alone.