On paper, it’s a Ferrari that’s more than four decades old. But in practice, this particular example is virtually showroom-new, with an odometer barely broken in… and an asking price flirting with the top end. In Monterey, a 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO is going under the hammer with a very clear objective: to approach, or perhaps even surpass, 11 million dollars, roughly 10 million euros.
This red berlinetta is far from your ordinary Ferrari. It’s the first “halo car” from Maranello, the showroom flagship that opened the door for the F40, F50, Enzo and LaFerrari. Offered by RM Sotheby’s during Monterey, the sale running from Thursday, August 13 to Saturday, August 15, 2026 at the Portola Hotel & Monterey Conference Center, this nearly new 288 GTO combines rarity, pedigree and minuscule mileage. All told, it invites the question of just how high the bids could climb for this exceptionally distinctive 288 GTO.
Ferrari 288 GTO: a nearly new 1985 exemplar stars in Monterey
The car being offered is the 99th of 272 Ferrari 288 GTOs produced between 1984 and 1987. Its sculpted bodywork, with a Kevlar hood and molded fiberglass panels, is painted in Rosso Corsa, the marque’s iconic red—the only factory color applied to the 288 GTO. Inside, the two-seat cockpit is entirely trimmed in Nero leather, from floor to headliner, with two highly sought-after options for this model: air conditioning and power windows, underscoring that this supercar remains a road car as well as a collectable.
Behind the driver sits a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V8 from IHI, “matching numbers,” meaning the engine and the mechanicals match the original specification. This unit develops 389 horsepower and 366 lb-ft of torque, sent to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox, with a redline perched at 7,700 rpm. When new, the GTO sprinted from 0–60 mph in about 5 seconds and could reach a top speed of 179 mph (roughly 290 km/h), numbers that made it one of the fastest cars on the planet in the mid-1980s—and they still carry significant weight today.
Why this first halo car Ferrari aims for $11 million
What elevates this particular example into another league is its pristine condition and minuscule mileage. During catalog preparation, the car displayed only 958 miles, roughly 1,541 kilometers. It belongs to a core group estimated at “six or fewer” 288 GTOs known to have odometers under 1,000 miles. In other words: a car nearly untouched since 1985, treated as a collectible from birth. It also benefits from Ferrari Classiche certification, which validates the authenticity of its major components. And despite this showroom life, it has benefited from a substantial mechanical refresh recently, carried out between 2022 and 2024 within the official network (engine, belts, brakes, clutch, tires), making it both ready to drive and preserved as a work of art.
In this context, RM Sotheby’s estimate, priced between $9 million and $11 million (about €8.3–€10 million), sits squarely within the rising trajectory of the 288 GTO. Another example, far more mileage-heavy with around 16,000 miles, has already traded hands for more than $6.8 million (about €6.2 million) earlier this summer. And 2026 has already seen a 288 GTO pass the €9.1 million mark at Paris’s Retromobile, about $11.1 million, while two others changed hands for $8.525 million and a little over $7.14 million. In such a climate, and with Monterey hosting the full lineup of Ferrari’s modern-era supercars, this near-new 288 GTO lands at just the right place, at just the right moment. It remains to be seen whether the room will push it to a new historic peak when the hammer falls on California’s coast.
