Winning at Mario Kart is often just an opportunity to tease the family. For Henry Samuel, it ended up earning him a red supercar valued at more than $150,000. For Heidi Klum’s 21-year-old son, the family driveway yielded a Ferrari F430 in bright red, a gold bow on the hood, as the payoff for a bet he’d won… back when he was 14, controller in hand.
The scene was posted on Instagram and soon circulated through the entertainment press. It shows Henry, born from the union between Heidi Klum and the singer Seal, stepping out with his stepfather Tom Kaulitz only to come face to face with the Italian V8 parked in front of the house. A gift estimated at between $200,000 and $300,000, or up to about €280,000, presented as the culmination of a family promise sealed during a Mario Kart session seven years earlier. And at that point, the story becomes very automotive.
A Mario Kart bet that ends with a Ferrari F430
Let’s go back in time, when Henry was 14. Over the holidays, the teenage heir challenged Tom Kaulitz, then newly his stepfather, to a showdown on Mario Kart, Nintendo’s racing game. In an archive video shared by Heidi Klum, Henry lays out the terms of the deal: “If I lose at Mario Kart, I can’t play video games for three months and I have to give Tom a painting of me driving a Lamborghini. But if I win, then Tom has to give me a Ferrari when I turn 21,” he explains in a clip circulated by Supercar Blondie. All of this on the premise that he’d have his driver’s license by that age.
The bet unfolds across several races. Ten wins later on the game, according to Supercar Blondie, Henry had mathematically clinched the victory. From then on, the “21st-birthday Ferrari” became a running joke within the Klum-Kaulitz clan. Seven years pass. Henry celebrates turning 21 on September 12, 2026—an age loaded with symbolism in the United States. And Tom Kaulitz apparently took the promise seriously: according to AOL, he bought a red Ferrari F430 about a year before the birthday, at a auction, for nearly $152,000, or around €140,000. A sum that fits with the model’s current market value, even though several outlets describe the gift as “around $200,000 to $300,000.”
The day of the reveal: an Italian V8 in the driveway
On the big day, the setup is simple yet spectacular. Heidi Klum records the moment. Henry steps out of the house with Tom Kaulitz, they walk toward the driveway… and there, facing him, is the red Ferrari F430, parked in front of the home and topped with an oversized golden bow. The young man stands frozen for a few seconds, a mix of disbelief and a smile crossing his face. Then, looking at the car, he blurts out: “This thing is gorgeous, oh my god,” before adding: “This thing is crazy.” Two phrases that sum up the gulf between a sofa-side promise, a game controller in hand, and this real supercar parked on the doorstep.
Behind the family staging lies a real adrenaline machine. The Ferrari F430 hides under its hood a 4.3-liter naturally aspirated V8 producing about 483 horsepower, according to Supercar Blondie. It can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in roughly four seconds, with a top speed listed at 196 mph, a touch over 315 km/h. The car offers several drive modes via the steering wheel’s “manettino”: Ice/Low Grip for tricky conditions, Wet for rain, Sport for the road, Race for the track, and CST Off that disconnects electronic assist systems. For a 21-year-old, this mid‑2000s Italian hypercar remains a true supercar, far from the playful Mario Kart world. And for Henry, every round he fires up on the Nintendo Switch will likely remind him for a long time that a living-room bet can sometimes end with a screaming V8 in the driveway.
