£20 million wrecked Ferrari 250 GTO restored

A pristine example of one of the rarest and most valuable cars ever built, a Ferrari 250 GTO, was wrecked in 2012 in an accident on a French racetrack. It has now been painstakingly restored by Ferrari's own historic division and is expected to be worth around £20 million.

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You can see the first drive of the 300bhp V12 Ferrari since that crash in the video below.

Restored Ferrari 250 GTO first drive video

These days many modern cars are written-off by insurance companies after seemingly minor accidents but for some classics that isn't an option. When you consider that the last Ferrari 250 GTO up for sale fetched $52 million, you begin to understand why money was no object for restoration of this particular damaged Ferrari.

Only 39 examples of the race-bred 1960s sports car were ever made and even less are on the road today. Of the 250 GTOs that do survive, most are kept hidden away in secure lockups but billionaire US businessman Christopher Cox was brave enough to venture on to a racetrack in his example back in 2012, marking the 50th anniversary of the model.

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During the event the Ferrari 250 GTO, with distinctive blue and yellow racing livery, collided with another car and suffered serious damage. Cox decided the only option was to send it back to the Ferrari factory for a full restoration.

Ferrari Classiche, a division of the Italian brand that authentically restores its classic models with genuine parts, spent over two years fastidiously restoring the car. It is claimed that the value of the car has not been significantly diminished so the fully restored example could easily be worth £20m were it ever to come to auction.

Have you ever spent a fortune restoring a classic car? Tell us about it in the comments below...