We're less than a month away from this year's Monterey Car Week, and the roster of automobiles coming to market continues to heat up. Yesterday, we featured Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason's McLaren F1 GTR, chassis 10R, heading to the same sale at RM Sotheby's with an estimate north of $35 million. Today another headline lot from the same house: a 2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 from The Driver’s Philosophy Collection. Finished in a striking Giallo Triplo Strato with Nero racing stripes and just 227 miles on the odometer, this stunning example carries an estimate of $10 million to $12 million.
The Daytona SP3 is the third model in Ferrari’s Icona series, following the Monza SP1 and SP2, and the one that reaches furthest into the company’s racing history. Its name commemorates the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona, where Ferrari’s factory-entered 330 P3/4 and 330 P4 led the NART-entered 412P across the finish line three abreast. The Daytona SP3’s styling draws from that glorious era of motorsport, and at its launch, Ferrari described it as the most aerodynamically efficient road car it had developed without active aero.
While Ferrari’s Tailor Made program allowed buyers to pursue near-limitless personalization for the Daytona SP3, the example seen here takes a more traditional route. Giallo Triplo Strato, which translates to ‘Triple layer’, is among the most expensive special finishes in Ferrari’s catalog. Its triple-layer composition creates a luminous effect, shifting from yellow toward shades of orange as the light changes.
Configured through Ferrari’s Atelier program and completed in July 2023, the car pairs its striking exterior and Italian-flag motif with a Nero interior with yellow accents. Cavallino Rampante emblems are stitched into the headrests, while Giallo seatbelts continue the exterior color inside. Options include a carbon-fiber hardtop, lower bodywork, and mirrors; matte-black wheels with gloss-black brake calipers; airbrushed Scuderia Ferrari shields; and a suspension-lift system.
Color can matter far more in the collector-car market than a specification sheet might suggest, as we saw with the one-off Rosso Dino Ferrari Enzo that went under the hammer recently on duPont REGISTRY Live, setting the all-time online auction record at $13 million.
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Coming back to the SP3, Ferrari only built 599 customer examples (~150-180 delivered to the US), followed by a single one-off, and that fixed production run is becoming increasingly meaningful as the company moves deeper into hybrid and electric powertrains. At last year’s Monterey Car Week, that one-off Tailor Made Daytona SP3, the final car of the run, also prominently featured yellow and crossed the auction block for $26 million at RM Sotheby’s. We later identified its buyer as a reclusive billionaire collector.
That result came from a charity sale and reflected a unique specification, final-car status, and a compelling closing-chapter narrative. This example is one of the 599 customer cars, making its $10 million to $12 million estimate the more useful market signal.
The SP3 may sit outside Ferrari’s ‘Big Six’, but it carries the defining qualities of Maranello’s halo cars: theatrical bodywork, a naturally aspirated V12, and an evocative soundtrack that does much of the emotional work on its own. Nearly five years after its debut, it still commands attention in a way few of its contemporaries can.
Images: RM Sotheby's