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Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider tops Gooding's Saturday auction at $15.18 million

During the weekend's automotive smorgasbord in Pebble Beach, Ferrari has played a huge roll. Twenty examples of the ultra-rare 250 TR, better known as the Testa Rossa, were prominently on display at the Concours d'Elegance, and the Prancing Horses have been top sellers at many of the auctions. You can chalk up one more on that list with a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider with a scarce, optional hardtop included going for $15.18 million at Gooding & Company's sale on Saturday night. Ferris Bueller would find it so choice.
In all, the auction house brought in about $60.4 million during the night, and 17 of the cars on the block sold for over $1 million. None of the other cars on Saturday managed quite the stratospheric highs of the California, though. A 1955 Aston Martin DB3S was the second-highest seller at $5.5 million. The next four top vehicles were all Ferraris with final prices ranging between $2.09 million and $2.365 million. Clearly, investors are in love with the Prancing Horse these days.
Check out our gallery, and scroll down to read the auction house's announcement of its top Saturday results.

Ferrari to reveal exclusive F12 NART next month in LA

While denying his tenure was coming to an end just prior to his resignation last week, outgoing Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo hinted at two new models to be revealed next month. One we anticipate to be a new version of the 458 - either the new turbocharged M model or the limited-edition Scuderia Spider - to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show on October 2, and the other we knew would be a strictly limited special exclusive to North America. And now we appear to have an idea of what that model will be.
According to Automotive News, we'll likely be looking at a version of the F12 Berlinetta decked out with the blue and white stripes pioneered by the North American Racing Team (NART) and most recently applied to the 458 Speciale. The special model is also likely to get custom bodywork and a revised interior - similar to what Ferrari Special Projects does for individual customers, but produced in a limited run of 10 examples.
All 10 of those are likely to already have been spoken for, with a price tag tipped to exceed $3 million apiece. The model will be revealed on October 12 at a special event in Los Angeles marking 60 years of Ferrari in America which will likely be Montezemolo's last event as chairman before handing over control to Sergio Marchionne and collecting his eight-figure severance package.

Alonso and Rossi to field Ferrari at Le Mans?

The plot thickens and just keeps thickening when it comes to Ferrari's potential return to Le Mans. Antonello Coletta, the head of Ferrari's sports car racing program, first suggested that the new regulations being implemented by the ACO could potentially see the Prancing Horse marque compete in the top-tier LMP1 class. His thoughts have since been echoed by Stefano Domenicali, the head of the Scuderia's F1 team, and by chairman Luca di Montezemolo. And now we're hearing rumors over its potential driver lineup.
Word has it that Ferrari could send Valentino Rossi and Fernando Alonso to pilot its prototype at Le Mans in 2015 or 2016. The rumors were tweeted by Mark Webber (embedded below), who recently left F1 to drive for Porsche at Le Mans - and could amount to pure speculation, to some inside track on hard news or (as is often the case) something in between. One way or another, both Rossi and Alonso are multiple world champions in their fields with strong ties to Maranello and would make a formidable lineup - particularly if paired, we'd venture, with Ferrari's test driver Marc Gené, who won at Le Mans with Peugeot in 2009.
Although the Rossi connection would seem the greater stretch, it might actually make the most sense of the two. With nothing left to prove on two wheels, the seven-time MotoGP champion has been talking about leaving the series. He's test-driven Ferrari F1 cars on several occasions and raced the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series last season. The move would be a rare departure for Alonso, however, who has raced almost exclusively in open-wheel single seaters his entire career, and would need to balance the program with his F1 commitments. That is, assuming he doesn't get fed up with chasing after Sebastian Vettel and teaming with Kimi Raikkonen by then.