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1962 Ferrari 250 GTO for sale in Germany at $64 million

Prices keep climbing for the Ferrari 250 GTO with virtually no end in sight. In 1969 one sold for just $2,500, but by the 1980s they were trading for hundreds of thousands, then millions, then tens of millions to the point that the last last year, one was reported to have changed hands at $52 million. But now there's a GTO for sale in Germany that could eclipse even that gargantuan price tag.
Ferrari made 39 examples of the 250 GTO between 1962 and 1962, and the item listing on mobile.de doesn't give much in the way of specifics as to which exactly we're looking at. But last we checked, there were only two GTOs in Germany, and the other one was silver. That leaves chassis number 3809GT, which was delivered new in '62 to Switzerland and participated in numerous endurance races and hillclimb events throughout the early 60s. 3809GT has been owned until now by one Hartmut Ibing, who bought it in 1976 when values were in the tens of thousands, not tens of millions. Given how his asset has appreciated so dramatically, and with less than 10,000 miles on the odometers over 52 years, we could understand how Ibing would want to cash out.
Of course we could be mistaken and we could be looking at an entirely different example - the vast majority were, after all, painted red and fitted with blue upholstery just like this one - but either way, we're looking at a price tag of 47.6 million euros. That's nearly $64 million at today's rates, inclusive of Germany's 19 percent VAT rate that adds a staggering $10 million in taxes to the pre-tax price of 40 million euros, which comes in under $54 million but would still be the most ever paid for a GTO (or really, just about any car ever made).

Raikkonen likely to retire from F1 after 2015 [w/poll]

Though his irreverent demeanor party-goer image might suggest otherwise, make no mistake about it: at 34 years old (and with 37-year-old Mark Webber out of the race), Kimi Raikkonen is the oldest driver in Formula One. He's three months older than Jenson Button, a good year older than his former wingman Felipe Massa, three years ahead of Adrian Sutil and a good decade beyond the latest crop of up-and-comers on the grid. So it's only natural that we should start wondering how much longer he'll stick around, and now we may have our answer.
Speaking with motorsport journalists at the British Grand Prix this past weekend, the 2007 World Champion and winner of 20 grands prix, Raikkonen indicated that the next season will likely be his last. According to numerous racing news outlets, when asked how long he plans to stay on the grid, the famously terse Finn responded: "Until my contract is finished, and then I will probably stop. That is what I think is going to happen."
Kimi was a relatively unknown entity when Sauber gave him his first drive in F1 back in 2001, upon which he finished in the points on his first race. He moved to McLaren the following season, racked his first podium finishes, and took his first win the season after that. He finishes second behind Fernando Alonso the next season, well ahead of the rest of the pack, and switched to Ferrari two seasons later in 2007, winning the world championship on his first season in red. After just three seasons, Ferrari showed him the door and Kimi left F1 entirely, trying his hand at everything from the World Rally Championship to NASCAR. He returned to F1 with Lotus in 2012, and in a rare move for Maranello, was invited back for this season on a two-year contract.

Giancarlo Fisichella joins fellow former F1 drivers in United SportsCar Championship

In business or in politics, those driven by their careers typically aim for the highest position they can get to, and after they're done there, they typically retire. But not in motor racing. With an expiration date hovering in their mid-30s at best, Formula One drivers typically seek out other racing series to compete in once they've outlived their career on the grand prix circuit. And there is no lack of racing disciplines that are glad to welcome them in with open arms as motor racing royalty. With the calendar announced and the teams lined up, the roster of drivers is taking shape for the inaugural United SportsCar Championship. And while there hasn't been a large number of former F1 drivers – much less grand prix winners – lining up for the series, there have been some. Risi Competizione, the team that typically fields Ferrari entrants in American GT racing, has just announced that Giancarlo Fisichella will be driving for them in the United SportsCar Championship this season. The veteran of 231 grands prix has driven for Minardi, Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Renault, Force India and Ferrari. In the case of the latter, he filled in for an injured Felipe Massa, and remains a Ferrari factory driver. Over the course of his fourteen years on the grid, he won three grands prix and landed on the podium 19 times. That makes Fisichella, who just turned 41 on Tuesday, the most accomplished former F1 driver to sign on for the American series, but he's not the only one. Other drivers already lined up include David Brabham, Max Papis and Christian Fittipaldi – each of whom contested a handful of grands prix in the 1990s – as well as Sebastian Bourdais, who drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso after dominating in Champ Cars for four years and left F1 in 2009 along with Fisichella, who currently looks to be the only driver lined up for this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona who's won a grand prix or even scored a podium finish. While Brabham, Papis, Fittipaldi and Bourdais will all be driving in the top-tier Prototype class, Fisichella will be trying to make his mark in the GTLM class. We'll be watching to see whether he can add that trophy to the class titles he's already accrued in the Le Mans Series, the World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans itself in the five years since leaving F1.