Those with handy memories will remember that back in 2016, completely out of the blue, Ferrari unveiled a limited edition model called the J50.
It was, for all intents and purposes, a Ferrari 488 with a new body, a few more horsepower, and a huge whack of extra dosh on the price-tag. Rumour was that pricing sat between €2–3million — or NZ$3.3–5million — spurred on no doubt by a limited production run of just 10 units.
The J50 was made to commemorate 50 years of selling Ferraris in Japan (hence the name), but it wasn't the backstory that earned it headlines. It was the looks — many believing the unique stallion was a better looker than its 488 counterpart, and some Christening it as one of the best looking Ferraris of the modern era.
It's all a bit random in isolation, but know that Ferrari produce quite a few one-off and limited edition models. In fact just last month we profiled one that was coming up for sale; the SP30. Now, one of the highly limited J50s is up for sale.
Not a lot is known about the sale, other than it's being offered at Netherlands-based luxury auction-house James Edition with price available on request.
The car itself appears to be exemplary, with a mileage of 'zero kilometres' indicated in the listing. The sellers also state that the car currently sits in Japan with a Japanese title — adding that "more information only accessible to verified buyers." Killjoys.
With limited other information available, we can only assume that the seller will likely be offering the car for a fairly significant premium over its speculated $3–5million initial retail cost.
It would make for interesting reading to see where this J50's price would compare to other Ferraris auctioned off in recent years.
The one-off 2015 Sergio — a distant cousin of the J50 given that it's based off the 458 — was up for sale recently for $6.8million, while Mike Tyson's old F50 was expected to net around $3million back in 2017.
Although all of them have a ways to go to catch up to the world's most expensive Ferrari; a 1963 250 GTO that sold last year for an agonising $100million; a world record for any car sold at auction.