by Jonny Lieberman
Some of us weren't able to attend the Monterey Historic races over the weekend, but the first thing we heard once the laptop spooled up was that a very expensive Ferrari 250 TR smacked into a bunch of tires at Laguna Seca. This has turned into the crash heard 'round the world for a few simple reasons. Make that thirty four reasons, to be exact. That's right Ferrari only made 34 250 Testa Rossas from 1956 to 1961. Actually, let's just make that 21 reasons, as the 250 TR is the preferred version of the car, and only 19 customer cars and 2 racers were built between 1958 and 1959. And while a 1957 250 Testa Rossa just sold this past May for $12,200,000, making it the most expensive car, well, ever -- the 1958 TR that cashed this weekend is "only" worth about $8 million.
Our own meraviglioso photographer Drew Philips had Nikon in hand near Laguna's famed Corkscrew and was able to capture the tragic off-track excursion -- which is why we have these amazing photographs. In fact, Autoblog reader James Iovino was so smitten with Drew's work that he took all the individual photos and video-ized them. Which is not only a word we just made up, but pretty dang cool to watch. That is if watching a near-priceless Ferrari jump across gravel and slam into a bunch of dirty old tires can ever be cool. But hey, at least the TR got beat up on a race track instead resting in a garage during an earthquake. Besides, everything ought to buff right out.
