Your Instant Ferrari Collection Is Just $12 Million Away
If the annual Pebble Beach, Calif., auctions are the foggy highlight of summer for enthusiasts and collectors, then their balmy winter counterparts unfold each January in Scottsdale, Ariz. We’re taking a look at some of the four-wheeled stars on offer in the cactus-filled desert. Here’s what Gooding & Company will bring to the party:
All photos courtesy Gooding & Co.
So you want an instantly buzz-worthy Ferrari collection and you’re starting from scratch? Tony Shooshani is your man. He’s about to sell eight of his prized Prancing Horses - from a collection of two-dozen cars - at Gooding & Company’s Scottsdale auctions, Jan. 29-30.
Just bring along a few transporters, some white gloves and around $12 million.
“My philosophy is simply to collect the finest, drive them, and share them with the world, which in this case means some of them finding a new home,” says Shooshani, whose vast Southern California real estate holdings have enabled a childhood passion for Ferrari to turn into an adulthood with fierce ties to the Maranello company. Not content with Ferrari’s already exclusive models, Shooshani recently was selected as one of six global buyers for a custom vehicle called the Sergio, a $3 million Ferrari 458-based coupe honoring design-house legend Sergio Pininfarina.
Tony Shooshani with a few of his cars.
“The eight cars here are all unique, limited-production models, and in impeccable shape,” says Shooshani, whose hobbies now include raising prized Arabian horses, the result of being introduced to a certain white horse by the name of, yes, Enzo. (“Let’s be honest, horses were the first cars, and all horses come from Arabians. My company is called Cavallino Arabians. So for me there’s a link always back to Ferrari,” he says.)
2003 Ferrari Enzo
The Shooshani Collection that Gooding is putting under the hammer is indeed traffic-stopping stuff. First off, there are three of Ferrari’s five iconic supercars: a 1990 F40 ($1.3-$1.6 million), a 1995 F50 ($2.5-$2.9 million) and a 2003 Enzo ($2.4-$2.8 million). Absent is an ‘80s 288 GTO and a new LaFerrari. But that’s not because Shooshani doesn’t have them to offer. He has not only a LaFerrari but is also part of Ferrari’s hyper-exclusive race-only FXX K clientele list. And he has owned numerous 288 GTOs over the years, at one point parking two side by side in his garage. “What’s better than a GTO? Two GTOs,” he says.
1995 Ferrari F50
The other cars are a short greatest-hits sound off: a striking blue over cream 1960 250 GT Series II Cabriolet ($2 to $2.3 million); a 1964 250 GT Lusso ($2.2 to $2.5 million), a 100-point show car in blu sera; a 1969 Ferrari Dino 206 GT ($700,000 to $800,000), one of Shooshani’s favorite cars for its “impeccable balance”; a 1984 512 BBi ($400,000 to $475,000) that used to belonged to A.J. Foyt; and finally a rising-in-value 1988 328 GTS ($125,000 to $150,000), that now infamous “Magnum P.I.” model that actually became his very first Ferrari purchase back in 1990.
1990 Ferrari F40
“I can still remember when my 328 (not this exact car that’s for sale) arrived, its rosso corsa exterior, the smell of its ivory leather, the feel of the shifter,” he says, growing instantly wistful at the memory. “What I have always loved about Ferraris is that they truly allow the driver to interact with machine and the road in a way that no other car can. And I’ve had a lot of cars.”
1988 Ferrari 328 GTS
Shooshani actually dates the genesis of his car lust to a day when he was in sixth grade. A red Porsche 924 - hardly a traditional supercar of youthful dreams - pulled up to an intersection near his family home in Beverly Hills, “and that was it.”
1984 Ferrari 512 BBi
He went on to wrench on cars at his father’s auto parts business, earning an education in what makes cars run. In high school, the then super-hot 328 “was the sexiest car I’d ever seen,” and he quickly transferred his lust to that model’s ultimate iteration, the rare 288 GTO. “I had to have one, I told myself,” Shooshani says, admitting he couldn’t imagine he’d one day own three.
1969 Ferrari Dino 206 GT
Commercial real estate in Los Angeles has boomed over the past few decades, as have Shooshani’s fortunes. He passion for cars rapidly took on a more serious tone, not only in terms of collecting - his prized machines include very unique early Alfa Romeos (the cars that inspired Enzo Ferrari) - but also in terms of racing. A longtime vintage racer and Mille Miglia regular, Shooshani has also participated in Ferrari’s 599 FXX racing program on tracks around the world.
1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso
The sale in Scottsdale is in part motivated by a desire to share his steeds with other well-heeled fans, but also to make room for new machines that cater to that growing racing habit. In particular, he says he’s looking for a “really reliable and special new car to race in the Mille Miglia on a regular basis,” and is also awaiting a new F12 Tour de France, a 769-hp GT monster that is essentially a successor to the 599 GTO.
1960 Ferrari 250 GT Series II Cabriolet
If you’re ever cruising around Beverly Hills, look for Shooshani in his daily driver, a new Pozzi Blu California T roadster. While it may seem positively pedestrian compared to the kinds of Ferraris that normally turn the collector’s head, the California T recently accomplished something that makes Shooshani smile.
“I was stopped and this little kid, maybe six years old, came over to the car and wanted to see it,” he says. “I opened the door and he just stood there, didn’t move. Now the car wasn’t red, and it wasn’t a crazy LaFerrari or some other exotic. Just a blue Ferrari couple But it made one thing so clear to me. There’s something about Ferraris that even a six-year-old gets, instantly.”
It sure got Tony Shooshani.
