Welcome to The Drive‘s new series, The Most Ludicrous Sports Cars for Sale Online This Week. Think of it as your one-stop shop for all the mental car buying you’ll be doing tonight, in those blissful hours between when you buy that Mega Millions ticket and when you find out that no, you didn’t win.
As soon as the latest Mecum Auctions catalogue was published, the enthusiast world was aghast: after only one year, someone is selling his (or her, but probably his) $2.3-million Aston Martin Vulcan, a track-only, 800-horsepower V12 supercar, one of just 24 produced and sold to Aston’s most high-profile customers. Somehow, a presumable billionaire has already tired of one of the world’s most exciting cars. Still, if you had a chance to reap the $1.1 million differential between that car’s listing price and its current market price in profit, wouldn’t you? That cherished Aston Martin customer will be forgoing his Vulcan all the way to the bank.
Some companies, like Ferrari or Lexus with the LFA, sell top-flight, limited-edition cars under the express legal condition that the owner not “flip” the car—that is, sell it for a profit within 2-5 years of initial purchase. But Aston Martin, when asked about their policy by Jalopnik, replied with a verbal shrug: “Simple answer—if our customers choose to sell their cars then that is entirely their choice.” It would seem whoever is selling the Vulcan will still have a chance to purchase Aston’s latest limited-edition venture in collaboration with Red Bull, the AM-RB 001.
But the caliber of the sale got us thinking: Say, on a whim, you wanted to accrue a world-class supercar collection, with that British carbon-fiber monster as the centerpiece. What else is available, right now, on the internet? Above the troughs of rusty Imprezas, stanced Miatas and endearingly shabby Honda Civics, there’s a hell of a lot of fantastic metal. Set your sorting features to “By Price—High” and come see what the web is serving.
1966 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada
This lurid yellow Sixties supercar isn’t Bizzarrini’s most famous design—ever heard of the Ferrari 250 GTO, or the V12 in a Lamborghini Miura?—but might be the most striking, at just 43 inches tall. Sure, the Chevy small-block isn’t the most prestigious motor, but this car’s Italian origin and shape more than make up for it. For sale on Hemmings.com.
1985 Ferrari 288 GTO
It’s not the best Ferrari GTO, or even in the top five Ferraris, but no collector worth his air-conditioned warehouse would give up the chance to own a Ferrari this rare, fast and beautiful. It was made for Group B, damn it. For sale on Hemmings.com.
1990 Ferrari F40
Speaking of which, here’s an F40, for sale on Craigslist (really?) for a hefty $1.6 million. While we’re leery of spending seven figures via a website that also sells used blenders and has a raunchy personals section, the F40 has only 2000 miles. What could go wrong? For sale on Craigslist.com.
2011 Ferrari 599 GTO
Again, it’s not the original GTO—but then, this version has a modified Enzo V12 and carbon-fiber flying buttresses. Those are failsafe features if we’ve ever seem ‘em. Plus, any limited-example of one of Ferrari’s latter V12 models is bound to appreciate. For sale on Cars.com.
2015 McLaren P1
This is the only car on the list that’s sure to be faster than the 800-horsepower Vulcan. Just 375 P1s were sold, so it’s probably wise to snatch one up while you have the chance. This 1,000-horsepower, carbon-tub McLaren will set you back $2.5 million, on Autotrader.com.
GT3-Spec 2014 Mercedes SLS AMG
Sure, Mercedes SLSs are a little pedestrian by supercar standards, so how about a factory-prepped racing version? This SLS comes with the great 6.2-liter AMG V8 and full GT3 compliance features. For sale on Ebay.com.
2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0
Right now, the 993-chassis Porsche 911 Turbo is steaming up the charts, with one 1997 cobalt blue example listed for $795,000 with just 17,000 miles on the odo. For our (non-existent) money, we’d go instead with a rarer, faster bird: the 997 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0. For just half-a-million dollars, this 500-horsepower, naturally-aspirated, six-speeded, ass-engined sled is available on Ebay.com.
Anything we missed? Drop us a link in the comments below.