Clarkson Gave Away the Ferrari He Called the Greatest Car Ever. It Could Bring $337K
Jeremy Clarkson’s old Ferrari F355, which he gave away as a newspaper prize, could bring up to £250,000 at auction on Nov. 14, after failing to sell last year.
That’s about $337,500 at the current exchange rate, for a car he once called “the greatest car in the world; ever.” He then got bored of it within four years.
Bidding happens at Iconic Auctioneers’ sale during the NEC Classic Motor Show in Birmingham, England, and the 1996 F355 GTS is estimated at £200,000 to £250,000, or roughly $270,000 to $337,500.
He Agonized Over the Color, Then Ordered Red
Clarkson wanted one after a road test for a VHS special and took delivery in August 1996. He wrote about ordering it at length, deciding at one point that he should go green because everyone else bought red. He bought red.
It’s Rosso Corsa over cream leather with red carpets, a six-speed manual and rare factory sports seats. It then became a regular in his Sunday Times columns, and in May 1999, he used it to retake his driving test for the newspaper. He failed.
He’d put only about 6,000 miles on it when he handed it to a newspaper reader as a prize in 2000. He had also gone off it, Regit reports, complaining on TV that “if you leave it on the street, people spit in it.” Iconic says it’s the only Ferrari he has ever owned.
Nobody Bought It Last Time
The higher estimate is a little bold, given what just happened. Last time out, at RM Sotheby’s Cliveden House sale in July 2025, it carried a £180,000 to £220,000 estimate and found no buyer. A £190,000-or-nearest-offer listing came next.
The seller has kept spending, too. Iconic says the car had £9,345 of work in May 2025, including a cambelt, steering rack attention and paint correction, then more in 2026 on the interior and a ceramic coating. It now shows about 15,200 miles and comes with Clarkson’s order paperwork and the warranty card naming him as first owner.
A good chunk of the price is for those papers. Plenty of F355s are for sale, but hardly any come with a story about a failed driving test.
Clarkson isn’t done selling, either. Three cars he drove on The Grand Tour are in the same sale with no reserve: a 1982 Lancia Montecarlo Spider, a 1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 and a 1978 Lincoln Continental Mark V.
