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A 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello that disappeared for more than twenty years is going to auction with an estimate of up to $1.3 million, roughly double the record for the model, because Michael Jordan drove it.
Joopiter, the marketplace Pharrell Williams founded, opens bidding on chassis 108712 on Sept. 15 and closes on Sept. 30, working with the Miami specialist Curated. The pre-sale estimate runs from $700,000 to $1.3 million.
The car itself is worth a fraction of that. Hagerty values a concours-condition 1997 550 Maranello below $300,000, and the highest price paid for a road-going example at public auction is $648,500, which Broad Arrow achieved in August for a 1998 car with 527 miles on it. The estimate therefore prices Jordan's ownership at somewhere between two and four times the machine.
The paperwork is what makes it stick. Foreign Cars Italia in Greensboro, North Carolina delivered the car to Jordan on May 29, 1997, finished in Rosso Barchetta over tan leather with chrome Speedline wheels. The factory warranty card in the sale carries his signature and his Durham address. It wore the Illinois plate MJ 5.
Ferrari built it around him. The factory extended the seat rails and specified thinner padding so a man of six foot six could push the driving position further back than the standard car allowed. The odometer reads just under 19,000 miles.
Jordan drove it out of the United Center on June 13, 1997, cigar in hand, having just won his fifth championship. Tinker Hatfield, the Nike designer, took the car apart for the Air Jordan 14, lifting the quilted upholstery texture, the side vents, a tread-inspired heel and a shield-shaped Jumpman that echoes Ferrari's badge. Jordan wore the shoe for the first time on June 14, 1998, in the Game 6 that ended with the Last Shot.
The mechanical specification is standard for the model. A 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 produces 485 horsepower through a six-speed gated manual, with a top speed of 199 mph. Ferrari built 3,083 of them between 1996 and 2001.
This is Joopiter's first car. The platform is running a second Jordan sale over the same period, offering the jersey he wore in Game 3 of the 1998 Finals at an estimate of $10 million to $15 million, which would set a record for a basketball jersey. The Ferrari goes on public view at CART Department, 16 Morton Street in New York, from Sept. 15 to 20.
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