Ask any music fan what the first thing that pops into their head when they hear the words ‘Pink Floyd’ is, and the answer will likely be The Dark Side of the Moon, one of the psychedelic-classic rock band’s greatest albums. Ask a car guy the same question, and they’ll probably say the Ferrari 250 GTO. That’s because it’s irrevocably associated with Nick Mason, Pink Floyd’s drummer and founding member, who misses no opportunity to drive the world’s most expensive Ferrari on the daily, even racing and rallying it, apart from showing it at Goodwood nearly every year on the trot.
Mason, now a car collector with an envious garage, bought his Ferrari 250 GTO in 1977 for 35,000 pounds or $44,000, incidentally, with the money he received from the release of The Dark Side of The Moon studio album. That’s the kind of money that gets you a 2024 Honda Civic Type R today. If that’s a little too humbling, consider inflation. When the Ferrari 250 GTO was released in 1962, it’s price tag was $18,000, or about the purchasing power of $187,000 today. But that’s not what makes the Ferrari 250 GTO so special.
When the press first laid eyes on the Ferrari 250 GTO, a homologation special based on a 250 GT Berlinetta SWB, the reviews weren’t favorable. The bodywork, designed by Bizzarrini, and refined in the wind tunnel, was compared to an anteater, with a long, pointy “snout”. Despite over 300 wins in racing during the period it was run competitively, motorsport development moved on and other cars took its place.
Not many buyers wanted the Ferrari 250 GTO — a race car for the road — back then. Not just anyone could actually just go out and buy it either. It’s said Enzo Ferrari personally approved each buyer. Archival data shows that examples of the 250 GTO could be find in the classifieds for as low as $3,500 in 1969! In the early ‘70s, another 250 GTO popped up listed at $9,900. Values had somewhat risen towards the end of the decade, when Mason bought his. At the time, Mason says he felt stupid for spending such an obscene amount of money on an old racecar.
Through the 1980s, values of the Ferrari 250 GTO were on the rise, exponentially. Owed in part to Enzo Ferrari’s death, increased vintage car auctions, people who had seen its success in motorsport coming of age and money, and its rarity. Nick Mason himself attributes the start of his love for cars to seeing the Ferrari 250 GTO in action at Brands Hatch in the UK. Ironically, that very same car, bearing chassis number 3757GT, is now in his possession.
When Ralph Lauren bought his 250 GTO in 1985, just eight years after Mason, he paid a whopping $650,000 for it! By the ‘90s, buyers were paying up to $13.3 million for a Ferrari 250 GTO. The highest price ever for a Ferrari 250 GTO was recorded in 2018, when a car with serious racing pedigree was reportedly sold for $70 million in a private sale to US car parts mogul David MacNeil. The highest price for a Ferrari at auction came in 2023, with a tag of $51.7 million.
The car had won the 1964 Tour de France, and finished fourth in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. Most importantly, it had never been crashed, which experts believe is the key to its fantastic price.
In case you’re wondering, it pales in comparison to the world’s most expensive car: a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, which sold for $135 million in 2022, at the peak of lockdown-fueled car collecting and speculation.
Of course, Mason didn’t buy his 250 GTO thinking it would one day be worth tens of millions of dollars. His “stupid” decision, has actually been one of his best, and not just financially, either. It’s said Mason even put up the car as collateral so the band could take out a loan for the sprawling A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour from 1987 to 1990. With 198 shows scheduled, there was a lot of speculation if Pink Floyd could pull it off and make money on the tour, but Nick Mason still has his car, so it definitely did.
As the drummer recalls, he once took his kids to school in his 250 GTO when none of his other cars would start. Having raced and rallied it himself, as per the car’s original purpose, Nick Mason reaches for its keys more often than not. It certainly fueled a lifelong love affair with the Prancing Horse — Mason even had his drum kit painted in Ferrari colors with the Cavallino logo.
Over the years he’s owned many a Ferrari, including a Ferrari 275 GTB/4, a car he calls the worst he ever owned. In his collection today, Mason also owns a 1953 Ferrari 250MM, Ferrari 512 S, Ferrari 512 BB LM, Ferrari Enzo, and a LaFerrari.
It’s somewhat telling that out of the 40-odd rare and wonderful cars in Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s hangar-garage in England, the one car he’d drive with his last tank of fuel is his Ferrari 250 GTO.
