This Ferrari 250 GTO may become the most expensive car in the world

The Ferrari 250 GTO, perhaps the bluest of blue-chip collector cars, has never exactly been underappreciated. With only 39 produced, there have always been more collectors than there have been cars on the market; the make's motorsport intent means more than a few of them have the star power of famous drivers to enhance their provenance.

Yet they haven't quite managed to top the auction price record. That could change later this year: Bonhams has announced that one of these rare vehicles -- chassis number 3851 GT -- will be sold at its Quail auction on August 15.

In this originality-crazed market, it doesn't hurt that the car has been in the same family for the past 49 years. Before entering the ownership of a certain Fabrizio Violati, who reportedly saved it from scrap, it placed second in the 1962 Tour de France, which gets it on the books as a racing contender, at least.

Yes, it crashed later that year, leading to the death of driver Henri Oreiller -- a morbid fact that probably won't scare off any bidders -- but crashes are not necessarily a blemish on the past of a racing car, and Ferrari repaired it anyway.

Even better: To keep the dream alive for enthusiasts everywhere, Bonhams has announced that the car will cross the block without reserve!

Which means that, if every other interested party gets stuck in traffic on the way to the auction -- in a cellular dead zone so they can't phone in their bids -- and your crack team of Romanian hackers takes down the entire Internet to preclude virtual paddle-raising, you could snag this exceedingly rare, exceedingly desirable Ferrari for the price of a worn Allante.

 Bonhams
Chassis 3851 GT doing what it was born to do: racing.

More likely, though, it'll attract the attention of the world's best-heeled collectors and go on to shatter the world record for a car sold at auction. $25 million is practically a given, $30 million a definite possibility, even $50 million is not an unreasonable estimate--barring complete global economic collapse before August, the sky really is the limit here.

Recall that, just a few months after Fangio's Mercedes-Benz W196R hammered for a world record auction price of $29,619,826 (in another Bonhams sale, we might add), a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO supposedly sold for $52 million – enough to make it the world's most expensive car.

Of course, the 250 GTO in question (reportedly) left the hands of a private seller only to (reportedly) enter the hands of another private collector, so there's no way to prove that the sale actually happened at that price. Could have been higher, could have been lower, could have been complete fantasy -- who knows?

At the time, we asked a few experts what they thought of the alleged transaction, and their answers were relatively consistent: It was certainly within the realm of possibility, given the red-hot auction market and the trajectory of rare Ferraris, but we'll probably never know for sure unless the buyer or the seller comes forward.

This Bonhams sale could officially launch the Ferrari 250 GTO to the head of the public-sale leaderboard, zooming past the Ferrari 250 Testarossa Gooding unloaded for $16,390,000 in 2011, surpassing last year's $27.5 million Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider and even smashing Fangio's $30 million Silver Arrow.

You never know, though -- a fortuitous traffic jam or a total breakdown of our society's technological fabric, and this ever-desirable Italian masterwork could be yours for fractions of pennies on the dollar.