After reclaiming the undisputed heavyweight title in 1996, Mike Tyson walked into Beverly Hills Sports Car and drove away in a brand-new Ferrari F50.
One of just 349 examples of Ferrari's 50th-anniversary supercar ever built, it was rare, even then, and now it’s being offered by RM Sotheby’s from a private estate with a pair of Everlast gloves autographed by its most famous owner. Well, it’s a lot easier to sell than a tiger…
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By the early 1990s, Ferrari knew that following the Ferrari F40 – the 40th-anniversary supercar that had defined the previous decade – would require something even more extraordinary for the marque's golden jubilee.
Four years of development produced a road car built with the DNA of a race car: a Formula 1-style carbon fibre tub, coachwork from Pininfarina in carbon fibre, Kevlar, and Nomex honeycomb, and a removable targa top that let the F50 pass as either barchetta or berlinetta.
At its heart sat the type F130B, a 4.7-litre V12 descended directly from Ferrari's 1992 Formula 1 engine and further proven in the championship-winning 333 SP sports racer.
Of course, this particular model had to be relatively modified for the road – but it was hardly tamed, producing 513 horsepower and 347 pound-feet of torque, enough to send the F50 from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and on to a 202 mph top speed.
All of which culminated in the F50 becoming a firm fixture in Ferrari's "Big Six" alongside the 288 GTO, F40, Enzo, LaFerrari, and F80, and a fixture in the world's most serious collections.
With Tyson’s lineage (and signed gloves) still attached, expect this model to go well beyond its US$7–9 million estimate.