Gooding Christie’s is preparing for its first dedicated collector-car auction in Switzerland, and the catalog offers an unusual snapshot of Ferrari history. The November 8 sale at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva includes 24 lots ranging from a 1970s Citroën 2CV and Mercedes-Benz classics to some of Ferrari’s newest limited-production supercars. Much of the auction comes from a collection of exceptionally low-mileage modern Ferraris, many offered without reserve, but the most interesting cars span nearly half a century of Ferrari development. Here are three we’ll be watching when the auction begins in Geneva.
2024 Ferrari 499P Modificata
The undisputed headline car is also one of the strangest Ferraris a private collector can own. The 499P Modificata is based directly on the 499P prototype that returned Ferrari to the top class at Le Mans and delivered three consecutive overall victories from 2023 through 2025. This example, chassis 20, has never been driven beyond its initial factory shakedown and is expected to bring more than CHF 7.5 million. It is also the first 499P Modificata ever offered at public auction.
Calling it a detuned race car would actually have things backward. Because the Modificata does not have to comply with World Endurance Championship regulations, Ferrari was free to make greater use of its hybrid system. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 works with an electric motor at the front axle, and a “Push to Pass” function can temporarily raise total output to 870 PS. Unlike the racing 499P, which is restricted in when it can deploy power to the front wheels, the Modificata can use its hybrid all-wheel-drive system from low speed.
There is one particularly unusual condition of ownership: the buyer will not simply load it into a trailer and take it home. The car is expected to remain at Ferrari’s Maranello facilities through December 2028, while its owner gains access to Ferrari’s Sport Prototipi Clienti program. Ferrari handles maintenance, logistics and trackside support while owners drive the cars at dedicated circuit events. In other words, the winning bidder is buying not just one of Ferrari’s wildest modern cars, but admission into a factory-run racing experience.
1970 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona
If the 499P represents Ferrari’s latest interpretation of speed, Lot 21 represents one of its greatest traditional grand tourers. This 1970 365 GTB/4 is an early-production “Plexinose” Daytona, distinguished by the Plexiglas panel covering its headlights before Ferrari switched to pop-up lamps. Gooding Christie’s estimates it at CHF 650,000 to CHF 750,000.
The Daytona arrived in 1968 as Ferrari’s new front-engine flagship, pairing a 4.4-liter V12 with six Weber carburetors and a five-speed rear transaxle. Ferrari claimed roughly 280 km/h, or about 174 mph, making it one of the fastest road cars in the world at a time when Lamborghini’s mid-engine Miura appeared to be rewriting the supercar formula. Ferrari responded not by copying Lamborghini, but by building an extraordinarily fast evolution of the traditional front-engine GT.
Chassis 13675 has spent most of its life in remarkably few hands. It was delivered new in Bologna in 1970 before moving to Geneva in 1989, when Catherine Bodmer reportedly received the car at age 19. She kept it until 2007, when it joined the collection of its current owner. The Plexiglas nose, long-term Swiss history and relatively straightforward ownership trail make it one of the auction’s most traditionally collectible cars—and a sharp contrast to the multimillion-dollar hybrid machine being offered four lots earlier.
1976 Ferrari 308 GTB Vetroresina
At first glance, Lot 3 looks like a familiar Ferrari 308. Look closer and it represents the model in its earliest and arguably most interesting form. Before Ferrari began building the 308 GTB with conventional steel body panels, Scaglietti produced the first cars using fiberglass, or vetroresina. Only about 712 were made before Ferrari switched to steel, making the early cars significantly scarcer than the 308s most enthusiasts know. This example carries a CHF 150,000 to CHF 175,000 estimate.
The fiberglass body was more than a manufacturing curiosity. Early European 308s were lighter than the steel-bodied cars that followed and combined their low weight with a dry-sump 2.9-liter V8 and gated five-speed manual transmission. The Vetroresina also marked an important point in Ferrari history: the 308 helped establish the mid-engine V8 layout that would become central to Ferrari’s road-car identity for decades.
This particular car, chassis F106AB19647, was originally delivered in Switzerland and finished in Blu Scuro Dino, a dark blue, although it is now red over black leather with red carpeting. It showed 72,242 kilometers when cataloged and has already appeared publicly before, selling at a Swiss auction in 2019. Even among an auction filled with newer and vastly more expensive Ferraris, the fiberglass 308 may be one of the cars enthusiasts would most readily recognize—and one of the easiest to imagine actually driving.
Upcoming Collector Car Auction
Gooding Christie’s Geneva sale takes place Sunday, November 8, with the complete catalog ranging from a 1989 Citroën 2CV Charleston to a Ford GT, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ 63 and an assortment of rare Ferrari models. The sheer value of the 499P will likely dominate the headlines, but the Daytona and Vetroresina 308 are reminders that some of the most interesting cars in an auction are not necessarily the newest or the most expensive.
