3:28 pm, December 10, 2019
A CLASSIC car dealer based in west London is embroiled in a High Court battle over a Ferrari hailed as the world’s most expensive car.
Supercar trader Gregor Fisken, based in Kensington, is in dispute with American lawyer Bernard Carl over the $44m (circa £33.4m) sale of a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, the Daily Mail reports.
Fisken’s company, which bought the car from Carl, is demanding that the ‘unique and special’ original gearbox, which had been taken out of the vehicle, is delivered to them.
But Carl claims he isn’t obliged to do so after an argument about where the part would be collected from and who would foot the bill for shipping costs.
Fisken’s company bought the vehicle – for the highest publicly verified price ever paid for a car – from Washington DC-based Carl, who also has a residence in Belgravia, in October 2017, the Mail reported today.
Staff at the dealership, called Fiskens, were aware it didn’t contain the original gearbox but were under the impression that Carl could obtain it.
The dealership is demanding that the missing component – currently in the possession of a car trader in America – be handed over. However, Carl says he does not have to arrange that.
In the witness box, Carl said he had offered both the car and gearbox to Fisken’s company but at a higher price of $44.5m (circa £33.8m). The extra money was required for the time and effort involved in locating and acquiring the part.
Carl said: ‘It would put the car and the gearbox together and that would be a good solution.’
The dealership, however, is claiming that the gearbox was included in the original lower price and the hearing continues.
The car at the centre of the dispute was first in class and second overall at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1962, where it was driven by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien who as a duo also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times for Ferrari.
