Thanks to a reader for alerting me to this listing.

There is a Ferrari on BaT this week that is not quite what its chassis number says it is, and for once, everyone involved seems to know it.

The listing is a 330 GTO recreation, built in the early 1990s by Terry Hoyle, the English engine builder who spent decades working on real Ferraris, with aluminium bodywork by panel-beater Rod Jolley. It is styled after 4561SA, one of the three genuine 330 GTOs, the four-litre big brothers of the 250 GTO. It has a proper Colombo V12 with six Webers, a Colotti five-speed, Borranis, and a start-up video that will make you turn the volume up twice. Bidding was at $431,000 with two days to go when I looked. A bidder who once owned it says a Belgian firm is building similar cars now at $2.8 million, which tells you something about where this corner of the market is heading.

None of that is the interesting part. The interesting part is the chassis number. The car wears 5807, stamped on tags in the engine bay and on a plate welded to the frame. That number belonged to a 1964 330 GT 2+2, a four-seat grand tourer, which the listing says was parted out in the 1980s. The original car is gone. The number survived it.

And it survived twice. The same 5807 is also carried by a 250 GT California Spyder recreation built in the late 1980s. So there are two cars in the world wearing the identity of a 2+2 that no longer exists, neither of them the car it was born on, and one of them is on BaT right now.

Here is the thing I want to give credit for. The listing says all of this. In the body text, in plain language: the number came from a car that was parted out, and the same number is used on another recreation. It shows the entry from Matthias Urban's serial number guide. The seller, in the comments, calls it a re-creation paying homage to 4561SA and says outright that it is not a replica pretending to be something else. A few years ago, listings like this went up with the number and a shrug. This one leads with the disclosure.

Where it gets murkier is in the comments, and that is where the real work is happening. One bidder cites a source claiming the GTO was built on a newly fabricated frame using the original 5807's engine and gearbox, with the original chassis going into the Cal Spyder. Another cites the 330 GT registry, which records the real 5807 sold in California in 1988 with no engine or transmission at all, which would make the first claim hard to square. A third asks the seller, politely, what the engine number actually is, how the Colotti gearbox relates to the claim that the original gearbox was retained, and whether anyone has asked Ferrari Classiche or Marcel Massini. The seller answered the easier questions. The harder ones are still sitting there as I write this.

That is the pattern worth noticing. The platform disclosed what it knew. The community did the verification. The seller engaged up to a point. Nobody is lying, but the full story of what this car is made of is being assembled in public by strangers, in real time, while the money goes up.

So the question a reader put to me this week is a fair one, and I do not have a clean answer. Should the biggest platform in the hobby list cars whose chassis numbers exist on more than one vehicle at all? And if it does, is "we told you in paragraph four" enough, or does a car like this need its own line at the top, above the bid button, that says: this number has lived on three cars, here is what we know about each?

I lean toward the second. Not because there is anything wrong with a beautifully built recreation sold as one, there isn't, and this one looks superb. But because in this hobby, the number is the car. It is what the registry tracks, what the title carries, what the next buyer will type into a search. When a number outlives the car it belonged to and gets reused, the reuse is the fact that matters most, and it should be the first thing you read, not something you piece together from a guide book photo and a sharp commenter.

Nobody buying at $431,000 is confused about what this is. The question is whether the next listing, with a lazier seller and a less attentive comment section, will be as honest. The platform can make sure of that. The crowd should not have to.

The car, by the way, is offered in North Salem, New York, on a Montana title. As one commenter put it, nothing could be more authentically Ferrari than that.

What do you think?

🛑 STOP!

Thinking about selling your car? Ask GoAskSam. We’ll show you where cars like yours are actually selling and help you figure out the best way to sell yours.

This one caught my eye because we actually saw it two months ago.

It’s a 1993 Toyota Supra Turbo, 51k miles, twin-turbo 2JZ, six-speed manual and, importantly, an original hardtop. Back in July it was bid all the way to $112k and didn’t sell. The dealer has now brought it back, but this time there’s one rather important difference: no reserve.

It’s not a perfect untouched Supra. Someone added a sunroof early in its life, which was later removed and the roof put back to its original hardtop configuration. There are also a few period-style modifications, including an HKS blow-off valve, boost controller and aftermarket exhaust. That roof is already getting plenty of discussion in the comments, particularly as there are no photos showing how the work was actually done.

But clearly buyers aren’t being scared away. It’s already at $77,777 with five days to go.

I love auctions like this because last time the reserve stopped us finding out what someone would actually pay. This time it can’t.

$112k wasn’t enough in July. Let’s see whether the seller was right to hold out.

Not every interesting auction has to be a six-figure car, or even a five-figure one. We’re all looking for different opportunities at different price points, and this 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Cabriolet caught my attention for exactly that reason.

It was actually listed a couple of weeks ago and bidding reached just $5,150, but the car didn’t sell. According to the seller, he simply didn’t lower the reserve in time, tried to make a deal with the high bidders afterwards, but that fell through. So he’s put it straight back up and this time there’s no reserve. Highest bidder owns it.

Now clearly there’s a reason we’re talking about a few thousand dollars rather than $20k. It has 158k miles, the power top doesn’t work and has some patches, there’s a loose muffler, the wheels need some love and the Carfax shows two accidents from many years ago. But in a strange way, that’s part of what I like about this one. We know what’s wrong with it. There are now underbody photos to look through, it has 29 service records on the Carfax and years of Mercedes dealer servicing, so you can do your homework and decide what those issues are worth to you.

For the right person who knows these cars, can do some of the work themselves or has someone who can, I think there could be an opportunity here. It may need a few dollars spent on it, but buy it at the right number, get the important things sorted and you’ve still got a silver-over-black W124 Cabriolet with that wonderful M104 straight-six.

I write about plenty of expensive cars, but sometimes it’s much more fun seeing just how much car someone can take home for a few thousand dollars. This might be one of those.

I’ve always loved wagons, and this to me is about as Volvo as Volvo gets.

A 2006 V70 2.5T. Silver, wonderfully boxy, turbo five-cylinder, 153k miles and built at a time when a Volvo wagon felt like it might genuinely outlive you.

This one has spent its life in Georgia and, more importantly at this mileage, has clearly been maintained. There are extensive service records, with the timing belt and water pump done, along with front struts, lower control arms and the power steering pump. The seller has put 33k miles on it since 2021 and says he’d happily drive it across the country tomorrow.

There are scratches, dings, some wheel rash and a bit of wear inside, but that’s almost how I’d want one of these. I wouldn’t buy a V70 to stare at it in the garage. I’d buy it to throw everything in the back, pile on the miles and hopefully still be driving it years from now.

Someone in the comments called it “Peak Volvo.” Couldn’t agree more.

I love it when the auction platforms use what they have to raise money for charity, and Car & Classic has a particularly fun one ending today.

This is “Buck,” a 1984 Chevrolet G20 Komfort Koach, and yes, it is every bit as wonderfully 1980s as it looks. A 5.0-liter V8, six-seat velour interior, four rotating and reclining chairs, a table in the middle and a rear bench that turns into a double bed. It even still has its original Komfort Koach pinstriping.

It spent most of its life with one family in Ohio before eventually making its way across the Atlantic, and its current owner has actually used it, including driving it from the UK to Le Mans and back without an issue. There’s also been some recent work, including new front discs, an overhauled gear selector and a new battery.

But really, the reason I’m including it today is the auction itself. 100% of the winning bid is going to The Refuel, Car & Classic’s charity partner, which works to improve heart and mental health within the car community.

I always like seeing platforms do these charity auctions. Hopefully it encourages a couple of bidders to stretch that little bit further than they normally would. Someone gets a completely ridiculous and very cool old Chevy van, and a good cause gets the money. Hard to argue with that.