Red Ferrari 288 GTO auction on bring a trailer - Bring a TrailerBring A Trailer is closing in on its 20th anniversary, and introduced its own online auction service with a trio of cool old cars—a Ford Mustang Boss 302, a low-mile BMW E30 M3, and a step-nose Alfa-Romeo Giulia Sprint GT—back in July of 2014. Across the last decade and a bit of BaT auctions, the site has listed a whopping 250,000 auctions (not all of them winners), and wanted to really make a splash with the big number listing. Working with BaT power seller 1600Veloce to promote the event with a big-dollar headline-grabbing car, the milestone listing is a pristine restored 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO. After just a couple of days, the bidding has already reached $6.75 million. Despite still having a week of bidding left to do, this is already the record for the highest single bid that the website has ever received. The multi-million dollar car sale was once an in-person affair, requiring traders and enthusiasts (or their surrogates) to travel to Monterey, California or Monaco to place bids with shouts and raised paddles. Bring a Trailer revolutionized the commodification of bluechip collector pieces when, in 2021, it hosted the first online auction of a million-dollar car, selling a gorgeous white 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for a then-unfathomable $1.4 million. This boom in online auctions was partially driven by the COVID-19 pandemic wrecking everyone's brains, but hasn't slowed in its wake, as the site has broken its own sales records several times since, including this Carrera GT for $1.9M and later this Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta for an eye-watering $5.36M. As the BaT record is threatening to be broken, once again by a Ferrari, I can't help but wonder if the online auction platform is a new serious competitor to the auction houses of old, the RM Sotheby's, Gooding & Co, and Bonhams of the world. Does buying from BaT bring the same level of cachet? AdvertisementAdvertisementRead more: These Are The Cars That Scream 'I Peaked In High School'The GTO in questionFerrari 288 GTO interior - Bring A TrailerLook at those seats. Couldn't you just picture yourself sliding into that black leather-coated cavern and flicking the gated manual shifter around for a few hours until it ran out of fuel? This is one of the all-time iconic Ferrari models, kicking off the Italian brand's series of high-power hypercars; F40, F50, Enzo, LaFerrari, and F80. Initially built for Group B competition homologation, just 272 examples of the car were built between 1984 and 1986. When you think about all of the coolest cars from the 1980s, the 288 GTO has to be up there at the top, right? In order to build a claimed 400 horsepower engine, Ferrari took a smaller-bore version of the 308 Quattrovalvole engine and put a pair of IHI turbochargers and a pair of Behr air-to-air intercoolers in the engine compartment. Those massive hairdryers pumped power up from the naturally-aspirated 308's 240 ponies to a still-impressive-today number that starts with a four. With just around 2,600 pounds to push around, the car was super quick. Ferrari claimed a 5-second 0-60 time and a top speed of 189 miles per hour. It was among the fastest street legal cars of its time. No 288 GTOs were shipped to the U.S. initially, though grey market import specialists managed to bring a few here over the years. This particular car was sold new to a collector in Mexico who immediately painted the car silver and entered the car in Ferrari Club events across North and Central America. In 1988 it was sold to an American collector in Washington, where it was repainted Rosso Corsa. Should you buy it?Ferrari 288 GTO engine compartment - Bring A TrailerWith a week of bidding yet to go on this interesting and lovingly prepared Ferrari, it's entirely possible that the price will continue to balloon up by a couple million dollars. Ferrari collectors have been going absolutely bonkers lately pushing values ever higher of rare cars wearing the cavallino rampante. AdvertisementAdvertisementAccording to Hagerty's valuation tool, 288 GTO values were hovering around $4.1M for a concours-ready example just one year ago. Following a record-breaking Gooding Christie's sale in February—a massive $10.4M move at the Paris sale—Hagerty shifted its numbers up to an incredible $9.7 million. What could get a concours-grade example a year ago now would struggle to fetch a #3 "good" rated car. Are any other assets up 142% year over year? Heck, the current bid could probably have gotten you two lower-graded examples of these cars a year ago. This car has already broken the BaT bid record, but will it break the recently inflated 288 GTO valuation number? What's the ceiling on this car? Is it $12 million? $20? None of this is connected to reality anyway, and a pair of bidders could pump it up to 30 million, resetting the value of the other 271 examples out there. If you already have a 288 GTO, you could probably just keep bidding this one up and increase the value of your own car in a bit of strange insider trading. What do you think, does this car command a premium because it's the 250,000th auction on BaT? Some people certainly seem to think so.Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.Read the original article on Jalopnik.