This Ex-Eric Clapton Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Once Drag-Raced a Plane, and Now It's Yours for $4 MillionPlenty of seven-figure classic Ferraris coast by on looks alone. This one didn't get the memo. A 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 that once lived in Eric Clapton's garage has popped back up for sale, and the roughly $3.9 million ask is almost the boring part. The real headline is the résumé: amateur racing in Kenya, a literal bet against an airplane, a celebrated illustrator who took the whole thing apart for fun, and a guitar god who footed the bill to make it right again. Try finding that in a CARFAX.Classic-car specialist Fiskens has it listed at £2.95 million, which shakes out to around $3.9 million. What you're actually buying is rarity stacked on top of one of the most gloriously documented histories in the collector world.Yes, the 275 GTB/4 Really Is That SpecialAmong people who take this stuff seriously, the 275 GTB/4 sits somewhere near the top of the Ferrari food chain. Launched in 1966 as a meaner take on the original 275 GTB, it got a longer nose, a power-domed hood, and a four-cam version of Ferrari's holy Colombo V-12. That engine cranked out 300 horsepower — good for 0-60 in 5.5 seconds and a 163 mph top end, which was genuinely quick back when bell-bottoms were a thing. It was also the first Ferrari road car to pair a five-speed manual transaxle with fully independent suspension at all four corners.AdvertisementAdvertisementFerrari made just 300 of them between 1966 and 1968. This one, chassis No. 09261, is rarer still: one of only 31 right-hand-drive cars built. Already exotic. It gets weirder.A Factory Mix-Up Sent It to Africa, and It StayedThe saga kicks off in July 1966, when businessman Robin Houry ordered the car through Ferrari's U.K. distributor, planning to keep it in Britain before shipping it to Kenya. Then somebody at the factory fumbled the paperwork and sent the Ferrari straight to Mombasa before Houry ever took delivery at home. Instead of throwing a fit, he shrugged, kept it in Africa, and — crucially — actually used the thing.And not gently. The Ferrari ran amateur events with the East African Motor Sports Club, collecting real war stories at a time when most cars like it were tucked under covers in climate-controlled tombs.The Time It Drag-Raced an Airplane and WonHere's the part you'll be retelling at parties. After Houry sold the car in 1968 to his business partner Brian Lees, Lees bet the pilot of a twin-engine Douglas DC-3 that the Ferrari could beat the plane on the roughly 300-mile run between Nairobi and Mombasa. Over roads that were barely paved in places, the Ferrari won, reportedly averaging north of 80 mph. That is the kind of provenance collectors spend years sifting through history files praying to find.Disassembled by an Artist, Resurrected by SlowhandIt returned to the U.K. in 1970 and was snapped up a year later by automotive illustrator James Allington, who kept it for over three decades. Allington made his name on intricate cutaway drawings, and to nail one of the 275 GTB/4 he pulled the entire car apart, then put it back together and painted it red to match his artwork. After he died, the car went to a Christie's auction in late 2002 and — despite being a headline lot — flopped under reserve.AdvertisementAdvertisementEnter Eric Clapton. The lifelong Ferrari obsessive grabbed it and immediately handed it to British specialist DK Engineering for a year-long restoration back to its original Grigio Argento. He sold it in 2005, and it bounced through several owners — including music-equipment exec Niall Holden, who had it repainted metallic dark blue. Yacht designer Terence Disdale, the man behind some of the planet's largest superyachts (including the 533-foot Eclipse built for Roman Abramovich), bought it in January 2022 and dumped roughly $250,000 over two years into a nut-and-bolt restoration, plus another $33,000 on top, to put it back to original spec.So, Is Nearly $4 Million Crazy? Not Really.The number looks wild until you check the comps. A yellow 1967 275 GTB/4 sold at Mecum's Indy sale in May for $2.86 million. An ice-blue '67 went for $3.4 million at The Amelia in March. And an alloy-bodied '67 cracked $6.05 million at Mecum's Kissimmee auction. That drops the ex-Clapton car right in the middle on price — except its paperwork and ownership trail are anything but middle-of-the-road.Loads of Ferraris pair pretty bodywork with a screaming V-12. Almost none can add a story that runs from London to Kenya, from club racing to a rock star's collection, from a draftsman's workbench to a string of high-dollar restorations. For collectors, that story is the car.Related ReadingLionel Messi Car Collection: A Look Inside the Soccer Icon's GarageInside Cristiano Ronaldo's Jaw-Dropping Car CollectionBugatti's New Golf Clubs Cost More Than a CorvetteKoenigsegg Just Shattered Two More Records With the Jesko Absolut