Fake Ferrari that starred in Ferris Bueller’s Day off is set to fetch $400,000 at auction

The ‘Ferrari’ driven by Ferris Bueller during the most famous act of truancy in movie history will sell for around $400,000 when it goes up for auction in Florida on March 2.

The car is not an authentic Italian sports car, but one of three or four replicas reportedly built specifically for the 1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off classic.

Considering that one of the most iconic scenes in the film sees the car being thrown out of a window and plummeting several stories before crashing, it’s understandable why replicas were used.

One of the replica cars driven by Ferris, a 1985 Modena Spyder California, will sell for $350,000 to $400,000 as part of Bonham’s Amelia Island Auction. It is unclear in which scenes this car was used.

In 2020, a real 1961 Ferrari GT 250 sold for $17 million at auction.

Ferris Bueller principal John Hughes got the idea for replicas after reading about California-based Modena Design & Development in an issue of Car & Driver magazine. The company specialized in building replica cars.

The original script called for a contemporary Mercedes to be the car of choice for Ferris and his friends. When Hughes first called to have the company make a replica of the film, they hung up on him thinking it was a practical joke.

Since it was built, the Spyder has had two owners, a Paramount employee who bought it after production, and then a plastic surgeon.

The surgeon accepted the employee’s car as payment for services in 1989. The whereabouts of the car were unknown at the time, having been sold by the doctor in the 2000s.

classic car website hems reported in 2019 that a few years earlier, a Modena employee named Neil Glassmoyer read about a Spyder for sale in Southern California.

When he went to inspect the vehicle, he determined that it was one he had made for Ferris Bueller based on the production markings. Glassmoyer bought the car immediately.

He redesigned the car, replacing the automatic transmission with a manual, as well as giving it new brakes and wheels.

The car now comes equipped with a leather interior, a Ford 302ci Pushrod V8 engine and a new 16-speaker Blaupunkt stereo system. The owner will also receive documentation from Paramount confirming that it was used in production.

The car was in the possession of a California-based plastic surgeon for years, but was considered lost until 2013.

One of the original designers of the car tracked it down and bought it on the spot when he realized it was used in the movie.

The car is expected to fetch between $350,000 and $400,000 when it goes up for auction in March.

The Spyder may be about to appear on the big screen after Deadline reported in August 2022 that Paramount had greenlit a spinoff film, Sam and Victor’s Day Off, which will follow the two parking lot valets who are going to give a ride in the car in the original. movie

When it was made for the movie, it was given an automatic transmission as star Matthew Broderick couldn’t drive manual at the time.

One of the other cars made for the film is on display at a Planet Hollywood restaurant, while the other, which was a basic car with no engine, was the one that was destroyed in the film’s iconic ending. That too was rebuilt and sold at auction in 2022.

The Spyder may be about to make a big screen appearance after reported deadline in August 2022 that Paramount had greenlit a spinoff film Sam and Victor’s Day Off that will follow the two parking lot valets who go for a ride in the car in the original film.

The listing for the car on the auction site does not mention whether putting the car in reverse will not affect the mileage. By the way, reversing an authentic 1961 Ferrari GT I would change the odometer.