• The Ferrari 250 GTO is the third-most-expensive car ever to sell at auction.
• This re-creation has actual Ferrari underpinnings, and its aluminum coachwork is handmade.
• Granted, it’s not priced like some Pontiac Fiero fake Ferrari, but it’s as close to a real GTO as mere mortals are likely to get.

Even if the French government sold you the Mona Lisa, you couldn't hang it in your bathroom. Some things are just too valuable to exist outside a museum, and when it comes to automotive art, the Ferrari 250 GTO is at the top of that list. Even at the Goodwood Revival, owners of actual GTOs used replicas or continuation cars for racing, rather than risk damaging a car that is basically priceless.

If you can’t get the Mona Lisa, you get a print of her, and a four-wheeled version of that just turned up on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). It's a 250 GTO re-creation based on a 1962 250 GTE, and it’s so well executed as to be indistinguishable from the real thing. If it wasn’t clearly labeled as a tribute build, you could call it a masterwork of forgery.

Instead, it’s the experience of driving a Ferrari worth as much as a Beverly Hills mansion for the price of a nicely optioned Porsche 911 GT3. Not only is the buy-in less of a barrier, but the insurance costs will also be within reason, which means whoever casts the winning bid in this auction will be able to actually drive their ersatz 250 GTO wherever and whenever they wish. Actual 250 GTO owners don’t even get to do that.

This re-creation started out with a 1962 250 GTE, a 2+2 grand tourer that is collectible enough on its own. The chassis was shortened, and a body buck was created based on an actual 250 GTO. That car happened to be in the constructor’s shop for repairs, and thus provided a unique opportunity to achieve a high level of accuracy.

The aluminum bodywork was then hand-formed over the buck, just as a real 250 GTO would have been in-period. The 3.0-liter Colombo V-12 was rebuilt using high-compression pistons and a dry-sump oil system, and the six Weber carburetors were overhauled in 2020. Power is not listed but should be around the real deal’s 300 horsepower.

Of course, the experience of a Colombo V-12 is not just about peak power, but in the glorious noise it makes. It’s like driving around in Luciano Pavarotti if he were fitted with a five-speed manual transmission. Drop from third to second for a tight corner, then accelerate out of the turn accompanied by the aria Nessun Dorma.

Other mechanical details include disc brakes at all four corners, 15-inch Borrani wire wheels with triple-eared knockoff hubs, and a gearbox reinforced with Tremec internals. In 2020, the car was comprehensively refreshed by California-based specialist Patrick Ottis, whose restoration company boasts several Pebble Beach trophies.

Only 36 250 GTOs left the factory, each one slightly distinct from its brothers. Ferrari won three championship titles with the racing versions, and the car's reputation is further burnished by the early involvement of Giotto Bizzarrini, who would later go on to design Lamborghini’s first V-12. A 250 GTO is the most valuable car in the world because it is the most desirable.

Even more desirable, perhaps, is getting to actually experience what it’s like to drive one. Would a Ferrari V-12 approaching redline on a twisting back road be enough to make the Mona Lisa break out into a full-on grin? There’s nothing fake about that.

The auction ends on October 12.