This one likely won’t ever see the junkyard but what a pleasure it would be to win this baby!! I can only imagine what 570 horsepower would feel like under my foot, I would probably end up with a ton of speeding tickets.
One lucky Alberta resident could find out soon enough, after a charity auction Tuesday night in Calgary that was expected to send one person home with ownership documents for a new Ferrari.
Up for grabs is the first 458 Italia available in Alberta. It boasts a 4.5-litre V-8 engine that can propel the red two-seater to a top speed of 325 km/h. And like every Ferrari, it’s hand-assembled in Italy. All that and more for a suggested retail price of $352,000.
And that’s where the bidding was set to start at the auction, hosted by Ferrari Maserati of Alberta. All the cash raised above the sticker price — less GST, of course — has been earmarked for Calgary’s Alberta Children’s Hospital.
Robert Vacca, a spokesman for the Calgary auto dealer, said similar charity auctions in Ontario have raised between $30,000 and $75,000.
That premium will allow the winning bidder to jump to the front of the queue for the 458 Italia, only six of which have been allocated to Alberta and will take 12 months to get here. Vacca said the auction winner, though, should take delivery in about a week.
Prospective bidders were drawn from among the dealership’s current and potential clients. “Some are home builders, some are involved in construction, some are doctors, lawyers,” Vacca said. “It’s just a wide variety of people that make up our client base.”
Ferrari Maserati of Ontario, he said, has donated $1.9 million to the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto from car rallies and auctions over the past two years. Calgary’s dealership, which opened in 2008, is looking to establish a similar partnership. Well, being an Ontario resident myself I guess I don’t have a shot at this fine red car but good luck to all my friends over in Alberta!
