A 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S North American Racing Team (NART) Spider first owned by actor Steve McQueen will cross the auction block in New York this November with a $15 million to $20 million estimate. For collector car insurers, a vehicle at that value is a reinsurance and valuation exercise – but one that almost never ends in a total loss, according to Bryan Ballatore, chief marketing officer at OpenRoad Insurance.
Gooding Christie's announced on Sept. 10, 2026, that the car, chassis 10453, will headline its first Rétromobile New York Auctions at the Javits Center on Nov. 20 and 21. It is the sixth of 10 NART Spiders built, according to the auction house, and has never been offered at public auction.
Ballatore, who worked with auction houses Gooding & Company and Bonhams before moving into insurance, said OpenRoad does not change carriers as values climb.
“At the ultra-high end – a car like a $20 million Steve McQueen Ferrari, for example – we still work with our same carrier, but we reinsure it above a certain value, distributing the risk so that no single carrier holds all of it,” he said.
Setting the value is less about auction estimates than about what changed hands. “For valuation at that level, the best data point we have is typically what the person paid for it. A buyer at that price has already taken into account the provenance and what it means for value,” Ballatore said.
Comparable sales still matter, even for cars with almost no peers. “Even for something like the 1959 Ferrari Testarossa – perhaps a $60 to $75 million car, with only four in the world – you can still find comps. The Ferrari 335S is a close enough reference point, and perhaps one sold within the last few years,” he said. “We can speak to our contacts in the auction space or go directly to the client: what did you pay, what do you think it's worth? We have enough resources to feel comfortable.”
Estimates can badly trail the result. The last NART Spider to sell publicly, chassis 10709, was estimated at $14 million to $17 million ahead of RM Auctions' Monterey sale in August 2013, according to Motor Authority, and sold for $27.5 million including buyer's premium, according to RM Sotheby's.
Classic car policies typically cover vehicles on an agreed value basis set through appraisal, rather than actual cash value. Ballatore said that figure is rarely tested.
“The agreed value protection only comes into play on a total loss, and far less than 1% of our claims are total losses,” he said. “When you consider what it actually costs to restore a car – I've never seen a bill exceeding $2 to $3 million – even if a car is worth $20 million and looks badly damaged, we're almost never going to total it.”
“The intrinsic value of the vehicle is so much greater than what it actually costs to repair the metal that you simply fix the metal”
This shifts the placement conversation toward repair terms, including shop choice and parts, as much as the headline limit.
The McQueen car illustrates the point. Gooding Christie's said it has been preserved rather than restored since joining its current owner's collection in 1986, retaining its matching-numbers engine, transaxle and original Scaglietti body. Its history also includes an accident on the Pacific Coast Highway, after which McQueen had it repaired by Junior Conway.
“Part of what makes many historic racing cars so valuable is that they may have already been crashed – in a significant race, with a significant driver. The historical value lives in the chassis and the provenance,” Ballatore said. “What you're paying for, at that price, is the very specific chassis number and its history. Fixing the physical vehicle is one cost we insure.”
The segment continues to expand. Hagerty reported total written premium of $1.19 billion for 2025, up 14.3%, with vehicles in force rising 9.4% to about 2.82 million, according to its 2025 annual report. Distribution is widening, with Liberty Mutual and Safeco offering Hagerty collector car coverage through independent agents from 2026, and specialty collector vehicle books have become a selling point in agency deals.
Whether the McQueen car lands inside or above its estimate, the hammer price will become the benchmark for the next NART Spider on an insurer's books.
