A Ferrari-themed number plate has soared in value when auctioned via the Collecting Cars website.
Arguably the perfect plate for the Ferrari’s new flagship F80 supercar, the UK registration ‘F80 FER’ was sold for £205,500.
What makes this sale price even more remarkable is the huge return on investment made by the lucky vendor.
The registration was initially purchased directly from the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in September 2012 for just £900. Its recent sale price means the number plate has rocketed in value by 22,733 percent.
Selling for £205,500 also means that ‘F80 FER’ costs a similar amount to a nearly new Ferrari 296 GTB supercar.
Playing the long game
Ferrari used the F40 and F50 names for its top-tier hypercars during the 1980s and 1990s. However, the marque shifted to full names for the Enzo and LaFerrari that followed.
Buying F80 FER was thus something of a gamble for its vendor. But it paid off when Ferrari chose to crown its latest 1,200hp hybrid-assisted hypercar with the F80 name.
The registration thus became the perfect accessory for buyers splashing out more than £3 million on a Ferrari F80.
“We have seen some incredible results in the cherished number plate market, but this is a textbook example of a ‘long game’ result,” said Ed Callow, head of business intelligence at Collecting Cars.
“Back in 2012, nobody knew what Ferrari’s 2025 hypercar would be called. While ‘F80’ was likely to be the unofficial codename, Ferrari’s decision to officially use that name changed the value of this plate today, from perhaps £3,000 to the extraordinary six-figure result we achieved this week.”
A truly cherished plate
The sales success of F80 FER sees it enter the top five for the best price achieved by a number plate on Collecting Cars.
The list of top auction results for number plates on the platform now consists of:
- 1 GR – £250,000
- Y 6 – £213,000
- F80 FER – £205,500
- 1 SJ – £162,500
- TOY 5 – £150,000
Ferrari-themed number plates are no stranger to auctions, or to Collecting Cars. ‘F40 TOY’ was sold on the website in November 2022 for £13,250.
Previously the star of a DVLA Personalised Registrations auction in 2020, the ‘F40 TOY’ plate honoured Ferrari’s mid-engined icon from the 1980s.
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