Peter Lyon
August 19, 2025
Last year, it was the 1937 Delahaye Type 135 that won the ‘Best of Show’ at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. Now returning for its 22nd year on the grounds of The Quail Golf Club, the judges chose a 1996 F50 GT1 as this year’s “Best of Show”. Owned by Art Zafiropoulo, the 1996 F50 GT1 was selected from a curated field of more than 200 entrants and stood out for its design, craftsmanship and historical significance.
The winning vehicle was inducted into the prestigious Rolex Circle of Champions, a revered tradition celebrating the pinnacle of automotive excellence and its owner received a specially engraved Oyster Perpetual Datejust 36 presented by Luca Bernasconi, president and CEO of Rolex USA.
The 1996 Ferrari F50 GT1 is one of the rarest and most extreme Ferraris ever built, a prototype created to take the F50 into top-tier GT1 racing. Chassis number 001, the only factory-assembled test car, pairs a 750-hp evolution of Ferrari’s 4.7-liter V12 with a carbon-fiber monocoque, period-perfect aerodynamics and race hardware worthy of a Formula 1 grid.
Built for the international GT1 class but never raced after Ferrari ended the program in 1997, it has remained with its first and only private owner, Art Zafiropoulo. With purposeful carbon bodywork, black Speedline wheels and timeless proportions, the F50 GT1 stands as one of the iconic brand’s most desirable and formidable sports racers.
This year’s other prestigious award winners announced at 2025’s The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering include:
Spirit of The Quail
1967 Shelby EXP500 Prototype Coupe
Owned by Mr and Mrs Craig Jackson
Hagerty Drivers Foundation Award
1967 Sunbeam MK2
Owned by Richard Thompson
The Quail continues to be a hub for the future of the automotive industry, as 18 of the most notable manufacturers and designers debuted their latest creations. Highlights of the show included global debuts of the Lamborghini Fenomeno, Guntherwerks Project F-26, Corvette CX Concept and CX.R Gran Turismo Concepts, as well as a special edition Corvette ZR1x Silver Quail, Lexus Sport Concept, Cadillac Elevated Velocity, Superlegerra Veloce 12, Gordon Murray Automobiles GMSV Le Mans GTR and GMSV S1 LM, Bugatti Brouillard, and the Ringbrothers 1971 Aston Martin DBS.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
Launching new concepts and products alongside classic cars is becoming a template for many car events around the world as interest in conventional motor shows wanes. While The Quail will always be the pinnacle of this genre, together with Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, other shows that follow a similar formula—albeit on a much smaller scale—are the British Motor Show and Japan’s Automobile Council event, to name a few.
