5 Of The Most Valuable '80s Sports Cars Ever Sold At Auction

As cars from the decade become rarer and nostalgia for old times grows stronger, some '80s cars are skyrocketing in value. It's happening at all ends of the market, from once-affordable classics like the Toyota Supra and Volkswagen GTI to high-end supercars from the likes of Ferrari and Porsche. Some of the most valuable performance cars from the '80s now attract seven-figure sums at auction, as the wealthiest collectors compete for the chance to own the most pristine examples.

A few '80s cars stand out from the rest as being particularly valuable, with several having crossed the hammer for unprecedented sums just in 2025 alone. We went digging through data from leading global auction houses to unearth a few of the most expensive '80s road cars ever sold at public auction. Each of them was among the most desirable cars on the market at the time of their release, and today, only the wealthiest enthusiasts could ever consider adding one to their collection.

Despite being just as famous as its rivals from Ferrari and Porsche, the Lamborghini Countach of the '80s hasn't quite reached the same value levels as the likes of the F40 or 959. That's probably because it was already an old car by the start of the decade, and was celebrating its 25th anniversary by 1989. However, one particularly famous example of the 25th Anniversary Edition Countach set a new auction record in 2023, selling for $1,655,000 at RM Sotheby's.

It was the sole intact Countach that was used in the filming of the 2013 film, "The Wolf of Wall Street," with the other Countach used in that production being deliberately crashed during filming. The auctioned car was reportedly used for close-up shots in the film, as well as for several driving sequences. Eagle-eyed viewers of the film will be able to tell which example of the Countach is in each shot, since the surviving example featured a European-spec front bumper while the crashed car featured a larger U.S.-market bumper.

The Ferrari F40 needs no further introduction to gearheads, being one of the famous cars from one of the most famous manufacturers in the world. Values for the F40 have continued to remain sky high in recent years, with an example that appeared at an RM Sotheby's auction in Switzerland in 2025 selling for the equivalent of roughly $3,715,000.

That figure is one of the highest on record for an '80s example, although some 1990 examples of the car have sold for slightly more. The race-spec F40 LM is an even rarer and even costlier variant, with one 1987 example selling for around $5 million. However, it was never intended for road use, and so we're not counting it here.

The $3,715,000 example that hit RM Sotheby's earlier in 2025 had 11,882 km (around 7,383 miles) on the clock when it appeared at auction. That's the equivalent of just over 200 miles per year. It's one of a reported 1,315 examples of the car that left Maranello, despite the Italian automaker originally only intending to produce 400 examples of the F40.

In the early '80s, Ferrari had its sights set on entering the World Rally Championship, and so it needed a suitable car. Enzo Ferrari announced that he was working on a new model designed specifically to meet rallying's homologation requirements in 1983, and the following year, his creation was unveiled. The GTO, or 288 GTO as it became known, was originally intended to be limited to 200 examples, but demand for the car was so high among collectors that 272 were eventually built.

The higher production figures still weren't enough to meet the demand of Ferrari collectors, and a large number of buyers who had gotten themselves a spot on the waitlist infamously sold their build slot to others for a profit. Demand from collectors still remains very high today, with a long line of examples selling at auction for seven-figure sums in recent years. The priciest 288 GTO went under the hammer at an RM Sotheby's auction in 2022, selling for $4,405,000.

It had just 9,323 miles on the clock and came with Ferrari Classiche Red Book certification, meaning that Ferrari had certified that all of the car's components were original. According to its listing, it had also been exhibited at several prestigious concours events, including at the 1989 Ferrari Club of America meet, where it won a first-in-class award.

Although the Porsche 959 was banned in America for many years, it always remained a favorite among American collectors. Its most notable fan was Bill Gates, who was instrumental in lobbying for "Show and Display" regulations to allow his 959 to finally be imported after years of having it stuck in a customs compound. Other American buyers weren't as persistent as Gates, with one buyer flying out to Stuttgart in Germany to collect his new 959, only to sell it a few weeks later after he realized he couldn't import it into America.

That buyer would sell the car, a 959 Sport, through a Swiss Ferrari dealer. Over the following decades, it would change hands between various European owners before being eventually imported to America and ending up at an RM Sotheby's auction in 2023. It fetched $4,900,000, making it one of the most expensive examples of the 959 ever sold. Part of the reason for that high price was the car's rarity, with Porsche only building 29 examples of the 959 in Sport trim. The rest were sold in Komfort trim, which was notably heavier but also featured an innovative adaptive suspension. At the time of the sale, the car had a mere 3,757 miles on its odometer.

German boutique carmaker RUF was only officially certified by the German government as an independent carmaker in 1981, having shown off its first sports car in 1977. By the end of the '80s, it had risen from its humble roots to become the maker of the world's fastest road car, the CTR. The "Yellowbird" moniker was not an official one, but was instead given to the car by journalists at Road & Track magazine after they tested one soon after its launch.

The Porsche 911-based CTR could reach a top speed of 211 mph thanks to RUF's powertrain modifications, which included the addition of two beefy turbochargers. Despite its world-beating power, it was never a sales hit, with a total of 29 examples of the car built. Examples only rarely appear for public auction, but at a Gooding & Co auction in 2025, the Yellowbird set a new sales record of $6,055,000. Later in the year, a second example of the car appeared at a Broad Arrow Auction, selling for $4,680,000.