Ferrari stock may be experiencing volatility but the Prancing Horse continues to rise above expectations at auction, with the latest being a 1957 335 S Spider Scaglietti which sold for $35 million. The price is a world record for a racing car sold at auction.

Press reports state that applause literally broke out after the hammer came down on the bidding for the 1957 Scag at the Artcurial auction house just off the Champs-Elysees, Paris, last Friday, February 5.

The world was watching the sale with great interest, especially since Bonhams was also offering significant Ferrari models (amongst others) last week. That sale was nothing to write home about, as far as Ferrari models are concerned, with the 1966 275 GTB Berlinetta selling for roughly $2.29 million. Nevertheless, expectations for a cooling-off in Ferrari auction prices has not yet been met. The race car sold by Artcurial fetched 28 million euros, plus premiums and taxes taking the overall price to just above 32 million euros ($35 million).

For those keeping track, note that this result also beats last year’s top selling Ferrari at auction, the 1956 Ferrari 290 MM Spider, which sold for about $28 million.

The Spider Scag actually beat the record set in 2014 when a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO sold for what was the equivalent of 28.9 million euros. The new most-expensive-ever Scag has a peerless pedigree, having finished sixth in the Sebring 12 Hours race in 1957, driven by British racer Peter Collins and his French partner Maurice Trintignant, and second in the Mille Miglia 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) road race in Italy, with Wolfgang von Trips driving. Yes this is the actual Scag that accomplished all that, not merely a similar model. Well, the same car but with some tweaks…

After the Mille Miglia, the car was returned to the factory to have its engine size boosted from 3.6 to 4.1-liters, boosting available horses from 360 to 400, allowing a top speed of 300 kilometres an hour (186 mph). This was in 1957 mind you.

The Scag enabled Enzo Ferrari’s outfit to win the Constructors’ World Championship title in 1957.

The identity of the purchaser of the Spider was not revealed following Friday’s deal but is US-based, according to Matthieu Lamoure, director general of Artcurial motorcars.

“Clearly, we won’t soon forget,” Lamoure told journalists after the hammer came down on the record sale, bidding having started at 20 million euros.

The sleek machine had belonged to the family collection of late French racing driver Pierre Bardinon, who died in 2012.

Legendary British driver Mike Hawthorn drove the Spider in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1957 and Sir Stirling Moss won the 1958 Cuba Grand Prix with it.