Bloomberg also states that the buyer is Craig McCaw, the Seattle-based co-founder of McCaw Cellular, which was acquired by AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1993.

The pale green Ferrari was originally part of the UDT Laystall team and was to be Stirling Moss’s car for the 1962 racing season – the year he had his life-threatening crash at the Sussex circuit in a Formula One Lotus.

It was raced extensively by Ireland in 1962, who shared it with the bespectacled American Masten Gregory at Le Mans where it failed to finish.

While Classic Driver is reluctant to report on hearsay, it is understood that this is the third GTO to have traded hands in recent months, all at ever-increasing values.

Photos: Classic Driver