Michael Jordan's custom 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello is going to auction for the first time, carrying an estimate of $700,000 to $1.3 million. Pharrell Williams' collectibles platform Joopiter is running the sale in partnership with automotive specialist Curated, marking the company's first-ever car auction.
Jordan took delivery of the car in May 1997 and had Ferrari customize it to his exact frame. The interior got longer chair rails and slimmer seat padding to fit his six-foot-six height, the car is finished in Rosso Barchetta paint on chrome Speedline wheels, and Jordan ordered it without the brand's traditional yellow fender shields. Under the hood sits a naturally aspirated 485-hp Ferrari V-12 paired with a manual gated transmission.
The Bulls connection and the sneaker link
Jordan drove the Ferrari out of Chicago's United Center on June 13, 1997, the night he clinched his fifth NBA championship, with an Illinois vanity plate reading MJ 5. The car reappeared in January 1998 footage from a Bulls practice shown in the documentary The Last Dance.
Its influence reached sneakers before it reached the auction block. Nike VP of Design Tinker Hatfield used the car's bodywork as a reference for the Air Jordan XIV, borrowing its yellow-and-black shield shape and tire-tread sole pattern for the silhouette.
Jordan sold the Ferrari at the end of 2002, and it stayed out of public view for 24 years until its rediscovery in 2026. The odometer reads just under 19,000 miles. Joopiter has not disclosed the identity of the seller or where the car was kept during its decades out of sight.
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