Yes, Ferrari created a custom, one-of-a-kind station wagon for the insanely rich family, putting a station wagon body on a Ferrari engine. It looks like some sort of cruel hybrid created in a lab, with the front end looking like a sports car and the back looking like a Subaru.

A 1961 Ferrari California Spyder sold for $10,894,900 at an auction in Maranello, Italy, Saturday. It was the highest price ever paid for a vintage car at auction, according to RM Auctions and Sotheby's, the companies that organized the sale.

The previous record was set in 1990 when Sotheby's sold a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in Monaco for $10,756,000.

But that was a race car, not a convertible designed for driving on the street, pointed out McKeel Hagerty, president of Hagerty Insurance, a company that insures high-value collectible cars in Europe and North America.

Ferrari race cars have traditionally sold for much higher figures than the company's street cars, Hagerty said.

"Ferrari 250 GTO's are now selling privately for twice that," he said

"There's a whole new breed of collector that has emerged in the last three-four years," Sheehan says. "Almost all make the kind of money you cannot comprehend."

This new collector, he says buys the latest to one-up collector buddies. The owner may drive the car, sometimes at racetracks rented out to car clubs, sometimes to the latest trendy restaurant. But piling on miles hurts resale value.

Ferrari, the Italian make with an esteemed racing tradition, says North America is its most important market and nearly three in 10 of its North American cars go to California. Mattioli's Beverly Hills shop sells more Ferraris than any dealer in the country.

"It has to do definitely with the attitude of people living in Southern California, who are very open-minded," says Manfred Fitzgerald, director of brand and design for Lamborghini.