New lifeboat station funded by businessman who left £8.6 million worth of 1960s Ferraris to the charity in his will
Two rare Ferraris gifted to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) have funded a new lifeboat station and vital equipment from their sale.
The two cars, donated to the RNLI by businessman and classic car enthusiast Richard Colton in his will after he died in 2015, are a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB and a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4.
The BBC reports the two cars sold at auction for a combined figure approaching £8.6 million, with the 250 GT making £6.6m and the 275 raising £1.93m. They are the most valuable items ever left to the RNLI in a single donation.
A large portion of the money was used to fund new equipment for the existing lifeboat station in Hastings and £3.8m paid for the installation of a new station in Pwllheli, Gwynedd, North Wales. The boathouse is complete and a delayed new lifeboat will arrive in April.
Clive Moore, coxswain and RNLI volunteer at the small Pwllheli site, said the new building “will mark a significant period in the history of the station”.
Moore told the BBC: “I find it remarkable and very humbling that a gentleman who had no seafaring connection should have the desire to support the RNLI through the sale of his treasured cars, and that we should now benefit at Pwllheli as a consequence of his generosity.”
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Source: Autocar
