A 38 million euro dream garage: the car collection of the late Call of Duty co-creator goes to auction
One of the world's great modern collections finds new homes
Now and then a car collection comes along that stops you in your tracks, and this is very much one of them. RM Sotheby's is set to auction the extraordinary garage of Vince Zampella, co-creator of the Call of Duty games, who died in December in a Ferrari 296 crash. Worth around 38 million euro, it is a McLaren-rich treasure trove of some of the rarest hypercars on earth.
A collector with real passion
Zampella was a hugely influential figure in gaming, but he was also a genuine car enthusiast, and his collection reflects a deeply personal taste rather than mere trophy-hunting. Based in Southern California, it was widely regarded as one of the most impressive private garages in the region. RM Sotheby's will offer the 17 cars at Monterey Car Week under the fitting title Driver's Philosophy, a nod to the thinking behind how it was assembled.
A McLaren lover's dream
At its core, this is a McLaren collection of staggering depth. It includes the track-only Solus GT, the road-legal P1 GT converted by Lanzante, the Senna and its wilder Senna GTR sibling, and the roofless Elva, a near-complete set of Woking's modern icons. For any McLaren devotee, seeing so many of the marque's rarest creations offered together is a genuinely special, if bittersweet, occasion.
The blue-chip headliners
Beyond the McLarens sit some true giants. The star is a Ferrari Daytona SP3, its naturally aspirated V12 producing 829 hp, estimated at 9 to 10.5 million euro. There is a Bugatti W16 Mistral finished in Italian Red, one of just 99 and estimated at 6.5 to 8.5 million euro, a poignant inclusion given the W16 has just ended production. The sole manual-gearbox Pagani Huayra Roadster, showing just 85 kilometres, is expected to fetch 4.4 to 6 million euro, while an Aston Martin Valkyrie Spider, a carbon-bodied Bugatti Chiron Sport and a Porsche 918 Spyder round out an intimidating line-up. Tellingly, most have covered barely any distance.
AutoNext Take
There is an unavoidable sadness to this sale, and our thoughts are with Zampella's family and friends. A collection like this is deeply personal, the product of one enthusiast's passion, and it only comes to market because of a tragic loss. That context is worth holding on to as the numbers and estimates fly around. Behind every one of these cars was someone who genuinely loved them.
As a celebration of that passion, though, it is magnificent, a rolling museum of the modern hypercar era assembled with real knowledge and taste. There is a certain symmetry, too, in a Call of Duty creator owning cars we have written about from both the virtual and real worlds, from Aston Martin's Dreadnought game car to that very W16 Mistral. Whoever ends up with these machines will be custodians of something remarkable. We hope they drive them.
