Sammy Hagar with his 2015 LaFerrari.
Readers of this column will recall the interview I published in 2017 with Sammy Hagar, discussing his custom-built La Ferrari. The iconic rocker is selling the vehicle at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona Saturday, October 12. We got on the phone to discuss the car and a few other compelling subjects.
Josh Max: When I talked to you seven years ago about the LaFerrari, I thought you guys were going to go together forever. What's the impetus for selling this wonderful machine?
Sammy Hagar: This car has got 1,100 miles on it and it's a 2015. It's almost 10 years old. So I’m saying to myself, “I don't drive it enough.” And these cars need to be driven. I just can't find myself the time and the confidence to get in that car and drive it the way it needs to be driven. It's so fast and it's such a high tech machine.
I wanted one and I wanted to drive one. And I drove it. And every time I drove it, I'm sitting there scared to death. I'm looking around, people come flying up next to you in pickup trucks hanging out of the window trying to get themselves in selfies. “Hey, man, let me take a selfie!” I mean, trying to take a video of you. You're saying to yourself, please move over and you finally step on it. And then you're on some guy's ass.
LaFerrari
Max: Who is the ideal buyer, you think?
Hagar: This car will be great for a younger person that has my crazy balls. Now, it's just too much car for me. And I feel so horrible just having it in the garage. It's not good for the car. I've told everybody that's interested in buying it.
You know, a lot of people who've tried to buy it years ago and say, don't buy this car if you're not going to drive it. Because these batteries are really expensive. And if you don't use them, you can't just plug them into the wall and go away and leave them for a year. That isn’t going to work. You're going to come back with some problems.
I'm having more fun driving my ‘67 Corvette or my Boxster, my old Daytona. You know, they got 350, 400 horsepower. You can go around a corner and floor it, get a little squirrely and, and have fun. If you go around the corner of a LaFerrari and floor it, man, who knows where you're going to end up, you know. So it's too much car for me.
La Ferrari
And I really want someone to have that a car that special. I feel like I'm just a caretaker right now. That's why I'm selling. I got so many cars and I just don't ever get to drive all of them. Somebody that is going to get in this car and they're going to go, wow, this might be the great one. I’ve driven about everything and I've owned damn near everything.
It’s on par with a real race car. Just sitting around on my garage and covered up.
Mr. Hagar Can’t Drive 55. 160 MPH? OK.
Max: How many cars do you have and which one did you get pulled over with last? Or—how do you not get pulled over?
Hagar: The last one I was pulled over in was the LaFerrari. I was doing about 160 miles an hour. I was coming home from Lake Tahoe. I just wanted to take it on a big trip. So I took it on a 500-or-so mile trip. Some guy in bright green Hellcat came up to me at about 75, 80 miles an hour and started messing around.
So I'm going, come on, man. I shifted it down and banged it and about 10 seconds later, I was doing 168. There, on top of the freeway I saw him. The cop with the radar gun. I went, “Oh no!” And of course he didn't even get the Hellcat cause he was way behind me. So I just pulled over and waited, and they came.
They all got gathered around. “Hey, this is Sammy Hagar here! “Hey, man, what's up?” “Gorgeous car!” Blah, blah, blah. I got written up, but only for 90 MPH. Whatever the number is where you don’t have to go to court.
I've been let off 40 times if I've been let off once. I've only gotten two tickets since 1984.
Max: John Lennon said about his Rolls Royce and getting pulled over that some people let him go because he was John Lennon and some people gave him a ticket because he was John Lennon.
Hagar: You'd be surprised. It's actually kind of fun sitting around the side of the road, talking to an officer who is telling you “Man, I saw you in 1986, man, you were climbing all over!” They start giving you all these stories and you’re going, “Okay, buddy, I got to get going here, eventually. All right.
Max: May I ask what are you going to do with the money? What might you invest it in? What next thing? You have so many enterprises.
Hagar: You know, I have no idea. Money is a funny thing. It's like you just stick it away, and you don't feel it. I don't want to sound jaded. I mean, I've got an airplane. I've got my homes and beautiful places that I love. I have a lifestyle where you just do kind of whatever you want, whenever you want. Then money just becomes like this thing that doesn't matter.
I don't want to sound like an arrogant prick because I'm not. The only thing I use money for nowadays besides my lifestyle is to help people. I give money to food banks. I give money to children's hospitals, especially terminally ill families that have a family that has a terminally ill child. I support them if they run out of insurance and things like that. That's what you do with money.
And that's probably what this money will end up helping other people over the years. And that's kind of what I do. I have the Hagar Family Foundation. All my restaurant money goes into that foundation. And Maui, all the places where I have restaurants, Maui, Honolulu, Cleveland, Las Vegas. And I give the money to those areas. That was a really good question to ask.
Sammy Hagar in his La Ferrari
Max: Don’t you have a restaurant in Lahaina? (Lahaina, Maui, suffered a devastating fire last year - relief efforts are still ongoing.)
Hagar: Yes, I do. We have a restaurant at the airport and I’m helping them survive and recover. I also give to the Make-A-Wish foundation. I give to those things. I don't brag about how much money it is but I brag about giving it away because it's enlightening to other people. It makes them want to do what they can do.
I believe in helping less fortunate people, because I came from nothing. I know what it’s like going to food banks and surviving on food stamps. My mom, at Christmas time, went and waited in line to get a ham or a turkey for our Christmas dinner. So I'm very sensitive to that. So anyway, that's where the money will end up.
Sammy Hagar’s LaFerrari Challenge
Hagar: I haven't said this yet. But the guy that buys it is going to have to break the record. The highest number ever gotten for a LaFerrari is 4.8 million. That we know of! That's public knowledge. Who knows what's happened without public knowledge? Some people don't like to advertise stuff. So we've got to break that record. That's all I can say.
But I ain't taking 4.8. My Ferrari has to be the most expensive LaFerrari ever sold. Because it's the most gorgeous one. It is the most perfect one. It is the epitome of beauty. I just sit and look at it. I go into my warehouse where all my cars are. And I got them all covered up most of the time. Except the one or two that I'm driving most of the time.
I pull the cover off that LaFerrari. I just sit and look at it. I sit there. Sometimes I'll mix myself a margarita, crack a beer or something. I just sit and look at it. And I open the doors. And I sit in it. It's just so gorgeous. You can just lick it. It's like a cappuccino, just all black and green. There's only two colors, well, three colors. Black, white, and green.
Max: I had a Gullwing that somebody wanted to lick on the Pacific Coast Highway. A guy just came around while I was shooting it and asked “Can I lick your car?” He was kidding but yeah, you can really fall for some rides. So this is the second time in my whole life I've had someone say that.
Hagar: That’s a car nut for you. You know, you want to lick something beautiful! It doesn't have to be a car. It can be a guitar. It can be a woman. I’ve got to be careful, here. I’m a married man.
Max: When you're on tour, you're driven rather than driving, yes?
Hagar: We go by plane and get picked up and dropped off the whole tour. A one-stop shop. It's like a little more low-key, a little more stealth. I don’t do limousines or any of that. We ride in an SUV.
But I want everyone to know I’ll personally be at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale. I'm going to be there when my car crosses that block. I'm going to be standing there, and I'm going to look the guy in the eyes, it’ll be sold to the new guy on my birthday, basically the same day and date I got it. It's coincidence. This is not marketing. Well, it's marketing 101, but we didn't come up with it. It just came up with itself.
Then I’m getting back on my plane and I'm flying back to Cabo because I play my birthday bash down here every year, and there's thousands of people lined up in the streets trying to get in. The Cabo Wabo holds about 500 or 600 people. And anybody that buys a car is welcome to come on down. I'll make sure you get in. You'll walk right through the front door with me. So just tell whoever plans on buying this car, bring your cash.
About Sammy’s LaFerrari, From Barrett-Jackson
This one-of-one custom 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari was built and designed for Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Sammy Hagar. It is powered by a naturally aspirated 6.3-liter V12 engine with an electric motor for a combined 949hp and 664 ft/lbs of torque.
A new high-voltage lithium-ion battery for the electric motor was installed by Ferrari of San Francisco in 2024. This rear-wheel-drive vehicle is capable of reaching 0-to-60 mph in under 3 seconds and a top speed of over 217 mph. This LaFerrari is equipped with a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) that was developed through Ferrari's Formula 1 cars and provides bursts of extra power at the driver's discretion.
Other highlights include magnetorheological dampers and carbon-ceramic disc brakes. This LaFerrari sits atop a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis with double-wishbone front suspension and multi-link rear suspension, and rides on forged aluminum 19x9.5 front and 20x13 rear wheels.
The carbon-fiber bodywork was styled entirely in-house by Ferrari and the exterior is finished in Cream over a Cream interior with carbon-fiber and black accents throughout. The interior also boasts a Harman Kardon audio system with four speakers.
Included with the sale of the LaFerrari is a special replica model of the vehicle Hagar received as a gift from Ferrari, in addition to a book of the build process and a display plaque signed by Hagar from when the vehicle was displayed at The Quail.
