SOLD SOLD SOLD! Valentino Rossi MotoGP paddock scooter nets 17,000 euros!
It seems that there was a very healthy appetite for the paddock scooter used by Valentino Rossi, as after a few furious bids the factory Yamaha-branded Giggle 50 raised 17,000 euros for an Italian charity.
The sale was part of Minardi Day, an auction earlier on this year that focused on motorsport memorabilia of the two and four-wheeled variety. The proceeds of the auction will go to an Italian charity that investigates autism in children.
MOTOGP legends don’t come much bigger than Valentino Rossi. In the modern era of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, few have captured the hearts of the global audience quite like ‘The Doctor’ did.
With that fame comes a desire for well-heeled motorcycle collectors to crown their collections with bikes that were either owned, ridden, or raced by the man himself. With race-ridden MotoGP bikes running into the hundreds of thousands of pounds though, the chance for us mere mortals to own a piece of Rossi’s history is fairly slim, although a charity auction is throwing up something of an oddity.
It's got the colour scheme from the 2008 to 2009 season, it’s signed by Rossi, and it was even ridden at multiple MotoGP rounds. Sadly though, it’s not a race-proven thoroughbred and is in fact a 3hp Yamaha Giggle 50cc scooter that he used during the European rounds of the championship.
The auction is raising funds for the Medea La Nostra Famiglia, a charity that investigates autism in young children, and all the funds from the sale will be sent to the charity.
And when we say cost-effective at the top of the page; take that with a pinch of salt! While a Giggle 50cc in the will set you back between £1,500 and £2,500, the auction for Rossi’s old bike started at €7,000, and there is an estimate on the sale of between €12,000 to €15,000! That might be cheap compared to his race-ridden machines (his Ducati GP11 sold for €245,700!), although it's still a fair chunk for what is basically a grocery getter!
Check out the full auction listing here: www.liveauctioneers.com
