³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Nigel Wrench writes: "It's a Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spyder, 1963 model. But then you knew that. Being auctioned tonight in London. As you can see from this sticker on the front window it's a bit dear. Up to £3.5 million is what they are hoping for. Who's got that today?

The classic car market, like the art market, has been booming. Chris Evans, our Radio 2 colleague, bought a similar car, albeit one once owned by the actor James Coburn, earlier this year for £5, 598, 208. His is black, rather than the more traditional red.

The Financial Times noted at the time of the Evans sale: "classic cars have now been afforded the status of rolling art".

Can something produced in a factory be a work of art? I'll be live on PM tonight with Stephen Bayley, the design critic and car fan, who argues it can. And Sarah Thornton, art critic and author, who says it can't.

Maybe if day-to-day use of the car becomes both socially unacceptable and financially prohibitive, cars will become art objects, to be admired in a museum, relics of a different age.

Or perhaps these extraordinary prices are a sign of a cultural decadence that is now also in the past. Thoughts?

And a couple more shots to show what you'd get for the money. The roof is included. But the mechanic, useful though he might be, is not.