Ian Poulter is a huge petrolhead and the PGA Tour star has a fleet of Ferraris, Mercedes, a Porsche and a Bugatti on display in a purpose-built showroom at his Florida mansion.
The six-time Ryder Cup winner has three PGA Tour wins, including two WGC events, and 12 European Tour titles to his name, earning over $26 million since he turned pro in 1996 – more than enough cash for some sweet rides.
The 43-year-old has come a long way since his early days growing up in Luton, England, when he admitted “there wasn’t a lot of money around”. His dad had an old Austin Princess and a decrepit VW Scirocco, while his uncle owned an Escort RS 2000 and a Sierra Cosworth, which was eventually stolen and found banged up on Knebworth golf course with a flag stick poking out of the sunroof.
Speaking recently to GQ, he said: “Growing up, all I wanted was a nice car. It equated to doing well.” Today, Poulter is worth around $60m, while his car collection, housed in a specially designed garage at his gated-community mansion in Orlando, Florida, is estimated to be worth over $25m.
The outgoing golfer, who got to number five in the world rankings in 2010, is a Mercedes ambassador and drives a G63 and AMG GT S four-door as his daily runarounds. He also owns a 2005 Ford GT, its spectacular Le Mans 24 Hours-winning 2019 successor, a £2m Bugatti Veyron, and a Porsche 911 GT2. But it’s Ferrari that really gets his pulse racing.
He is one of just a handful of people to have owned all of Ferrari’s five supercars from the past 40 years – limited-edition special models that are at the cutting edge of design and performance. They are a 1985 288 GTO, an F40, F50, 2002 Enzo (worth around $2.7m, six times greater than the car’s cost when it was new), and two LaFerraris.
He announced on Twitter in 2015 that he had completed his Ferrari ‘Supercar 5’ collection after taking delivery of a Rosso Corsa LaFerrari. He has since sold his F40 and F50, selling the lowest mileage F50 in the world to a well-known Ferrari collector.
He also owns a 2012 LaFerrari that was presented to him by Ferrari’s then CEO Amedeo Felisa at 2012’s Pebble Beach concours d’elegance, the world’s most prestigious historic car event that just happens to be held on a golf course. He became the first person in the US to receive a tailor-made bespoke version of the car.
This goes alongside his 2016 Aperta, Ferrari’s latest supercar and one of only 210 built and worth a whopping $2.2 million, and his 2015 458 Speciale Aperta, only 499 of which were produced, each costing around $300,000.
Among the other Ferrari models he owns is a 2000 550 Barchetta worth over $200,000, a 1986 Testarossa (his dad’s favourite car made famous in Miami Vice), a 255 GTB and a fully restored 1967 275 GTB-4, one of only 330 that were were made and now hugely sought after.
And he loves to show off his collection across his social media channels. In a recent Instagram post, he used his black Aperta to show off his golf skills, chipping a golf ball through the open window. He performed the same trick with his white Mercedes AMG GT 63 S.
In another recent Instagram post, he joined in the ‘How it started vs How it’s going’ meme by sharing a picture of himself from the early 90s standing next to his old Talbot Horizon alongside a pic of his current Ferrari collection. He has indeed come a long way.
