In possibly the craziest price ever paid for a car at auction, a one-year-old Fiat 500 owned by Jay Leno has been sold for $350,000.The car was auctioned by the TV star to raised money for the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit organization, which offers support to the families of wounded American soldiers.

The car was standard, although it did carry the production number 00002, being the first US-specification Fiat 500 sold to a customer. The price paid was ten times what the auctioneers expected, so everyone was happy, including presumably the owner who now has bragging rights to, er, the world’s most expensive small car.At the other end of the car auction spectrum, Ferrari prices continue to spiral – having hit the stratosphere a few years ago, they have now left earth orbit altogether.

A 1960 California 250 LWB Spider Competizione went for $11 million at the same auction – that is £7 million. Any Ferrari with “250” in its name has always been valuable, but this was no 250 GTO – that would probably be worth triple the amount.

The car sold last weekend was certainly rare, with only nine built. It comes from the Sherman M. Wolf collection, who had bought it from its first owner in 1979 – thus it was a two owner car.

At the same auction other Ferraris included the 1985 288 GTO, sold for $1 million (£577,000), and a 1953 340 MM Spider, sold for almost $4.5 million (£2.85 million).