1928 Tracta

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1928 Tracta D2 Sport

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 9, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

SA des Automobiles Tracta was a French car company founded by engineer Jean-Albert Grégoire in 1926. Tracta built some of the first successful front-wheel drive vehicles anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, business was never super profitable and Grégoire shuttered his company in 1934 to become a design consultant.

Interestingly, a front-wheel drive Tracta won its class at Le Mans in 1927 and continued to compete there through 1930. This car is powered by a 1.6-liter straight-four from SCAP. The body on this car looks really long, but it’s a two-door sports car and it is eligible for the Le Mans Classic.

This example was sold new in the U.K. – one of just a few ever sold there. It was restored (mostly, anyway – the interior looks original) in the 1980s while owned by a front-wheel drive specialist. It’s a driver and will be a talking point wherever it goes. Tractas were never built in large numbers and don’t change hands often. This one should bring between $64,000-$85,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Bonhams’ lineup.

Update: Sold $63,938.

Ferrari Nembo Spyder

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1964 Ferrari 330 GT Nembo Spyder

Offered by H&H Classics | Duxford, U.K. | March 29, 2017

Photo – H&H Classics

There are four “Nembo” Ferrari Spyders (though one might be a coupe) and Nembo refers to two men: Giorgio Neri, Luciano Bonacini, Italians based in Modena with their own car shop. In the 1960s they started doing one-off Ferraris and it is thought that one of their early 250 GT-based Nembo Spyders was the basis for the design of the 275 NART Spyder, which this car sort of resembles.

The first three Nembo Spyders were all unique. This car, the fourth and final, wasn’t commissioned until the 1980s. A British collector wanted it made and the car was to be based around a 1964 330 GT 2+2. That means under the hood lies a 4.0-liter V-12 that makes 300 horsepower.

The wheelbase was also shortened at the time of construction, giving it a racier look than the four-seater 330 GT would’ve had. It is noted that all four of the Nembo Spyders (of which, this is the only one with a 4.0-liter V-12 and the only one in RHD) are ineligible for Ferrari Classiche certification because they are all technically re-bodied cars. It’s obviously very rare and quite attractive. It will be interesting to see what it brings at auction, but it is being sold at no reserve and the proceeds will benefit an air ambulance service. You can read more about it here and see more cars from H&H Classics here.

Update: Sold $744,015.

Bugatti Brescia Torpedo

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1923 Bugatti Type 27 Brescia Torpedo

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 9, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

The Bugatti Brescia was the marque’s first true road car. It was introduced as the Type 13 in 1910. More “Types” would follow, such as the Type 15, 17, 22, and 23. Production of the Brescia lasted through 1926 and their racing counterparts scored victories across Europe, lending some real credibility to the Bugatti brand.

The little-seen Type 27 was a development of the Types 22 and 23 (which different only slightly from earlier cars). The engine in the Type 27 is a 1.5-liter straight-four making 50 horsepower. The sporty Torpedo coachwork is thought to be the work of coachbuilders Lavocat et Marsaud.

This example had eight owners in its first three years! In the 1930s, it is said that it was used as a getaway car for robberies in Paris. Most of its ownership history is known and the famous automotive hoarders known as the Schlumpf brothers attempted to purchase this car in 1959. Luckily for enthusiasts everywhere, they were rebuffed. This car was mechanically restored in 2006 and is ready to drive. It should bring between $410,000-$580,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $541,015.

CAP-Fiat Scoiattolo

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1971 CAP-Fiat 500 Scoiattolo

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 9, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

Carrozzeria Arrigo Perini was an Italian coachbuilder from Trento, Italy, that was active in the 1960s. It just so happened that in the 1950s and 60s there was a craze around turning tiny cars into beach-going machines. Think of cars like the Fiat 500 Jolly and the Mini Moke.

CAP took a Fiat 500 in 1967 and made their own beach car prototype out of it. Arrigo Perini called it the Scoiattolo, which is Italian for squirrel… which is an interesting name for a car. It’s powered by the 500’s straight-twin engine of 499cc. The doors are removable and the windshield folds flat – so it’s pretty much an electric Barbie Jeep, except that instead of four-year-old girls roaming the driveways of the American suburbs, this will be driven by some really rich person around Monaco.

This example was registered to CAP until 1981 and was probably their publicity car. The price for one of these (between $19,000-$27,000) is much less than that of a Fiat Jolly, and it’s also much rarer – only about 200 were ever built. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Sold $9,836.

The First Porsche 917/10

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1970 Porsche 917/10 Prototype

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 8, 2017

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Porsche 917 is one of the most legendary series of race cars ever built. It began with cars like this on tracks like the Nurburgring, Le Mans, and Spa. It culminated in the mighty 917/30 dominated the Can-Am Series right out of existence.

There were 53 of the original 917s built beginning in 1969. At the end of 1970, Porsche had updated the car, dubbing it the “917/10.” This is the first 917/10 built, the prototype used for developing 917/10s that came after it. Wind tunnel testing began in 1971 and during that testing this car sported five different bodies. Over the years it has also been fitted with several different engines. It is currently restored to “1971 wind tunnel specification” with a 5.0-liter flat-12 making about 630 horsepower providing the oomph.

During testing, the car was driven by drivers such as Jo Siffert and Mark Donohue. After testing was completed, it was sold to a privateer who campaigned the car around Europe, the U.S. and South America. Between the end of the 1973 racing season and 1997, the car sat in storage.

Restored between 1998 and 2000, the car then entered the historic circuit. It was then restored again to the condition you see here, which is very interesting. Only about 14 917/10s were ever built. This one should bring between $4,850,000-$5,800,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Benz Victoria

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1893 Benz Victoria

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 9, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

This is the oldest vehicle we’ve ever featured here on this site (sorry, Roper Steam Motorcycle). That means an older vehicle has not come up for public sale since this site began over five years ago. Karl Benz is more or less universally considered the inventor of the automobile and he was the first to put them into production and sell them to customers – in 1888.

Karl’s first four-wheeled automobile was called the Victoria and it was available from 1892 through either 1898 or 1900. It’s truly a horseless carriage. The engine is a 1.7-liter, three horsepower horizontal single-cylinder that probably revs at such a slow speed that you just might be able to count each cylinder movement. It’s rear-engined, too… so it’s sort of like a supercar, no? It could do 11 mph providing the road wasn’t on an incline.

Benz automobiles were only sold between 1888 and 1926 and never in large numbers. For instance, in 1899 they only built 572 cars – which technically qualified them as the largest automaker in the world at the time. Sure, Mercedes-Benz still exists, but Benz-only automobiles are much harder to come by.

Anything pre-1900 is interesting. Anything pre-1895 is just downright fascinating. This car has no known history but it is thought to have been restored at some point. It should bring between $21,000-$32,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $30,739.

The First Dino

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1965 Dino Berlinetta Speciale by Pininfarina

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | February 11, 2017

Photo – Artcurial

Okay, so the first Dinos were actually Ferrari race cars, but the Dino road cars (which lacked Ferrari badging) went on sale in 1968 and lasted through 1976 (before being rolled back into the official Ferrari product line). Dinos were V6-powered cars, an engine that was co-developed by Enzo’s late son and car namesake, Dino.

Ferrari had Sergio Pininfarina get to work on the Dino road car in 1965. And the resulting concept car, seen here, was spectacular. Built on a short wheelbase 206 P competition chassis, the car debuted at the 1965 Paris Motor Show. The body is very low and streamlined. Check out the front “bumper” – it’s just the headlight glass. The 2.0-liter V-6 is mid-mounted, which would make the Dino the first road-going, mid-engined Ferrari.

Pininfarina retained the car after the show circuit and donated it to the ACO (organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans) and their Le Mans Museum, where it has remained since 1967. The car is being sold by the ACO to help fund future projects and is being sold because the mission of the museum is to present cars that have competed in the race (which this car did not).

The car is currently complete save for its mechanical internals (i.e. it’s missing important parts of the engine and transmission that make it go, like the pistons and the clutch). Regardless the pre-sale estimate for this important, one-off Ferrari concept car is $4,225,000-$8,445,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $4,653,824

Fiat Giannini 750 Sport

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1950 Fiat Giannini 750 Sport by Lotti

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 9, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

The Giannini brothers opened a garage in 1885 and started servicing Itala cars in 1922. Shortly thereafter they got involved with racing which led them to a profitable business (that an offshoot of still exists today) wrenching on Fiats.

In the 1940s, the Giannini brothers were building some really solid engines. In fact, they set world speed records in a Fiat Topolino using their know-how. The car you see here was actually built by the Benedetti brothers of Florence and was bodied by Carrozzeria Lotti of the same town. The car was originally based around a Fiat 1100, but later the engine was swapped for a Giannini 750cc straight-four.

This car has period race history, including:

  • 1952 Mille Miglia – 125th (with Carlo Chiti and a co-driver named Cioni)

The current owner has had this car since the early 1990s. It’s certainly one of a kind and even its name had to be created in order to tell what it is. It’s been completely restored and is likely eligible for historic events. It should bring between $270,000-$320,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

January 2017 Auction Highlights

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We have a leftover from 2016 to start with, that being Bonhams’ December Sale. The top seller was this 1967 Aston Martin DB6 that brought $454,529.

Photo – Bonhams

A pair of our feature cars failed to sell: the Lola and the Stanley. The Métallurgique exceeded its estimate, bringing $46,475. The Delahaye went for $78,276 and the Daimler $72,618. Click here for complete results.

Moving into 2017, we start with Mecum in Kissimmee. The top sale was this 1969 Maserati Ghibli Spyder for $920,000.

Photo – Mecum

Now on to our feature cars, of which there were many. Of the three Mustang SVT Cobra Rs, only the 1995 sold, bringing $35,000. The other two did not. The Impala Z11 also failed to meet its reserve.

Previously-featured cars that also failed to sell here include this Packard and the Hupp Comet. Of the five Max Wedge Mopars, the ’63 330 brought $70,000 and the Belvedere $140,000. The ’64 440 failed to sell at that same price. The Polara 500 and Dart 330 will both remain a mystery as to what happened because they’ve yet to be updated, even though every other lot was. Full results can be found here.

Moving into the week of sales in Arizona, we have RM Sotheby’s where the Ferrari 365 GTS we featured sold for $3,602,500. It was only outsold by the top seller, the 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster by Sindelfingen for $6,600,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The brand new Isotta Fraschini sold for $434,500 and the Cord L-29 $236,500. Click here for all of the results.

Now we’ll move on to the big daddy of Scottsdale auctions, Barrett-Jackson. We featured quite a number of cars, but not the top-seller, which was this 1964 Aston Martin DB5 for $1,485,000.

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

The Ghia Streamliner we featured at the last second failed to sell, but everything else did. Big dollar cars included the Chevrolet CERV-I (that we had previously featured) that sold for $1,320,000. Another previously featured car was the Ford EX Concept that brought $110,000 here. Steven Tyler’s Hennessey Venom GT went for charity at $800,000.

The Duesenberg from this sale sold for $880,000 and the Callaway brought $115,500. The Falcon F7 supercar went for $148,500, the Pontiac Kammback Concept brought $44,000, and the pair of Goggomobils sold for $12,100 each. Click here for complete results.

The last auction for this post is Gooding & Company’s Arizona results. The top price paid was $3,300,000 for this wonderful 1925 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix. Look at it – what a car.

Photo – Gooding & Company

The top selling of our feature cars was the Ferrari Superfast for $2,915,000. The AMC AMX/3 was pretty far behind, but still brought strong money at $891,000. The outlandish Tempo Matador sold for $132,000 and the Fiat 1100 failed to meet its reserve. Find complete results here.

Breguet Electrique

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1942 Breguet Type A2 Electrique

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | February 11, 2017

Photo – Artcurial

Breguet Aviation was, primarily, a manufacturer of aircraft founded by Louis Charles Breguet in 1911. They built planes up until 1971 when they merged with Dassault. However, during World War II, the French were unable to produce automobiles and, despite being at war, there was still some market for them. The major problem was that the Germans weren’t allowing the sale of gasoline.

So there were a couple of enterprising manufacturers (including Peugeot and Pierre Faure) that thought “well then we’ll just build electric cars instead” – and, with limited success, they did. Breguet got in on the action and this aircraft-influenced design (it’s pretty easy to picture it with wings) went on sale in 1941. The motor was powerful enough to scoot the car to 25 mph, though range suffered at such insane speeds, limiting it to a 40 mile range.

The small scale production did not help the high price, which was listed for more than a new Citroen Traction Avant. One of these is known to be in a museum, while the three others (including this one) are still owned by the Breguet family. Last driven in the 1990s, this well-preserved example should bring between $42,350-$63,525. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $44,204.