Tag Archives: auctions

1903 Thomas

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1903 Thomas Model 18 Tonneau

Offered by Bonhams | Amelia Island, Florida | March 12, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Edwin Ross Thomas and this E.R. Thomas Motor Company began producing automobiles in 1903 after years of engine and motorized bicycle sales. This is the same company that would became famous for the Thomas Flyer – one of America’s most famous automobiles because of its 1908 New York to Paris Race win.

This 1903 Model 18 is one of two models produced by Thomas in 1903. The cars were more or less identical except in trim, and this was the more expensive model and it was only offered in this body style. The engine is an eight horsepower single-cylinder.

This car sports a fresh restoration and its French-style body rides on glorious white tires (a ClassicCarWeekly.net fave!). We aren’t sure how many of these are left, but it can’t be many. Check out more from Bonhams here and see more from this sale here.

Update: Not sold.

Miller 91

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1927 Miller 91

Offered by RM Auctions | Amelia Island, Florida | March 14, 2015

Photo - RM Auctions

Photo – RM Auctions

Harry Miller was a racing genius. He was inventive and his cars dominated at Indy for a couple of decades in the early years of racing there. He was one of a handful of major, early names whose sole business purpose was to build race cars. He had no intentions of building road cars. When his company went bankrupt in 1933, everything was bought up by Fred Offenhauser, whose name would appear on cars at the Brickyard into the 1980s.

The Miller 91 was designed to meet AAA’s new rule for 1926 that limited engine capacity to 91 cubic inches (1.5-liters). This car does have an original Miller 91 engine – a 1.5-liter supercharged straight-four making between 155-250 horsepower (read more at RM’s site to found out about this huge range).

Only 12 or 13 rear-wheel drive Miller 91s were built. The current owner of this car acquired an original Miller 91 chassis and went about sourcing an actual Miller 91 engine, and gearbox – two extremely rare pieces as everything was made in-house in limited numbers – perhaps only about 15.

This car was never raced in period (at least not in this form… the original chassis may have a history, but it is unknown what it was used for). These old Indy cars almost never come up for sale so this is an awesome opportunity regardless of this car’s history. It should sell for between $600,000-$750,000. Click here to see more from this sale.

Update: Sold $770,000.

Maserati 200 SI

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1956 Maserati 200 SI

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 13, 2015

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

This is a special Maserati. It was the first 200S chassis produced and was a factory race car for all of its early life. At the end of 1956, the car returned to the factory to be turned into a 200 SI – which meant it now met requirements for FIA sanctioned races due to slight mechanical changes.

The engine is a 195 horsepower 2.0-liter straight-four. Immediately after transformation in SI form, it was sold to a privateer in Venezuela. Some of the highlights of this car’s competition history includes:

  • 1955 Targa Florio – DNF (with Giovanni Bracco)
  • 1956 Mille Miglia – DNF (with Luigi Bellucci)
  • 1956 Gran Premio di Napoli – 1st (with Bellucci)
  • 1956 Gran Premio di Bari – 1st (with Jean Behra)
  • 1956 Rheinland-Pfalz Preis Nurburgring – 2nd (with Stirling Moss)

Look at some of those names. This car was driven by some of the world’s best. Luigi Villoresi drove this car in the final race of his career. In one race in Havana, Stirling Moss outran a more powerful, six-cylinder Maserati 300S. The car was once owned by Jim Hall, founder of Chaparral and has spent extensive time in a Japanese collection.

The car is completely operable and organizers of historic events would love to have this thing show up. Only 28 200S cars were built and the 200 SI was only built for 1957 (except for this factory development car) before being replaced by the 250S in 1958. This is an exceptional car and it won’t come cheap. Read more here and check out more from Gooding & Company in Amelia Island here.

Update: Not sold.

Duesenberg SJ-514

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1934 Duesenberg Model SJ Touring Berline by Rollston

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 13, 2014

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

Another Friday, another Duesenberg. This one is coming from Gooding & Company’s auction in Amelia Island, Florida. There are a number of sales that take place around the Amelia Island Concours show and they happen to be great places to buy and sell grand American classics like this.

This is an SJ – a supercharged Model J. Many Model Js were supercharged later on in life, but this is one of 36 original factory supercharged examples. The 6.9-liter straight-eight puts out 320 horsepower in this form – an astounding number for 1934. Of those 36, only five have a closed body on them – with this one featuring a very road trip-worthy Touring Berline by Rollston. Can’t you just picture those roof rails (which were designed to hold 800 pounds of bags and trunks) loaded to the limits with luggage for a cross-continental voyage in the mid-30s?

This car was delivered new to a wealthy socialite who took it on several European tours. The original purchase price was $18,000 in 1934. Wealthy indeed. Until recently this car was entirely original, retaining most of its original paint – but the car has been repainted in the past two years. Hopefully the rest of the car remains as it was. It is expected to bring between $950,000-$1,400,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Gooding & Company in Amelia Island.

Update: Not sold.

AAR-Toyota Mk II GTP

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1990 AAR-Toyota Eagle HF89

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 13, 2015

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

Last year we featured another AAR-Toyota Eagle IMSA GTP car but from 1992. This was a predecessor to that car. Dan Gurney’s All American Racers (AAR), which dates back to the 1960s, was tasked with taking Toyota to the top in IMSA in the late 1980s.

This car goes by a couple of names. Sometimes it’s referred to as the Eagle Mk II GTP and sometimes it goes by HF89 (for aerodynamicist Hiro Fujimori). And other times, because this car was built in 1990, it is called an HF90. The driver for most of this car’s competition history was Juan Manuel Fangio II. It won five races and was the first Toyota GTP car to top the podium.

It’s powered by a 680 horsepower turbocharged 2.1-liter straight-four. That is a lot of power from such a tiny engine, so it probably sounds insane. It’s probably also a lot of fun (if you’re experienced) and terrifying if you aren’t. This be-winged early-90s prototype racer can be yours for between $450,000-$550,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

S/N: 89T004

Update: Sold $660,000.

Update: Not sold, RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island 2019

One Awesome Stutz

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1932 Stutz DV32 Tonneau Cowl Four-Passenger Speedster by LeBaron

Offered by RM Auctions | Amelia Island, Florida | March 14, 2015

Photo - RM Auctions

Photo – RM Auctions

LeBaron bodied some beautiful cars. The Stutz you see here has a very Duesenberg Model J look about it, and that’s probably because some of LeBaron’s Duesenberg designs are absolute classics.

Another Duesenberg link is the impressive engine under the hood of this car. The 5.3-liter straight-eight powerplant was designed by Fred Duesenberg himself. The 32-valve engine makes 156 horsepower. It was Stutz’s crown jewel and their most powerful model.

This is called a Four-Passenger Speedster, but most would classify it as a Dual Cowl Phaeton. It’s definitely sporty. Only about 200 DV32s were built before Stutz closed up shop in 1935. This was the only Dual Cowl Phaeton body style that Stutz sold on a DV32 chassis. There are three Four-Passenger Speedsters known today and two have the tonneau cowl.

The current owner acquired this car in 1990 and it was restored in 1995. It would be an incredible car to add to your collection. There are few cars that would be better to have. You can read more here and see more from this sale here.

Update: Sold $522,500.

Update: Sold, RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2023, $190,400.

Lotus Mk IIIB

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1951 Lotus Mk IIIB

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 13, 2015

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

The Lotus Mark III was the third Lotus model produced. It came about when Colin Chapman and his partners modified three Austin Sevens to compete in the 750 Motor Club formula. One car was completed in 1951 before a man named Adam Currie came around to the Lotus shop and ordered this car, the Mk IIIB – the first Lotus ever sold to a customer.

It is also the first car to wear the legendary yellow Lotus badge. The engine is a massively reworked straight-four from a Ford 10 that was slimmed down to 1.1-liters. Horsepower is estimated at 50. The body is aluminium and the car was raced in period by Colin Chapman, Adam Currie, and successful hillclimber and Formula One driver Tony Marsh.

The car’s competition years lasted solidly through 1954. The current owner acquired the car in 1994 from long-term ownership dating back to the late 1950s. A restoration was performed in 1995, taking it back to 1953 race livery. This is an important Lotus, one of the oldest examples money can buy. It can be yours for between $250,000-$450,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $247,500.

Jaguar XJR-9

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1988 Jaguar XJR-9

Offered by RM Auctions | Amelia Island, Florida | March 14, 2015

Photo - RM Auctions

Photo – RM Auctions

We’ve featured other members of Jaguar’s legendary XJR race car line in previous posts. Here is yet another. It’s an XJR-9, the fifth in the line of awesome race cars that Jag produced in the late 1980s through the early 1990s. The XJR-9 was the first of the series that was intended for both the World Sportscar Championship (Group C) as well as IMSA GTP.

This car is powered by a 6.0-liter V-12 making an estimated 670 horsepower. This particular chassis is a successful one with its competition history including:

  • 1988 24 Hours of Daytona – 26th (with Jan Lammers, Danny Sullivan, and Davy Jones)
  • 1988 12 Hours of Sebring – 7th (with Lammers, Sullivan, Jones, and John Neilson)
  • 1989 24 Hours of Daytona – 2nd (with Lammers, Neilson, Price Cobb, and Andy Wallace)
  • 1989 12 Hours of Sebring – 2nd (with Neilson and Cobb)
  • 1990 24 Hours of Daytona – 1st (with Jones, Lammers, and Wallace)
  • 1990 12 Hours of Sebring – 3rd (with Jones, Lammers, and Wallace)

So there you have it – this is the winner of the 1990 24 Hours of Daytona. It was a successful Tom Walkinshaw Racing team car for its entire racing life. It remained in the TWR museum until 2003 and was restored in 2006. The Castrol livery is a really good racing livery. Read more here and see more from this sale here.

Update: Sold $2,145,000.

February 2015 Auction Highlights

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The first auction we’re covering in our February rundown is actually Mecum’s Kissimmee sale held in January. Our featured 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona (with a Hemi) was the top sale for $900,000. On the other end of the spectrum, another of our feature cars, the International Scout, sold for $14,750. There were a lot of interesting cars, but we’ll call out this sweet 1971 Dodge Super Bee Hemi that brought $190,000.

Photo - Mecum Auctions

Photo – Mecum Auctions

Our featured highly-optioned ’71 Charger R/T Hemi failed to sell. Check out full results here.

And we’ll jump back to the first major sale of the year, Coys’ same-day doubleheader. We featured three cars from their sale in the Netherlands, with the 1956 Gaz 12 blowing it’s pre-sale estimate out of the water, more than quadrupling the low end of its estimate by selling for $107,890. The 1986 ZiL 115 brought $97,890. And the Cadillac Model B went for $54,440. Check out full results here.

Next up we have Bonhams’ sale in Paris where this 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Cabriolet was the top sale at $2,172,068.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Of our feature cars, a few failed to sell: the Renault 40CV, Excelsior, Alfa Romeo RL, and the Alfa Romeo Pescara. The Borgward Rennsport brought $256,698 and the Isotta 8A SS sold for $1,066,288. Check out full results here.

Artcurial’s Paris sale featured the fascinating Baillon Collection of barn find French classics. There were some Italians in there too, and this buried-under-newspapers, garage fresh 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder sold for a world record $21,980,656.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder

Photo – Artcurial

Of our feature cars, the Croizemarie and the Renault Coupe-Chauffeur failed to sell. The Gregoire brought $152,817 while the Fouillaron Type G brought $120,645. The Footwork F1 car sold for $209,119. And the Bugatti Profile Aerodynamique went for $450,409. This sale had some pretty incredible results for some of the barn find cars. Check out full results here.

And finally, from Paris, RM’s auction where one of the best Ferraris ever was the top sale. This 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso sold for $1,859,480.

Photo - RM Auctions

Photo – RM Auctions

We featured a pair of cars that RM had left over (or, more appropriately, held onto until they had the perfect venue) from the John Moir collection: the Lancia Belna and Voisin C3. Strangely, they both brought the same amount: $243,656.

Another Lancia we featured, an 037 Stradale, sold for $384,720. The Honeymoon Express Bentley went for $769,440 and the Iso Grifo Stradale brought $1,186,220. Check out full results here.

Duesenberg J-395

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1931 Duesenberg Model J Disappearing Top Convertible Coupe by Murphy

Offered by RM Auctions | Fort Worth, Texas | May 2, 2015

Photo - RM Auctions

Photo – RM Auctions

Here is another Duesenberg from the Andrews Collection. This is also a highly desirable version. The Disappearing Top Convertible Coupe is a very attractive, very sporty body style and it was done by the Walter M. Murphy Company, the most prolific Duesenberg coachbuilder.

Unlike the car we featured a week ago, this is an un-supercharged Model J, meaning that the 6.9-liter straight-eight puts on “only” 265 horsepower. This car has an interesting history as, for a large portion of its life, it was in collection of Pacific Auto Rentals – who provided cars for movies. This car has a number of credits to its name, regularly showing up on screen between 1949 and the late 1970s.

In the 80s, it became part of the Imperial Palace Collection and was eventually acquired by Dean Kruse of Kruse Auctions. It has been in the Andrews Collection likely since 2008, when it sold at an RM sale for $2,640,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $3,520,000.

Update: Sold, RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island 2023, $4,295,000.