Tag Archives: auctions

Sizaire-Berwick

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1913 Sizaire-Berwick 60HP Limousine by Labourdette

Offered by Aguttes | Neuilly, France | June 20, 2021

Photo – Aguttes

Sizaire-Berwick was founded in Paris but was financed in England. The chassis and engines were manufactured in the Courbevoie factory, and they were bodied in England, where most of the cars were to be sold. Maurice and Georges Sizaire had previously founded Sizaire-Naudin, and they teamed up with Frederick Berwick (the British importer of Corre La Licorne) in 1913 (the year after they left Sizaire-Naudin).

The company managed to churn out 139 examples before WWI started. They were powered by a Maurice Sizaire-designed 4.1-liter inline-four that made 60 horsepower when new. Those 139 chassis built before the war? Well most ended up bodied for the British military as armored cars.

This one, by some miracle, ended up bodied by Labourdette. It’s never been restored and has spent time on museum duty after staying disassembled with its first owner (at a castle, naturally) until 1968. It’s kind of unusual for its time in that it has an electric starter and completely closed bodywork.

After WWI, there ended up being British and French-built Sizaire-Berwick cars. Things got confusing and messy, and the marque disappeared after 1927. This car is expected to sell for between $100,000-$145,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Castagna Vittoria

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1995 Castagna Vittoria

Offered by Finarte | Online | June 14-28, 2021

Carrozzeria Castagna was an Italian coachbuilder whose roots dated back to the 1820s. During the 1920s and 30s, the company bodied many cars for companies like Isotta Fraschini, Mercedes-Benz, and Alfa Romeo.

The brand was revived in the mid-1990s, and they still exist. They re-debuted at the 1995 Geneva International Motor Show with this, the Vittoria. It’s essentially a re-bodied Alfa Romeo SZ. The front end actually kind of looks like it was ripped off a Nissan 240SX or something, while the rear looks like it was designed by someone who never met the designer of the front end.

The powerplant remains the same: a 207-horsepower, 3.0-liter V6. It’s the only one like it, and the pre-sale estimate is listed by Finarte as $235,000-$275,000. Which seems like… a lot. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

McLaren MP4-25

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2010 McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Silverstone, U.K. | July 17, 2021

Photo – RM Sotheby’s (OBVIOUSLY)

Booo your lame watermark, RM Sotheby’s. I have no patience for that kind of old-school internet garbage. Anyway, this one-car auction will be a pretty remarkable opportunity for some well-heeled individual to acquired the first-ever F1-race-winning car driven by Lewis Hamilton to come to market.

The dude has won 98 races. 98! And that’s as of this writing… he’ll probably have a few more by the time this thing sells. But this isn’t one of the boring, show-killing Mercedes Silver Arrows, this is a McLaren. From back when Lewis actually had to try. The 2010 season was a good one. Five drivers won races, but it was kind of a toss-up as to who would win every week. Vettel won the championship with Red Bull, but Alonso was right there in a Ferrari. Hamilton was fourth in the driver’s championship, just ahead of his teammate Jenson Button.

The MP4-25 was powered by a Mercedes FO 108X 2.4-liter V8. Hamilton won three races in 2010, including the Turkish Grand Prix in this car. It is unclear what other races it competed in, as RM has yet to publish a full lot description. The pre-sale estimate here is $5,000,000-$7,000,000. It’s also unclear who is selling the car and how, if it isn’t McLaren themselves, it escaped the factory’s control. The world in which a random person propositions a major F1 team to purchase a previous season’s race-winning car is quite a different world than the one in which I spend my days. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $6,503,035.

Reliant Scimitar 4×4

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1972 Reliant Scimitar GTE Ferguson 4×4 Prototype

Offered by Brightwells | Leominster, U.K. | June 23, 2021

Photo – Brightwells

The Reliant (and later, Middlebridge) Scimitar GTE was a two-door shooting brake wagon/sports car. Initially – in 1964 – there was a two-door Scimitar coupe, but that evolved into the GTE wagon-ish sort of thing in 1968. Production of various models continued through 1990. They were all front-engine and rear-wheel drive.

Except for this one. It still has the same fiberglass body as other Scimitars, but it also has a four-wheel-drive system from FF Developments, a company that worked with developing such systems, including for a Formula One car (via its predecessor company, Ferguson Research).

Power is from a 3.0-liter Ford V6. This car remained with FF Developments until one of the engineers working on it managed to buy it. From there it passed to another owner, eventually ending up in the Jaguar Land Rover collection, cars from which were sold a few years ago (including this one). The current owner bought it then and has brought the thing back to life. It’s now selling at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $23,498.

BMW Z8

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2001 BMW Z8

Offered by Mecum | Monterey, California | August 14, 2021

Photo – Mecum

The Z8 was BMW’s retro-inspired halo car that was sold between 2000 and 2002, with a revised Alpina Roadster available for 2003. The car was styled after BMW’s legendary 507 (one of, if not the first, car this site featured was a 507).

Power is from a 4.9-liter V8 rated at 395 horsepower. It could hit 60 in 4.2 seconds and was limited to a 155-mph top end. This car retains its factory body-color hardtop and is one of 62 built finished in red over Crema leather. A total of 5,703 Z8s were produced. While they are sought after today, their $128,000 base price when new did not move them off of dealer lots quickly 20 years ago.

That said, good luck picking one up for under $150,000 today. They’ve aged pretty well and are certainly a future classic. Click here for more info on this one, and here for more from Mecum in Monterey.

Update: Sold $247,500.

Dino 246 GTS

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1974 Dino 246 GTS

Offered by Silverstone Auctions | Sywell Park, U.K. | June 5, 2021

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

So, technically, Dino was a separate marque from Ferrari. This car does not have any Ferrari badging. Instead, that little yellow rectangle up front says “Dino” – which was the name of Enzo Ferrari‘s son who died in 1956. Three road cars were produced under the Dino marque, including the 206 GT/S, the 246 GT/S, and the 308 GT4. Even still, they are still generally referred to as “Ferrari Dino”s.

The 246 looked very similar to the 206 it replaced when it launched in 1969. It was the first “Ferrari” produced in massive numbers – 3,761 were made between the GT coupe and the GTS targa. Power is from a mid-mounted 2.4-liter V6 rated at 192 horsepower when new (in Europe… U.S.-spec cars had less power).

The GTS was sold between 1971 and 1974, and 1,274 were made. This right-hand-drive example is one of 72 finished from the factory in Nocciola Metallizzato. Two rare, sought-after options included Daytona-style seats (“chairs”) and Group 4-style fender flares (“flares”). This one has the standard seats, but it does have the flares. The pre-sale estimate (or “guide price” in Silverstone-speak) is $530,000-$600,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $536,485.

DAF 44

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1975 DAF 44

Offered by Barons | Sandown Park, U.K. | June 8, 2021

Photo – Barons

DAF still exists as a heavy truck manufacturer, but passenger car production, which started in 1958, wrapped for good in 1976. The 44 was a small family car styled by Giovanni Michelotti. It went on sale in 1966 and lasted through 1974. This one is titled as a ’75, which may have been the year it was first sold.

DAF models were usually technically interesting. This car has a front-engine/rear-wheel-drive layout and is powered by an 844cc flat-twin rated at 34 horsepower. It used DAF’s “Variomatic” transmission, which was essentially the first successful CVT gearbox.

The 44 was replaced by the short-lived 46 in late 1974 after nearly 168,000 had been built. This example is actually quite nice, and it should bring between $1,200-$2,100. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $4,409.

Alfa 155 Touring Car

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1996 Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI ITC

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Milan, Italy | June 15, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The 155 was Alfa’s cool, boxy sedan in the 1990s. It was actually produced between 1992 and 1998, and Alfa took it racing in the early part of the decade. We’ve featured a homologation prototype of a 155 race-car-for-the-road in the past.

The 155 V6 TI was campaigned in DTM and the International Touring Car Championship between 1993 and 1996. This is a factory race car powered by a 490-horsepower, 2.5-liter V6. It’s also got four-wheel drive and can hit 60 in 2.5 seconds as well as 185 mph on the straights. Just imagine it bouncing over curbing at Europe’s most famous race tracks.

This particular chassis competed in the 1996 International Touring Car Championship with driver Nicola Larini, who won races with it at Mugello and Interlagos. The current owner bought it in 2018 and had it prepped for the DTM Classics Series at an insane cost. So it’s ready to go. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $940,300.

1947 Kaiser

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1947 Kaiser Custom

Offered by Mecum | Tulsa, Oklahoma | June 11-12, 2021

Photo – Mecum

Henry J. Kaiser had many successful businesses before getting into automobiles, including a construction company that built the Hoover Dam along with Kaiser Shipyards, Kaiser Aluminum, and Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser-Frazer Motors’ first year of production was 1947, and two models were offered on the Kaiser side of things: the Special and Custom.

These models were some of the first fresh post-war designs, and the higher-spec Custom retailed for $2,301. It’s powered by a 3.7-liter inline-six rated at 100 horsepower when new. The Custom was much rarer than the Special, with only 5,412 produced (compared to over 65,000 Specials).

This one is said to be largely original. Kaiser ran into financial problems in 1949 and everything declined thereafter, although some of their designs were still quite solid. This launch-year Kaiser looked pretty sharp when it was new (they were styled by Howard “Dutch” Darrin, after all). And they are still pretty interesting. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $10,450.

Koenigsegg CCR

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2004 Koenigsegg CCR

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Milan, Italy | June 15, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Koenigsegg produced three prototypes of its first car, the CC, before entering production with the CC8S in 2002. Two years later they upped the ante with the CCR, which was an evolution of the CC8S with revised braking and suspension systems. Aerodynamic updates, bigger wheels, and engine upgrades were also part of the package, which made the CCR one of the most outrageous supercars of the 2000s.

Built between 2004 and 2006, the CCR is powered by an 806 horsepower, twin-supercharged 4.6-liter V8. It was capable of hitting 60 in about 3.2 seconds on its way to a record-breaking 245 mph.

Only 14 examples were produced, and this is number three. It was the first CCR unveiled to the public and is finished in Lava Orange over a pretty decent-looking interior for a low-volume, upstart supercar manufacturer from 2004. No estimate is available, but it sure won’t be cheap. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $946,974.