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’56 DeSoto Fireflite

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1956 DeSoto Fireflite Convertible

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Palm Beach, Florida | April 12-15, 2018

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

DeSoto was introduced as a new marque by Walter Chrysler for the 1929 model year and in 1933 Chrysler took it upmarket. In 1955 they introduced the Fireflite as their top-level car. For 1956 the cars were mostly carried over, but the introduction of the Adventurer put the Fireflite as the mid-level car in DeSoto’s lineup.

For 1956 the Fireflite could be had in four different body styles (plus a limited package on the convertible to commemorate the car’s use as the Indy 500 Pace car in 1956). A non-Pacesetter Convertible would’ve run you $3,454 in 1956 and 1,485 were built (pace cars included).

Power came from a 255 horsepower, 5.4-liter V-8. A no expense spared frame-off restoration was performed and the car wears two-tone Shell Pink and Charcoal. It looks like ice cream on wheels. DeSoto Convertibles always bring big money at Barrett-Jackson auctions, but most of those are ’57 or ’58 cars. It’ll be interesting to see if this beautiful car brings as much. It is coming from the famous John Staluppi Cars of Dreams Collection. You can read more here and see more from this sale here.

Update: Sold $225,500.

January 2018 Auction Highlights

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We’ll start off January’s first results rundown with Bonhams’ final sale from December, their London Olympia sale. The top sale was this 1964 Aston Martin DB5 for $619,297.

Photo – Bonhams

Both of our feature cars from this sale sold, with the Bristol 411 bringing $58,459 and the TVR 2500 $33,845. Click here for more results.

Mecum held the first sale of 2018 (in Kissimmee, Florida). A number of our feature cars sold, beginning with two previously-featured wagons: a 1948 Buick that brought $29,700 and a 1969 Dodge Coronet 500 that sold for $19,800. The Plymouth Pickup sold for $36,300, the Dodge $55,000, and the ’72 International Pickup $26,400.

The top sale was this 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari for $3,410,000.

Photo – Mecum

Cars that didn’t sell included some pickups, like the Mercury, Ford, and Chevrolet. The Buehrig Carriage Roof Coupe we featured a while ago also failed to sell here. The Brumos Porsche 911 GT3 didn’t find a new owner in Kissimmee, after nearly a year of trying. The ZR1 Corvette and the Ruf BTR were also no-sales. More can be found here.

Next up, Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale. We featured a few of their “Reserve” cars – all of which failed to sell: the Talbot-Lago, Rolls-Royce Phantom III, a previously-featured Plymouth Concept Car, and a previously-featured Shelby Cobra Dragonsnake.

Meanwhile, the top sale was a charity car: a 2017 Ford GT. It brought $2,500,000. Click here for more results.

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

On to RM Sotheby’s in Arizona. Every car we featured from this sale sold, including both Alfa Romeos, with the Boano Speciale bringing $1,270,000 and the oldest surviving Alfa Romeo in the world, $445,000. Both Fords also sold, with the Model K selling for $252,000 and the Brewster-Ford $89,600. The top seller was this 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C for $2,947,500.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Rolls-Royce Phantom III from this sale did sell, bringing $593,500. And the beautiful Ferrari 212 Inter brought $1,187,500. Click here for complete results.

And finally, for this rundown, Gooding & Company in Scottsdale. The top sale was the Ferrari 275 GTB Speciale we featured. It sold for $8,085,000. The Bristol 402 we featured failed to sell, as did the Bugatti Type 29/30.

We’ll award Most Interesting to this 1963 Iso Grifo A3/L Prototype that brought $1,760,000.

Photo – Gooding & Company

The Kaiser Dragon we featured sold for $37,400 and the D.B. HBR5 $47,300. Click here for more results and to see the cars that are still for sale.

Saoutchik-bodied Talbot-Lago

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1951 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe by Saoutchik

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 13-21, 2018

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

It’s kind of crazy to think this car is from 1951, especially if you consider the golden age of coachbuilding to be in the 1930s. This was pretty late in the game to get a custom-bodied car from a major coachbuilder as luxury cars pretty much standardized themselves not too long after this car was built.

But it helped that there was such a luxurious manufacturer like Talbot-Lago still operating at this point. The T26 Grand Sport was new for 1948 and Talbot-Lago sent all of the road cars to coachbuilders (there were race cars bodied in-house). This one was bodied by the legendary Jacques Saoutchik and it’s pure art.

Under the hood you’ll find the 4.5-liter straight-six that pumps out 190 horsepower. This body is one-of-one and is from one of the most sought-after coachbuilders of the post-WWII era. Few T26 Grand Sports were built and even fewer remain. You’ll need at least a million to top the reserve, but in the meantime, check out more about this one here and see more from Barrett-Jackson’s ever-expanding Scottsdale lineup here.

Update: Not sold.

Copper-bodied Rolls-Royce

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1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville by Freestone & Webb

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 13-21, 2018

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

The Phantom III was the third (obviously) Phantom model introduced by Rolls-Royce and the final large car introduced by the company before WWII. First shown in 1936, the company built just 727 examples before production was suspended in 1939. It did not return after the war.

The body that this car carries was actually custom built in 1946 for the car’s second owner, as it was originally supplied with a limousine body. Freestone & Webb of London built this over the top, yet still gorgeous Sedanca de Ville body in a style that could’ve certainly been built in 1937. The windswept fenders and running boards are brushed copper over steel, as is the radiator and other trim pieces.

The Phantom III was the first Rolls-Royce to be powered by a V-12 engine – and the last until the Silver Seraph went on sale in 1998. That V-12 is a 7.3-liter unit that makes an “adequate” amount of power (though in reality it was about 160 horsepower). This is a very striking automobile that has been making concours appearances since it was essentially new. It will be one of a few cars offered at Barrett-Jackson this January with a reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

October 2017 Auction Highlights, Pt. III

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October was a busy month. This is our third results rundown and we start with Barrett-Jackson in Las Vegas. There wasn’t any time to feature anything from this sale, but the biggest money went to this 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder for $1,760,000. Click here for more results.

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

Across the ocean we go to our next sale, Osenat in France. We didn’t get to feature anything, but the top sale was this 1968 Lancia Flaminia Coupe for $97,518. Click here to see the rest of their lots.

Photo – Osenat

Let’s stay in France for Leclere’s Parisian motorcars sale. Again, we lacked a feature car here but the biggest money went to this 1982 Renault 5 Turbo privateer rally car for $197,358. The rest of their sales can be found here.

Photo – Leclere

Brightwell’s Bicester Classic & Vintage Cars sale was held in October and we were able to feature three cars from this one. Of those three, the Autovia sedan brought the most at $98,463. The top sale overall was $160,167 for this 1976 Ferrari 308 GTB.

Photo – Brightwells

The Friswell we featured sold for $31,508 and the Calthorpe beat its estimate, bringing $27,569. Everything else can be found here.

And finally, Bonhams in Padua, Italy. Our lone feature car, the Abarth Monomille GT, sold for $120,111. The top sale overall? This 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster for $1,040,968. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Bonhams

June 2017 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

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We’re back with more from June, starting with H&H Classics’ second June sale, this one held at Woodcote Park. The top seller was this 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage, featuring the world’s tallest antenna, which brought $317,992.

Photo – H&H Classics

The Tojeiro-Climax we featured failed to meet its reserve. More results can be found here.

We move across the Channel to Osenat’s June sale. The Tracta we featured brought big money ($786,394) – but it wasn’t enough to dethrone this 1939 Bugatti Type 57C Cabriolet by Gangloff from the top of the sale sheet. It brought $1,414,979.

Photo – Osenat

Both of our other feature cars sold, with the other Bugatti in the sale bringing $321,130 and the Turcat-Mery $120,423. Click here for complete results.

Back to the U.K. for Brightwells’ Modern Classics sale. We weren’t able to feature anything from this sale, but the top sale was $97,257 for this 1995 Porsche 911 Turbo. More results from Brightwells can be found on their site here.

Photo – Brightwells

Next up: Barrett-Jackson’s “Northeast” sale. The top sale here was a basically brand new 2017 Ferrari 488 Spider that sold for $434,500 – which was definitely not a great deal for the buyer, as you can buy one of these off the lot for less (even with the same options). Someone got caught up in the auction fervor…

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

The Tiffany neo-classic we featured brought $13,200. You can see the rest of the results here.

Finally, we have Auctions America on the West Coast in Santa Monica. The top sale was this 1960 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster that sold for $1,100,000.

Photo – Auctions America

The Ferrari 599 GTO we featured failed to sell, but the Duesenberg brought $880,000. And the spacey Tatra 603 sold for $41,800. Click here for complete results.

Tiffany

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1989 Tiffany Coupe

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Uncasville, Connecticut | June 21-24, 2017

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

Gather round neoclassic fans! What we have here is a Tiffany. It was built by Classic Motor Carriages Inc. of Opa-Locka, Florida. This company is best remembered (if at all) as the manufacturer of the Gazelle neoclassic/Mercedes SSK replica. The Tiffany, with its Zimmer Golden Spirit looks, was probably the nicest car they built.

The Tiffany is based on then-modern Mercury mechanicals. It’s powered by a 4.9-liter Ford V-8 and has such amenities as a power sunroof, power steering and a nice 1980s sound system. And, oh yeah, as is required in a neoclassic: it has a musical horn.

These are perfect cars if you like to drive in parades and/or are a budding fashion designer with a penchant for stealing Dalmatian puppies. CMC got hit with a big lawsuit in 1994 and they are sort of still in business under another name, but their days in the turn-key neoclassic business are long behind them. 1989 was the final year for the Tiffany and this one will sell at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Barrett-Jackson’s auction lineup.

Update: Sold $13,200.

April 2017 Auction Highlights

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We’ll kick off April with Auctions America’s Ft. Lauderdale sale. The top seller was this 1963 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for $1,200,000.

Photo – Auctions America

Both Lamborghinis we featured failed to sell, the Diablo and Jalpa. Oh, and the Suzuki Cappuccino we featured was withdrawn from the sale. Check out complete results here.

On to Mecum in Houston. This 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Fastback was the top sale at $325,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Oakland we featured sold for $30,000 and the Stutz seemed like a bargain at $35,000. Click here for more results.

Early April is when Barrett-Jackson holds their annual Palm Beach sale. We only featured one car: a Torino Talladega that sold for $41,800. The top sale was this 2006 Ford GTX1 that brought $401,500. Click here for the rest of the results.

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

Next up, Brightwells and the first of their two April sales. The top sale at this one was this 1923 Vauxhall OD 23-60 Kington Tourer that went for $80,730.

Photo – Brightwells

Both of our feature cars sold, with the Riley bringing more at $47,196. The McEvoy Special came in at $28,566. A previously-featured Aster sold for $32,292. Click here for everything else.

Finally, Worldwide Auctioneers held their Texas Classic Auction. We featured a beautifully original 1912 Cadillac that sold for $36,300. The top sale was this 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for $1,111,000. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers

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.

Ghia Streamline X

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1955 Ghia Streamline X Coupe

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 21, 2017

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

We generally don’t feature cars on Saturdays, but I’m making an exception here for two reasons: 1. the ownership history of this car tells me it is unlikely to come up for sale again anytime soon (if it sells) and 2. I just turned on Barrett-Jackson on Velocity for coverage of Friday’s sale (as I watch RM Sotheby’s on my laptop) and I happened to look at their catalog (which I was doing almost daily for about a month) and I found this car. It wasn’t in their catalog when I finalized the cars we were going to feature from Arizona’s sales but appeared as a late-add by Barrett-Jackson (or, at least, not a timely addition).

Anyway, we’re here, so let’s talk about what this is. Built at the the request of Chrysler chief Virgil Exner, this Ghia-bodied streamliner is the perfect Jet Age concept car. Why? Well it’s powered by a turbine for starters. It only puts out 70 horsepower (and idles at a bat shit crazy 54,000 rpm), but in the world of turbines and sleek aerodynamics, it was theoretically enough power to push this thing to 140-160 mph. The only cars doing that kind of speed in 1955 were doing it on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans.

It debuted at the 1955 Turin Auto Show and was dubbed “Gilda.” The interior (and the engine compartment) are wild and hearken back to an era when people dreamed of the “car of tomorrow.” Ghia eventually put it on display at the Henry Ford Museum where it stayed until 1969 when it was acquired by Bill Harrah. The Blackhwak Museum got it when that collection was dispersed and the current owner bought it in 2005. It’s been to Pebble Beach, Ville d’Este, and was even a no-sale at a Gooding auction years back.

Now Barrett-Jackson is featuring it as the wildest car in their lineup this year (well that, and this). Anyway, I’m writing this late on a Friday night for a Saturday morning post because it was starting to make me sick to my stomach that I was potentially missing out on featuring a car I’d never see offered for public sale again – it has, after all, spent most of its life in museums. Click here for more info. Price? Well the Blackhawk was offering it for $125,000 in 2001 and it no-sold at Gooding with an estimate of $1.0-1.3 million. Expect the owner to want more than that at Barrett-Jackson later today.

Update: Not sold.