Tag Archives: cars

Morgan Grand Prix

Posted on by
Reply

1919 Morgan Grand Prix

Offered by Aguttes | Paris, France | March 2024

Photo – Aguttes

H.F.S. Morgan had his own automobile dealership and service center by 1904 and ended up building himself his own car five years later. The next year, he was producing them for sale, and the Morgan Motor Company was born.

He used his cars early on in competition settings, including the 1913 Cyclecar Grand Prix, in which a Morgan won. The car that won was the basis for the company’s Grand Prix model that followed, which is what is shown here. It has a Motosacoche Acacias Geneve engine of 1.1 liters in capacity (a V-twin). This car has one of two known remaining engines of the type.

The Grand Prix model was offered from 1913 through 1926. And the three-wheeled design it pioneered and started to perfect would be the basis for three-wheeled Morgans for decades to come. This TT model is pretty stripped down, and it has an estimate of $65,000-$100,000. More info can be found here.

Koenigsegg Agera RSR

Posted on by
Reply

2016 Koenigsegg Agera RSR

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Dubai, U.A.E. | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Koenigsegg Agera was produced between 2010 and 2018. An R model was offered during that time, as was an S and RS. The RS was sold between 2015 and 2018 and broke the record for the world’s fastest production car with a top speed of 278 mph. Just 27 examples of the RS were produced.

It is powered by a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8 that made 1,160 horsepower. Three examples of the RSR were produced as part of the run of 27 RS cars – all of them for the Japanese market. Differences from the RS include a top-mounted rear wing and a shorter intake scoop for the targa top.

This, the second of the three RSRs, has about 625 miles on it and carries an estimate of $2,800,000-$3,400,000. More can be found here.

Aston Martin Valkyrie

Posted on by
Reply

2023 Aston Martin Valkyrie Coupe

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Dubai, U.A.E. | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Valkyrie is one of these new-era supercars with complicated Formula One-style hybrid powertrains that languish in a development period for years before finally coming to market long after everyone’s initial excitement has worn off. The Valkyrie name was chosen after a bunch of other code names were used following the car’s 2016 (!) introduction.

Or maybe it was more of a tease than in introduction. Anyway, production didn’t commence until late 2021. They said they will only build 150 of these with a retail price of about $3,500,000 when new.

Power comes from a 6.5-liter V12 that has been tweaked by Cosworth to produce around 1,000 horsepower. Additionally, it has an electric boost system that can add another 160 horsepower. Aston has since added a track-only variant as well as an open-top Spider.

The estimate on this one is $2,900,000-$3,300,000. Click here for more info.

Hennessey Venom F5 Roadster

Posted on by
Reply

2023 Hennessey Venom F5 Roadster

Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | March 2023

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Well here is a wild top-tier boutique supercar. Hennessey Special Vehicles is an offshoot of the Viper tuning company and they’ve made two supercars since 2010: the Lotus-based Venom GT and the Venom F5, the latter of which is not a stretched Exige but its own thing. It went on sale in 2020, with a roadster arriving for 2022. Production of that targa-top variant is limited to 30 examples. This is the second. We’ll see if they actually end up building all 30.

Power is provided by a twin-turbocharged 6.6-liter V8 that was developed in-house and based on Chevy’s LS series of engines. It is rated at 1,817 horsepower. The coupe variant has a claimed top speed of 301 mph. Which is insane.

This car has under 600 miles, and bidding is over $1.7 million as of this writing. The auction ends today, and you can watch it wind down here.

CLK GTR GT1

Posted on by
Reply

1997 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR GT1

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This is, ostensibly, the racing variant of Mercedes’ C208 CLK-Class. Except that the true racing variant of the C208 was the CLK DTM. The GTR was an entirely different animal, sharing just the “CLK” name and a loose interpretation of the front grille and headlights. The CLK GTR was so extreme that it had to be homologated as its own thing, of which 20 road-going coupes and six roadsters were built. They were the most expensive new cars in the world when they were sold in the late ’90s/early ’00s.

The racing versions were pretty special as well. Initially campaigned in the 1997 FIA GT Championship, the cars proved somewhat successful and were replaced by the CLK LM by the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans and later by the doomed CLR for 1999.

Power is provided by a 6.0-liter V12 that made 600 horsepower, and the competition history for this chassis (004) includes:

  • 1997 FIA GT 4 Hours of Nurburgring – 1st (with Bernd Schneider and Klaus Ludwig)
  • 1997 FIA GT 4 Hours of Spa – 2nd (with Schneider and Alexander Wurz)
  • 1997 FIA GT 1000km Suzuka – 7th (with Schneider, Wurz, and Aguri Suzuki)
  • 1997 FIA GT 3 Hours of Sebring – 1st (with Schneider and Ludwig)

It was sold by Mercedes-Benz to its current and only private owner in 2015. It’s a pretty big deal from a golden era of GT racing – this car competed against McLaren F1 GTRs and Porsche 911 GT1s, etc. The action closes on this one in two days. Find out more here.

March-Alfa Romeo

Posted on by
Reply

1990 March-Alfa Romeo 90CA

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

March Engineering built their first CART open-wheel race car in 1981 after being around Formula One since 1970. The 1990 90CA would be their last chassis to compete at Indianapolis. Only three 90CA chassis were built.

Two of them were powered by Alfa Romeo engines for that year’s 500. It was a turbocharged 2.65-liter V8 that made about 700 horsepower. The competition history for this car, 90CA-001, includes:

  • 1990 Indianapolis 500 – 13th (with Al Unser)

For the rest of the season the car was campaigned by Roberto Guerrero in various races, also for Patrick Racing. This car represents the last time either March or Alfa Romeo competed at Indy. And it was driven by one of the best ever at the Speedway. The estimate here is $80,000-$120,000. Click here for more info.

Ferrari 365 California

Posted on by
Reply

1967 Ferrari 365 California

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Here’s one of very few classic Ferraris we haven’t been able to feature in the last… 13 years! And there’s a good reason for that: there aren’t many of them. The 365 line of cars replaced the 330 line as well as the 500 Superfast. The 365 California was the first in the line, and it was the direct replacement for the Superfast. The later 365 GT 2+2 would replace the 330 GT 2+2 and be much more common.

The California rode on the 500 Superfast chassis and wore bodywork by Pininfarina. Power was from an enlarged version of the 330 GT’s V12 that now displaced 4.4 liters and made 320 horsepower. Just 14 were produced.

This one was sold new in California and has been with its current owner since 2006. They do not change hands often, and when they do they command a premium. The estimate here is $4,000,000-$4,500,000. Click here for more info.

Countach 5000 QV

Posted on by
Reply

1988 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Here’s another Countach. This one is the followup to the LP500 S, and it’s called the 5000 QV, for quattrovalvole. Produced from 1985 until 1988, it was the last Countach variant to really stick mostly to the original styling before Horacio Pagani updated it for 25th Anniversary Edition duty. 610 were built.

Yes, the 5000 QV was boxier than the original LP 400. It had big wheel arch flares, impact bumpers for the U.S. market, and the big V-shaped rear wing, which was optional. There was also an optional front wing… which is one of the most insane ’80s automotive touches there was.

Power is from a 5.2-liter V12 with four valves per cylinder (hence the “QV”) that made 414 horsepower in U.S.-market trim with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection. This car has been converted to European-spec, with six downdraft Weber carburetors. When new, cars equipped like this made 449 horsepower. This car was first titled in 2018 and has less than 1,000 miles. It also has an estimate of $850,000-$950,000. More info can be found here.

Group A Peugeot 309 GTi

Posted on by
Reply

1987 Peugeot 309 GTi 16V Group A

Offered by Iconic Auctioneers | Stoneleigh Park, U.K. | February 2024

Photo – Iconic Auctioneers

The 309 was a boxy, boring small three- or five-door hatchback sold by Peugeot between 1985 and 1994. The French have a long history of making the most of boring cars, and Peugeot did that here, selling a GTi version, which was a hot-ish hatch.

The road car shared its powertrain with the 205 GTi, one of France’s best hot hatches. It had a 1.9-liter inline-four making 158 horsepower. Not bad. This car was built in 1988 as a Group A rally car for the British Rally Championship. Peugeot then ran the car themselves for 1989 and 1990.

Come 1991, the Peugeot team boss wanted to showcase a young driver, future WRC champion Richard Burns, and entered him in the WRC RAC Rally, where he and his co-driver finished 16th as the top two-wheel-drive car.

The car remained in storage with Peugeot until 1998, at which point it was sold to a privateer. Burns found out about the car and acquired it for his own collection. Now it’s being sold from said collection with an estimate of $88,000-$100,000. More info can be found here.

6C 2300 B Turismo Cabriolet

Posted on by
Reply

1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B Turismo Cabriolet by Pinin Farina

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February/March 2024

Photo – Gooding & Company

Alfa’s 6C 2300 model was short lived compared to the 2500 model that followed. It was in produced from 1934 through 1938. In that time, the company turned out just 760 examples, with the “B” variants coming into the line in 1935.

These 2300 B variants still used the same 2.3-liter DOHC inline-six that produced 70 horsepower on this single-carburetor unit. This long-chassis Turismo model wears one-off coachwork by Pinin Farina.

The car was later on display at the 1938 International Motor Show in Berlin and then spent decades in Switzerland and later France and Italy. It is one of 81 Turismo cars built between 1936 and 1937, and it was restored in the 1990s. The estimate here is $900,000-$1,200,000. Click here for more info.