Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 2025
Photo – Mecum
The Porsche 934 was a racing version of the 930 Turbo built to FIA Group 4 specifications. Introduced for 1976, just 31 examples were produced over a two-year span. The cars remained competitive through the end of the decade.
Power is from a turbocharged 3.0-liter flat-six that made somewhere around 480 horsepower, depending on setup, etc. This car was initially campaigned in the 1976 German National Championship by Porsche-Kremer Racing before receiving a replacement tub. It’s later career included:
1977 24 Hours of Le Mans – 7th, 1st in class (with Bob Wolleck, Jean-Pierre Wielemans, & Philippe Gurdjian)
The car was restored by Kremer in the 2000s and sold for $1.55 million on Bring a Trailer in 2023. Read more about it on Mecum’s site here.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | February 2025
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Ceirano brothers founded many an Italian car company in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Matteo Ceirano founded Itala in 1904. Right out of the gate, the company was producing big-engined cars – and racing cars.
This car has a four-cylinder engine displacing more than 15 liters and making 120 horsepower. It has shaft drive and a four-speed transmission. This was big-deal stuff in 1907. The cars were successful in competition, but by 1908, Itala moved to a more mainstream design for their racing cars.
Only about four of these are thought to have been built, with this being one of two survivors. It raced in European events before (maybe) coming to the U.S. for a race in 1908. Later it was bodied for road use and was purchased by land-speed racer Henry Segrave in 1916. From 1917 through 1960 it remained with one family in Australia. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum acquired it in 1965, and a restoration followed.
This is a pretty remarkable car, and one that is sort of unfathomable for a museum to part with. But if it brings $2,000,000-$3,000,000, then it should raise some good money for whatever they plan to spend nearly $100,000,000 on after selling their most valuable assets. Click here for more info.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 2025
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
We have featured a 250 LM in the past, but any car that has an estimate of “over $26,500,000” typically is something worth peeking at. This car was, until recently, on display in the basement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum right next to the W196R streamliner. Quite a pairing.
Ferrari only built 32 of these. All but one had power from a 3.3-liter V12 that was rated at 320 horsepower. This car was the 6th example produced and was sold new by Luigi Chinetti. The car was soon after traded back in and thereafter put into the N.A.R.T. stable. It’s subsequent racing history includes:
1965 24 Hours of Le Mans – 1st (with Masten Gregory, Jochen Rindt, and Ed Hugus)
1966 24 Hours of Daytona – 9th (with Rindt and Bob Bondurant)
1968 24 Hours of Daytona – 48th, DNF (with Gregory and David Piper)
1968 24 Hours of Le Mans – 24th, DNF (with Gregory and Charlie Kolb)
1969 24 Hours of Le Mans – 8th (with Sam Posey and Teodoro Zeccoli)
1970 24 Hours of Daytona – 7th (with Luigi Chinetti Jr. and Gregg Young)
It’s pretty amazing that it could place in the top 10 in a 24-hour race five years after it was built. And that it only competed in 24-hour events. Later in 1970, the car was purchased by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Until 2023, it was the last Ferrari to win outright at Le Mans. You can read more about it here.
The famous Brooklands circuit in England held some… Formula Libre-style races back in its heyday. This meant that the cars were not required to meet Grand Prix regulations. So Paul Daimler built a monster 15.4-liter inline-four. The entered one of these cars at the Semmering hill climb in Austria, winning it with driver Otto Salzer
The next year they updated the two “Semmering” cars built with that engine to a displacement of 17.3 liters. Output was rated at 150 horsepower, a monster sum for the time. Salzer won at Semmering again in 1909, setting a time that wouldn’t be bested again until 1934.
The car later made its way to Australia before heading to California in the 1950s. It was sold to the pre-Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum for $30,000 in 1964. It’s now offered from the museum with an estimate of $7,000,000-$9,000,000. RM says the car is a one-off, Mercedes own website says two were built. Click here for more info.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | February 2025
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
In 1956, legendary GM designer Harley Earl bought a Jaguar D-Type (after it finished 3rd at Sebring that year). He wanted to put a Chevy V8 in the car and put it back on track. Instead, Zora Arkus-Duntov imagined what a ground-up Corvette-based racer aimed at the D-Type could be.
The car features a tubular spaceframe wrapped in a one-off magnesium body that carries some of the period Corvette looks. It has independent front suspension, inboard rear brakes, and a 283ci (4.6-liter) V8 that was slightly tuned and fitted with Ramjet fuel injection. It made over 300 horsepower.
Dubbed the Super Sport, the car would go racing, including:
1957 12 Hours of Sebring – 59th, DNF (with John Fitch and Piero Taruffi)
And before they could swap a fiberglass body on it and take it to Le Mans, GM pulled out of factory racing. It was donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1967, and they are now selling it. The estimate is $5,000,000-$7,000,000. Click here for more info.
Mitchell: Like many of its contemporaries, Mitchell got its start as a wagon builder. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Mitchell‘s wagons started rolling out in the 1880s. The switch to cars happened in 1903. They ended up going out of business in 1924, with the factory being purchased by Nash to produce their Ajax.
Model S: The Model S was introduced for 1910 with power from a 7.0-liter inline-six. It was a range-topped over the company’s earlier four-cylinder models. It would be produced through 1911, with two touring car body styles offered.
This car was restored in the 1950s under the ownership of OG collector Winthrop Rockefeller. Bill Harrah bought it in the 1970s, and after it left his collection, it was part of the Imperial Palace collection before being purchased by John McMullen. That is some pretty stout history. Big tourers from this era command big prices. Click here to see how it’s going.
Mercedes: Wilhelm Maybach, Emil Jellinek, and Paul Daimler helped design the original Mercedes 35 HP in 1901. It was a revolutionary thing, and is often considered the first “modern car.” It’s what set Mercedes on the path of being one of the finest machines in the world. They’d team up with Benz in the 1920s.
35 PS: In 1908, a new 35 HP Mercedes appeared. While the original 35 HP model was chain driven, this new era of cars featured driveshafts. Even more modern. Built in 1908 and 1909, the 35 HP was powered by a 5.3-liter inline-four rated at, well, 35 horsepower. Top speed was around 43 mph.
This car wears landaulet coachwork, which was one of three styles offered by the factory. While it has been restored, it features a replacement engine from an earlier Mercedes displacing 8.5 liters. The body is also said to not be the original configuration. The estimate is $130,000-$250,000. More info can be found here.
Tiga: founded in 1974 by ex-F1 drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley. It was based in the U.K. and built open-wheel and sports racing prototypes through 1989. A few companies have owned the name since, and “Tiga” has appeared on a few race cars here and there over the years.
GT286: only 10 of these were built for the 1986 season. They were called GT286 if they were built for IMSA Lights and GC286 if they were bought for Group C.
This car: competed in IMSA Lights with owner/driver Charles Morgan, who won his class at Watkins Glen. The chassis was used by various teams (in various configurations) into the 1995 season before being retired. It was restored in the 2000s and is powered by a 4.2-liter Buick V6. It has since competed in events like the Le Mans Classic. Click here for more info.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Stuttgart, Germany | February 2025
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum had one of the world’s great collections of cars. And it’s slowly dissipating. They sold a bunch of cars with Bring a Trailer a few years ago, including some wacky but not super notable race cars, some classics that formed the original basis of the museum, and some recent racing-related things, like a Honda Accord Hybrid IndyCar pace car.
They sat on the best stuff, some of the stuff that, once it’s gone, will never be back. Visiting the museum was always a treat, because you never knew what amazing thing might be on display. Well, they are narrowing their focus to “Indianapolis” and the W196R streamliner seen here never raced there. So it’s got to go. Along with other previously “priceless” treasures. It’s pretty sad.
The W196 Silver Arrow was Mercedes’ last F1 car until 2010. It competed in the 1954 and 1955 seasons before Mercedes pulled out of racing after their cars started killing pedestrians. They built 14 examples of the W196R, and 10 still existed at the end of the 1955 season. Four of those would end up getting donated to various museums. This one, chassis 00009/54 ended up going to Indiana.
Of the 10 surviving cars, only four were ever fitted with streamliner bodywork. The car is powered by a 2.5-liter inline-eight that was rated at 256 horsepower. The race history for this chassis includes:
1955 Argentine Grand Prix – 1st (with Juan Manuel Fangio as open-wheel car)
1955 Italian Grand Prix – 14th, DNF (with Stirling Moss as streamliner)
RM estimates a sale price “in excess” of $55 million. We’ll see. The car will probably end up somewhere and will never be seen again. Click here to read a LOT more about the car’s history.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 2024
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
This is a Mercedes open-wheel race car. Not a Mercedes-Benz. Not a Mercedes-AMG. Mercedes. In 1922, Daimler started development of a racing engine for the 2-Litre European Formula, which the Indianapolis 500 was going to adopt for 1923. This meant Mercedes could go racing at the Brickyard.
That 2.0-liter inline-four was supercharged and was rated in period at 150 horsepower, but that is, by Mercedes’ own admission, what it made after a few years of development. On the grid at Indy, the motor put out about 125 horsepower with the supercharger engaged.
Mercedes sent four such cars to Indy for 1923. The competition history for this chassis, number 26913, includes:
1923 Indianapolis 500 – 8th (with Max Sailer, although his nephew Karl Sailer drove relief from lap 73 through 200)
The American Mercedes Company held on to the car after the race, and it later changed hands a few times before finding itself entered in the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. But it was too outdated and did not compete. In the 1950s it was the property of Henry Austin Clark Jr. In the late ’70s it was in a Japanese collection, from which it was purchased by Bernie Ecclestone in 1995. It moved to its current collection the following year.
The car got a $200,000 engine rebuild in 2011 and now has an estimate of $4,150,000-$5,500,000. It also comes with a spare period body. Click here for more info.
