We’re already in April, and we start as we often do: with a leftover from the month before. In this case, it is Leclere-MDV’s sale. We didn’t get to feature anything, but the top sale ended up being this 1989 Porsche 911 Speedster for $248,014. Click here for more results.
Photo – Leclere-MDV
And on into April we move, with Mecum’s Houston sale. This 2014 Ferrari F12berlinetta brought the most money: $203,500. More results are available here.
Photo – Mecum
The top seller at Bonhams’ Goodwood sale was this 1964 Aston Martin DB5 that has been updated to Vantage spec. It sold for $832,103.
Onward to Brightwells’ Bicester sale. No feature cars here, unfortunately, but this 1924 Lancia Lambda Series 3 was the top seller at $146,522. More results can be found here for a time.
We pick up in March at Mecum’s Phoenix sale. They took to the desert a few months after everyone else and managed to move this 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T/ Hemi Convertible for $1,430,000.
Next up we have a sale from Aguttes in Paris. The Salmson we featured didn’t sell (perhaps it was the scandalous model name), though this swoopy 1935 Fiat 508 CS Balilla Aerodinamica managed to squeeze $225,620 out of someone in the audience. Final results can be found here.
Photo – Aguttes
Onward now to H&H Classics’ sale at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. The Bristol 406 we featured sold for $44,045, and the 1939 Imperial brought $14,681. The top sale was $579,934 for this barn find-condition 1936 Bentley 4.5-Litre Vanden Plas Tourer. More results are located here.
Photo – H&H Classics
Now we hop back across the channel for Osenat’s March sale, where the top overall sellers were two of our feature cars: the Gardner-Serpollet at $282,946 and the early Delahaye at $175,157. We’ll award Most Interesting to this 1951 Simca 8 Sport that could’ve been yours for $33,684.
We wrap up in Ft. Lauderdale with RM Sotheby’s where this 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari sold for $3,080,000.
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Our feature cars all found new homes, with the Stutz Blackhawk leading the way at $55,000. The Lotus Esprit was next, selling for $50,600, and both the Biscuter and Goggomobil microcars sold, at $4,675 and $20,350 respectively.
Feature cars from auctions past included this Packard Clipper station wagon that sold for $56,100 and this Mochet microcar for $7,590. Click here for final results.
We stay in Britain for Brightwells’ Leominster sale where our lone feature car, the Jaguar XJS Monaco, failed to sell. The top seller was this 1989 Ferrari 328 GTS for $75,101. Click here for additional results.
Photo – Brightwells
Onward now to Amelia Island and Bonhams, where we featured a lot of interesting cars. Remarkably, only one of them didn’t sell according to Bonhams’ results: the 1910 Pope-Hartford that was supposed to be offered without reserve. Not sure what’s going on there.
Relative deals consisted of the $62,720 Columbus and the $60,480 Crow-Elkhart. A previously-featured 1904 Knox sold here for $252,000. Final results can be found here.
We also featured quite a few cars from the RM Sotheby’s sale in Amelia Island, including some we featured from past sales like this 1924 Isotta Fraschini, this V-12 Cadillac, this AAR Eagle – all three of which failed to sell. The big-dollar Bugatti failed to find a new home as well. The overall top sale was the 1930 Duesenberg we featured. It sold for $1,650,000. We will award Most Interesting to this wicker-bodied 1911 Napier 15HP Victoria that brought $156,800.
Of our feature cars, the OSCA 1600 GT sold for $489,000 and the Kurtis $263,200. A previously-featured Abarth 207/A went for $362,500. Click here for complete results.
We’ll pick up where we left off last time, Scottsdale. This time it’s Russo & Steele, where this2012 Lexus LFA blew everything else away, selling for $412,500. Complete results can be found here.
Photo – Russo & Steele
Now we’re on to Retromobile in Paris, where RM Sotheby’s led it off with a huge number for this 1987 Ferrari F40 LM: $5,489,215.
The second sale of the Retromobile week was held by Bonhams, and we featured a lot of cars from this event. On the extreme one end of the spectrum was the Red Bug buckboard we featured. It sold for $4,958. Now a quick rundown of no-sales from this auction: the Clement-Bayard, the beautiful Darracq, the 1911 Renault, the Bellanger, and a previously-featured Horch. The overall top sale was this 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet A for $1,794,086.
Finally, we have Silverstone Auctions and their Race Retro Classic Car sale. The biggest money was the $381,813 paid for this 1958 Porsche 356A Speedster.
Photo – Silverstone Auctions
The Ginetta G4 we featured sold for $40,824, but the De Tomaso Longchamp Spider failed to find a new home on the block. You can see more results from this sale here.
January means one thing: Scottsdale. And we’ll start there with Bonhams where the 1951 Maserati we featured was the top sale at $2,755,000. Most of the other really big money cars all missed the target, which might say something about the top of the market (but we’ll see as the other sales all wrap up). The other Frua-bodied car, the Fiat 1100C, sold for $577,000. We’ll award Most Interesting to this 1956 Lincoln Premiere Convertible – mostly because I really want one. I just don’t have the $50,400 it would’ve required to take this one home.
Photo – Bonhams
A previously-featured Abarth race car sold here for $16,800 – a long way from the $45k+ it brought at multiple previous auctions (weird, it has a different chassis number listed in this sale compared to previous sales, but has the exact same backstory). This car has changed hands multiple times in the last few years. Someone here either got a great deal, or the consignor finally unloaded an albatross at a loss (also, dibs on “Albatross at a Loss” as my next rap album name). Meanwhile, the Stevens-Duryea sold for $72,800. Click here for complete results.
Next up from Arizona is RM Sotheby’s, and there were a couple of cars that failed to meet their reserve, including a previously-featured Hispano-Suiza and the Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Speciale. But another Ferrari was top dog at this sale, specifically this 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO that sold for $3,360,000.
Barrett-Jackson’s catalog is so large that I don’t feel like scrolling through the entire thing trying to find highlights and the top sale. Their user interface leaves a little to be desired, so I’m just going to look through Saturday’s results and assume that the top sale was in their prime time lineup. What I found: the overall top sale was, as it usually is here, a charity lot. The first 2019 Ford GT Heritage Edition went for $2,500,000.
Finally, we have Worldwide Auctioneers’ Scottsdale sale where this 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster was the overall top sale at $990,000.
Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers
Our three Indiana-built feature cars all sold, with the two Duesenbergs falling in “good deal” range. The Duesenberg Tourster sold for $605,000, and the other Duesey brought $506,000. The Auburn Boattail rounds it all out at $291,500. Click here if you want more results from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 6, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
About five years ago, Ferrari embarked on a new program called their “special projects division” where they build exclusive cars for wealthy clients. I guess everyone wants to feel special. And buying a “normal” Ferrari isn’t special enough. And I guess they didn’t want Jim Glickenhaus to have all the fun rebodying their cars.
The Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano was Ferrari’s front-engined V-12 grand tourer that they built between 2007 and 2012. There were a couple of factory hot-rodded versions, namely the 599 GTO, 599XX, the HGTE (which was more of an options package), and the SA Aperta.
The SP30 is a one-off model built exclusively for a wealthy Indian oil baron. It’s based on the 599 GTO and has revised bodywork. There is no information in the catalog listing, but because it is based on the 599 GTO, I guess we are to assume it is powered by a 661 horsepower, 6.0-liter V12.
These one-off Ferraris are likely to continue to increase in value. And this one will not come cheap. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
The Talbot Tourer we featured brought an also-impressive $242,200, as did the other Rolls-Royce at $176,146. The Healey Abbott failed to sell. Complete results can be found here.
Onward to RM Sotheby’s sale held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The top sale was the huge price paid for this 1956 Ferrari 290 MM by Scaglietti: $22,005,000.
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Mochet microcar we featured sold for $25,200, and a previously-featured Ferrari wagon sold for $313,000. Final results can be found here.
Aguttes held a sale in December that had a few cars sprinkled in, the most expensive of which ended up being this 1994 Ferrari 348 GTS for $74,305. Full results can be found here.
Photo – Aguttes
And now we’re into 2019, beginning with Mecum’s epic Kissimmee sale that lasted for almost two weeks. Somehow, a LaFerrari Aperta we featured failed to meet its astronomical, irrational reserve at a bid of over $6 million. However, its sister car from the same collection, a 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari was the overall top seller at this sale for $3,300,000. Which was below the pre-sale estimate. Go figure.
And finally, we move to another early January sale: Silverstone Auctions’ Autosport International sale. The Griffith we featured sold, but is still listed as “result to follow.” Once it’s posted we’ll update our Griffith page, so check back if you just have to know. The top seller was yet another Ferrari, this time a 1970 Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 for $257,360. Final results can be found here.
1957 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Speciale by Pinin Farina
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Phoenix, Arizona | January 18, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Pinin Farina was responsible for what we’ll call the “base” Ferrari 250 GT Coupe. Produced from 1958 through 1961, these cars were the volume-leader model among so many special, limited-edition 250 GTs.
The car pictured here is about the farthest possible thing from a “base” model. This particular car was built specially for a Belgian Princess by Pinin Farina and has known ownership history from new. A restoration was completed in 1997 and it’s been on the show field at Pebble Beach.
Somehow, RM’s catalog entry is completely devoid of any technical information on the car. Power is likely from a 3.0-liter V-12, and this is thought to be one of four Coupe Speciales bodied by Pinin Farina, though the coachwork is unique. It should sell for between $11,000,000-$13,000,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Gooding & Company | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 19, 2019
Photo – Gooding & Company
The Ferrari 250 series of cars went on sale in the early-1950s. Ferrari iterated on them for over a decade, but by 1964 they were pretty long-in-the-tooth. So when the 275 GTB was introduced, it was a revelation.
This was the first example they built, and it – like all of the other examples that followed – used technology brought about by Ferrari’s 275P Le Mans program. Power is from a 3.3-liter V-12 making 265 horsepower.
Ferrari kept the car through 1965, using it as a workhorse and revising it until they got it where they liked. Even the coachwork changed from its initial debut. It now wears a long-nose body style.
The car was entered by its first owner in the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally. Ferrari provided support, which is why this car is equipped with front rally lighting, three windshield wipers, and more. It’s had a string of known owners since and was acquired by the current collection in 1994.
It hasn’t been shown publicly in 25 years and is said to be in need of some serious service before use. Still, it should bring between $6,000,000-$8,000,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Gooding & Company.
There were three other auctions held at the end of November, including Historics at Brooklands’ Mercedes-Benz World sale. The 1911 Sunbeam we featured sold for $34,834, and the top sale was this 1987 Porsche 911 Turbo that brought $122,065. Click here for more results.
Photo – Historics at Brooklands
Next up is Brightwells where this 1998 Ferrari 355 F1 Spider brought $64,575.
Photo – Brightwells
The SS Jaguar we featured sold for $36,499 while the Bristol and the Itala both failed to sell. Click here for further results.
The TVR Taimar sold for $11,198 and complete results can be found here.
The first of two Bonhams sales held in December was their Bond Street Sale. We featured two racing Jaguars (XJ220 C and XJR-6), but both failed to sell… as did quite a few other cars. The top sale by a decent margin was this 1958 BMW 507 Series II Roadster. It sold for $3,018,677. Click here for additional results.
Photo – Bonhams
Mecum will round out this rundown with their Kansas City sale. We didn’t get to feature anything, but this 2006 Ford GT was the top sale at $308,000. Click here for more results.
