Tag Archives: gooding & co

Bugatti Brescia

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1920 Bugatti Type 13

Offered by Gooding & Company | Monterey, California | August 19, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

Look at this little snub-nosed dart. It reminds me of one of those little short, stubby guns – completely innocuous looking, but it’ll still pack a punch. A pocket pistol – it’s the Derringer of Bugattis.

The Bugatti Type 13 was the car that really launched Bugatti as a manufacturer. The first cars were built around 1910, but World War One interrupted things and production – and racing – resumed in 1920. In 1921, Bugatti Type 13s swept the top four spots at the Brescia Grand Prix, earning the car the nickname “Brescia” thereafter.

This car left the factory in 1920 as a Type 22, which was a larger, road-going version of the Type 13. It still had the same 50 horsepower 1.5-liter inline four. The car was brought to America after the Second World War, where it was acquired by a collector who had the chassis shortened and bodywork adjusted to Type 13 specification. In the 1980s it was purchased by a Japanese collector and the car underwent a restoration while in his possession.

In 1998 it was purchased by its current owner, who has raced it on occasion. I remember seeing this on track during the Monterey Historics a few years ago. It was a field of Bugattis, mostly Grand Prix cars, like the Type 37 and Type 35. Those big powerful cars took off immediately, leaving this little guy as well as a large road-going convertible to fight it out amongst each other way at the back. Neither car was quick, but you could tell that each driver was having a complete blast. And that’s why you own a Bugatti.

This is an early Bugatti and while it may not have elegant coachwork or a very sporting Grand Prix body (the only real bodywork is a small box behind the engine with a cushion on it… sort of primitive in a way) no one will mistake it for anything else. The pre-sale estimate is $250,000-$350,000. For more information, click here. And for more from Gooding in California, click here.

Update: Sold $379,500.

Update II: Sold, Artcurial Paris 2016, $400,683.

S/N #981.

Awe-Inspiring Daimler Double Six

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1932 Daimler 40/50 Double Six Sport Saloon

Offered by Gooding & Company | Monterey, California | August 19, 2012

This is one of my favorite cars in the world – ever. When I set up my calendar of cars to feature from the various Monterey sales (yes, I have a calendar of cars to feature – I have to, this year is completely overwhelming with the number of unbelievable cars on offer), this car wasn’t among them. It didn’t show up in Gooding’s “Auction Preview.” But when their full catalog came online, I stopped everything when I saw this was in the auction. I recognized it immediately as the 1999 Best in Show winner at Pebble Beach (perhaps, if you recognize it, it is from this as well).

The Double Six was first introduced by Daimler in 1926. They were over-engineered masterpieces and quickly became the car of choice for the British royal family. It is also one of only two models of cars that have used a sleeve-valve V12 (the other was a Voisin). This car has the 6.5-liter V12 making 150 horsepower. It could also do more than 80 mph.

This car has the longest wheelbase of any of the Double Sixes, coming in just a few inches shorter than a Bugatti Royale, which it somewhat resembles. The body was built by Martin Walker Ltd. and The styling is just amazing – the long hood, low roof and four suicide doors all add up to a somewhat menacing – and totally breathtaking – look.

Only 26 Double Sixes were built, but this car is truly one-of-a-kind. I’ve loved it since the first time I saw it after the ’99 Concours d’Elegance. You won’t find a better-looking four-door anywhere. The pre-sale estimate is $3,000,000-$4,000,000. For the complete description, click here. And for more from Gooding & Company in Monterey, click here.

Update: Sold $2,970,000.

Gooding & Co – Amelia Island Highlights

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Gooding & Co’s annual sale in Amelia Island, Florida produced some spectacular results. The inclusion of the Drendel Family Collection of rare Porsches certainly helped things. Ten cars broke the million-dollar mark (including buyer’s premium). Top sale of the auction went to the Porsche 917/30 we featured a few weeks ago, selling for $4,400,000. The second highest-selling car was also a car we featured, the 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder. The high-end of that car’s estimate was $2.6 million but it ended up selling for $3,685,000.

After that, two other Porsches, both of these ex-Martini race cars, were the next-highest selling cars. First was a 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR Turbo 2.14 which sold for $3,2450,000.

Then there was this 1976 Porsche 935/76 which brought $2,530,000.

A few more of our feature cars followed these two awesome 1970s race cars. Next was yet another Porsche in this already Porsche-heavy sale (before you include the Drendel collection). It was the “winningest” Porsche 962 we featured. It sold for $1,925,000. Then, finally, something else: the brilliant blue 1951 Ferrari 212 Inter, which brought $1,375,000. After that was a 1948 Tucker 48 – the second Tucker sold at auction this year, which is kind of strange in itself. It didn’t bring as much as the one at Barrett-Jackson, but it still commanded a respectable $1,320,000.

The Porsche 911 GT1 Evolution race car, which I am still enamored with, sold for $1,265,000. Then another Porsche, a 1967 906E that we actually featured when it was listed with a Bonhams auction back in Scottsdale in January. It didn’t sell at that auction but did sell at Amelia Island at this auction for $1,001,000. The final million dollar car also brought $1,001,000. It was a 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider.

The 1911 Rambler Touring Car we featured sold for $275,000, just barely short of its estimate. And the very interesting 1930 Willys-Knight Plaid-Side Roadster brought $220,000, exceeding its estimate by about $40,000.

Although there were a boatload of million dollar sales, there were also some bargains to be had. Among them, the TVR 3000S we featured that was estimated to sell for between $40,000-$50,000. It only ended up selling for $24,200. I recently saw a list somewhere of collectible cars that you should buy now because they are at their lowest price points they are likely to ever see. That TVR was on the list and whoever bought it scored. Another car that was on the list, the first generation Lotus Esprit. And one of those sold at this auction for $20,900.

And one final car, a very interesting 1941 Chrysler Town & Country Barrelback with the beautiful woodwork that is the trademark of the original Town & Country (not the sticker-sided minivans of the 80s). It sold for $286,000 and with the shape it is in (and the unusual bodystyle) I think whoever bought it got a great deal.

In all, the auction sold more $36 million worth of cars with a fairly high sell-through rate. For complete results, click here.

Porsche 911 GT1 Evo

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1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Evolution

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

The Drendel Family Collection of Porsches that Gooding & Company are offering at Amelia Island this year is pretty amazing. The number of competition cars alone is staggering. But of all of them – yes, including the 917/30 we featured last week – this is the one that I want most, granted the street version (yes, they built a GT1 road car) would be even more incredible.

The McLaren F1 won overall at the 1995 24 Hours of LeMans. When Porsche saw this, they said, “Why not us?” Thus they built a prototype race car, seen here, and then added a few road car variants (supposedly 25) to make it legal as a GT1 car. In 1996 they won their class, finishing 2nd and 3rd overall.

1997 was even more competitive with new entries from Mercedes-Benz and Panoz. The 911 GT1 was slightly reworked and dubbed the GT1 Evolution. The car being offered here (chassis #993-GT1-004) was entered with drivers Bob Wolleck, Hans Stuck, and Thierry Bousten. A few hours past halfway, Wolleck spun and crashed and the car was out of the race. The sister car later retired with three hours to go. While this car never won an outright race during its competition history, it was still a serious competitor, placing 3rd at Laguna Seca in its final factory-backed race.

Underneath the rear body work sits a 3.2 liter twin-turbo Flat-6 making around 600 horsepower. On the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans it was capable of about 205 mph.

There were some great sports-prototype race cars campaigned in the late 1990s. This is one of them. And while I wait for a “Straßenversion” to come up for sale, I guess I will have to settle for this race version with a pre-sale estimate of $900,000-$1,200,000.

Photo – Gooding & Company

For the complete catalog description, click here and for the rest of the Gooding lineup for tomorrow’s auction, click here.

Update: Sold $1,265,000.

Ferrari 212 Inter

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1951 Ferrari 212 Inter Coupe by Touring

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

Before I get into describing this car, I would like to say that I would really like the following picture in high-resolution so I can use it as desktop wallpaper on my computer:

Photo – Gooding & Company

I don’t know, but it looks pretty awesome. Anyway, the Ferrari 212 Inter was produced only in 1951 and 1952 and only 82 were built in various body styles with coachwork from Touring, Ghia, Vignale, and Pinin Farina. The car seen here is by Carrozzeria Touring.

There was also a rarer 212 Export built, the difference being that the Inter rides on a four-inch longer wheelbase. The Export was intended for the track (only 28 were built) and the Inter was for cruising on the Autostrada. They both used the 2.6 liter “Colombo” V12 making 154 horsepower and were capable of over 100 mph.

The three-year restoration on this car ended in 2003 and it has been well-maintained since. I mean, look at that paint! Rarely does anyone buy a blue Ferrari. Well thankfully, whoever bought this originally, did.

Photo – Gooding & Company

The selling price of this car is estimated between $1,300,000-$1,600,000. To read the complete description (and ownership history), click here (interestingly, the URL for this car says “212 Export”). For the complete Gooding catalog, click here.

Update: Sold $1,375,000.

Porsche 550 Spyder

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1955 Porsche 550/1500 RS Spyder

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

Shelby Cobras, Ford GT40s, Lotus Sevens and the Porsche 550. These are cars of which replicas far outnumber the real thing. But this is a real Porsche 550 Spyder. Only about 90 550s were built and this one retains everything it originally came with.

The Porsche 550 was a great track-day car back in the mid-1950s (it still is, but they don’t come quite as cheap as they used to). Many of them were used and abused on weekend jaunts to the nearest road course or former air base. The most famous of these cars was James Dean’s “Little Bastard” that he was tragically killed in on his way to a race.

To have an original, unrestored engine in one of these cars is amazing. Nor does it have any replacement bodywork. It was a street car for most of its life, serving as daily transportation at one point (sunny days only, I presume).

And what fun that would be. The 1.5 liter flat-4 makes 125 horsepower, which may not sound like much but consider how much a tiny car like this weighs with all aluminum bodywork. Aluminum bodywork and a lack of interior.

Luxurious comfort is a small thing to sacrifice for a car this amazing. They do not come up for sale often and by “not often” I mean “almost never.” There are few Porsche models that are more collectible, desirable or iconic than this. The price reflects that, estimated between $2,200,000 and $2,600,000. The buyer may adopt the name of James Dean’s infamous car for themselves, but only if they add “lucky” to the beginning of it.

For the complete catalog description, click here and to see the entire lot list, click here.

Update: Sold $3,685,000.

Here’s video of a similar car:

Rambler Seven-Passenger Touring

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1911 Rambler Model 65 Seven-Passenger Touring

Offered by Gooding & Company, Amelia Island, Florida, March 9, 2012

The Rambler nameplate has a long and winding history that dates back to 1897 when Thomas B. Jeffrey built his first prototype automobile. Production started in 1902 and Rambler was instantly the second-largest American car company behind Oldsmobile. In 1914, Jeffrey’s son replaced “Rambler” with “Jeffrey” and the Rambler name disappeared for the first time. Jeffrey was acquired by Nash in 1916 and Nash re-introduced the Rambler as a Nash model in 1950. When Nash merged with Hudson to form American Motors in 1954, Hudson also shared the Rambler model. In the early 1960s Rambler became its own marque under the AMC corporate umbrella (Nash and Hudson were both unceremoniously killed by this time). Rambler disappeared in the U.S. for the second and final time in 1969 (it survived on dubious licensed built cars until 1983).

Well there’s your history lesson for the day. This particular Rambler is a Model 65 – the only one known to exist. It makes 45 horsepower from its 5.2-liter 4-cylinder T-head engine. But look at this car:

Look how large and imposing this thing is. This is the type of car you go out to a country house for a weekend in with six other people. Unpaved roads and grassy fields. And doing it before the Titanic sank – or at least before WWI. There are numerous examples in film to support my theory (A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy and Finding Neverland are two that come to mind. If you’re here from Twitter and wondering where the explanation is, well you’re looking at it).

I love big pre-WWI cars like this. In fact, I want an entire fleet of them. There are so many different makes to choose from. Collect them all. Whoever the next owner caretaker of this machine is or will be, I hope they enjoy it as much as I am in my head.

It was restored in 2008 and looks great. And for $290,000-$340,000, it should. To read more, click here and here for more on the auction.

Update: Sold $275,000.

Update: Sold, RM Sotheby’s Hershey 2019, $266,750.

Winningest Porsche 962

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1984 Porsche 962

Offered by Gooding & Company, Amelia Island, Florida, March 9, 2012

Two days ago we featured the most dominant (for a short period of time) race car ever built. Well here is another candidate for that title. The Porsche 962 was introduced to the racing world in 1984 and won just about everything it dared to enter through the end of the decade, with customer cars and continuation models continuing to be competitive into the mid-1990s.

This particular car (chassis #962-103) is the winningest 962 in history. It was the first 962 to actually win a race (the 1984 6 Hours of Watkins Glen) and then it went on to win many other races including:

  • 1984 Camel GT 500 Grand Prix at Pocono
  • 1984 Eastern Airlines 3 Hour Camel GT at Daytona
  • 1985 300km of Laguna Seca
  • 1985 500km of Charlotte
  • 1985 500km of Mid-Ohio
  • 1985 3 Hours at Watkins Glen
  • 1986 24 Hours of Daytona (driven by Al Holbert, Derek Bell & Al Unser, Jr.)
  • 1986 Road America 500
  • 1987 24 Hours of Daytona (driven by the 1986 team plus Chip Robinson)

This car, known as the Löwenbräu Special, also had a number of other top five finishes including a couple at the 12 Hours of Sebring. It spent its entire career with Holbert Racing and was owned by the Holbert family after it was retired until 2008 when it was acquired by  the Drendel Family, from whose collection this and a number of other fantastic Porsches are being offered at this Gooding sale.

The Porsche 962 features a 3.2 liter twin-turbo flat-6 making somewhere in the neighborhood of 720 horsepower. They are all fast but this one is perhaps the most prominent. It is estimated between $1,750,000-$2,250,000. Click here for more information and pictures and here for more on the Gooding sale.

Update: Sold $1,925,000.

Willys-Knight “Plaid-Side” Roadster

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1930 Willys-Knight Great Six Plaid-Side Roadster

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

Willys-Knight was a line of automobiles produced between 1914 and 1933 by the more commonly known Willys-Overland Company. There were a number of “Knight” branded cars in production around this time because they all used Knight Sleeve-Valve engines (there were no less than eight).

The Knight Sleeve Valve engine wasn’t exactly a novelty – there were all kinds of pioneering ideas in the early days of motoring as to how an automobile should be powered. That said, they did have a few issues and they were expensive to produce, even if the straight-six in this car did make 82 horsepower.

But the car pictured here is about the looks. That combination of light green and black is very attractive – especially the painted grille. It’s a “Plaid-Side” Roadster with the doors appearing to be plaid. It isn’t something you see everyday. The body was designed by the Griswold Motor Body Company in Chicago.

The pre-sale estimate is $140,000-$180,000, with uniqueness being a selling point here. To read the complete description and for more pictures, click here. To see the complete Amelia Island lineup from Gooding & Co, click here.

Photo – Gooding & Company

Update: Sold $220,000.

Here’s video of a similar car:

Porsche 917-30

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1973 Porsche 917/30 Can-Am Spyder

Offered by Gooding & Company, Amelia Island, Florida, March 9, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

Every once in a while a car comes up for sale that, basically, makes you yell “Holy crap!” and drop your sandwich and the plate it sat on. The plate falls in slow-motion and shatters on the floor. Complete spit-take. Like a car that you think only the manufacturer owns and sits in their private museum and will never be sold. Except that it’s apparently up for sale. This is one such car.

This is the “Can-Am Killer” – a car so dominant that it drove the series in which it competed into extinction. Nothing could keep pace with this monster of a race car. It is the most powerful road-racing car ever built. Its 5.4-liter twin-turbocharged Flat-12 produced about 1,200 horsepower. During qualifying sessions in the 1973 season, the turbos were turned up to full boost, pushing power output closer to 1,600. It weighed 1,800 lbs – so we’re talking sub-2.0 second 0-60 mph times. The car’s dominance, in conjunction with other factors, led to the demise of the Can-Am series.

This particular car (chassis #004) is painted in period-correct Penske Sunoco livery, although it was not one of the cars campaigned by Roger Penkse in the Can-Am series. It was supposed to be, however. In fact, Mark Donohue was supposed to drive this car in 1974 but because Can-Am more or less banned the 917/30 from competition (through rules changes), the car’s build was halted but eventually completed and sold new to Alan Hamilton, the Australian Porsche importer. Porsche then later re-acquired the car for somewhere around $2 million in 1991.

This is one of six (6) Porsche 917/30s built. Two of them are owned by Porsche. It is the most dominate of all racing cars and the ultimate version of the 917, which itself was a line of super-successful racing cars. It’s pre-sale estimate is $3,250,000-$4,000,000. What a rare opportunity. The complete catalog description can be found here and the entire Gooding catalog can be seen here.

As a side note, I recently learned (via a 30 minute TV comedy) that you’re supposed to wear blue and yellow on Leap Day, so this car is quite appropriate. Happy Leap Day!

Update: Sold $4,400,000.

Update II: Sold, Gooding & Company Amelia Island 2016, $3,000,000.