Porsche 911 GT1 Evo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

TVR 3000S

1979 TVR 3000S

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

TVR never sent many cars to the U.S. and they haven’t sent any (officially) for decades. Which is a shame because they were one of the last true volume builders of outrageous supercars.

The 3000S wasn’t quite a supercar. But back in the 1970s TVR was building British sports cars with solid performance. I don’t normally associate TVR with the likes of Triumph, MG and the like, mostly, I guess, because TVR was privately owned and managed to avoid the meltdown of the British automotive industry in the 1970s. Plus, they are rarer and command comparatively more cash.

This is actually a good looking car – just don’t dare mention the fact that it (or other British cars of similar vintage) could resemble a Datsun (trust me, I learned that the hard way). It has a 3.0 liter V-6 making 142 horsepower.

The 3000S was only in production in 1978 and 1979. Only 258 were built and of those, only  67 were left-hand drive models and only 49 of those were exported to North America. So, in a way, this car is one of 49. This car is the perfect car to buy if you want to show up at a British car show in something other than an MGB. It will definitely turn heads among those in the know. It is estimated between $40,000-$50,000. For more info click here and more on the sale here.

Update: Sold $24,200.

Gooding Scottsdale Highlights 2012

Gooding & Company’s Scottsdale auction featured some major cars selling for some major cash – $39,833,900 all told. It was also one of the more successful auctions in recent memory, with only two cars going unsold for not meeting their reserves. Top sale at this auction was a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Alloy Gullwing. Mercedes-Benz built 29 aluminum-bodied 300SL coupes and this is number six. This is as desirable as Gullwings come and it exceeded it’s estimate by $1.5 million, selling for $4,620,000.

Also, somewhat shockingly, every car we featured here on this site from Gooding’s auction sold. The 1930 Duesenberg Model J Disappearing-Top Convertible Coupe sold for $2,640,000, which was the third highest at the sale. Second place went to the 1959 Ferrari 250GT California Spider – a car that Gooding seems to find one of for each of their sales. Where are these things coming from? It brought $3,905,000.

Other million dollar sales included the 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV we featured a few weeks ago, selling for $1,100,000. There was also this matching-numbers 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 which sold for $1,200,000.

The final million dollar sale went to this awesome 1965 Ferrari 500 Superfast which was hammered away for $1,100,000. It’s one of only 36. It has 400 horsepower – more than just about every muscle car of its day – but the shape of it is so much sleeker than a GTO or Mustang. Super fast indeed.

Two cars that Gooding promoted heavily in the lead up to the auction also showed well. There was a brilliant green 1971 Maserati Ghibli 4.9 SS Spyder which split its pre-sale estimate, selling for $880,000.

Also, this 1969 Iso Grifo 7 Liter – one of only 66 Grifos built with the 7.0 liter V8 making more than 400 horsepower. A 1960s supercar in crazy purple paint? Yes, please. It satyed nearer its lower estimate at $352,000.

Another purple exotic was the 1927 Bugatti Type 38A Tourer by Figoni that we featured. It brought a hefty $495,000. Among our other featured cars, the 1967 Trident Clipper V8 was a steal, missing its estimate entirely and selling for $39,600. Our final feature car was an unbelievable 1937 BMW 328 which was well bought for $517,000. Another rare BMW sold there too, this 1958 507 Roadster. While not as good-looking as the car offered by RM across town, it still rang up a hefty $962,500.

Other interesting sales included a 1938 American Bantam Roadster which far exceeded its pre-sale estimate of $35,000-$55,000 and ended up selling for $90,200. Cute sells.

There was also an ultra-rare 1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88 Coupe. The car is a survivor – unrestored in Monaco Orange with less than 18,000 original miles. This was the king of Corvettes in 1969 – the L88 option got you more horsepower than a ZL1. This car was rated at 430 horsepower but likely put out more like 560. It doesn’t play around. And neither does its hammer price of $451,000.

And from the fun-file: this 1963 Volkswagen Beetle Sunroof Sedan – which sounds pretty normal from the name of it. Until you see it:

This car was featured in the film Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. There are desirable, well-optioned Volkswagens, but people are going to recognize this one. And for $66,000 ($15,000 below it’s pre-sale estimate) it’s going to be a lot of fun. For full results click here.

Bugatti Type 38A

1927 Bugatti Type 38A Tourer by J. Figoni

Offered by Gooding & Company | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 20-21, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

The Type 38 Bugatti was the second iteration of the eight-cylinder Bugatti. The first, the Type 30, was introduced in 1922. It wasn’t until 1926 that the Type 38 came about (the Type 40 was introduced that same year). There were 385 Type 38 Bugatti’s built with only 54 being the supercharged Type 38A, which featured the supercharger from the Type 37A race car.

The rather anemic supercharged 2.0 liter straight-8 engine made 60 horsepower. Only a few years later supercharged Duesenbergs would be putting out 320 horsepower – then again that was almost 7.0 liters. There’s no replacement for displacement.

This Bugatti features rather exceptional bodywork by Joseph (Giuseppe) Figoni of Figoni & Falaschi fame, although that partnership would not come to fruition for another eight years.  One thing I like about this car is that, even though it’s a 4-6 passenger (depending on size) touring car, it still has that awesome “Bugatti camber” that shows that this car means business:

Photo – Gooding & Company

These cars are rare but they aren’t quite as desirable as any Bugatti with, say, racing provenance or more sporting intentions (read: “more than 60 HP”). Gooding estimates this car at $500,000-$650,000. For more info, check out the car’s page on the auction website and more on the auction here.

Update: Sold $495,000.