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April 2017 Auction Highlights

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We’ll kick off April with Auctions America’s Ft. Lauderdale sale. The top seller was this 1963 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for $1,200,000.

Photo – Auctions America

Both Lamborghinis we featured failed to sell, the Diablo and Jalpa. Oh, and the Suzuki Cappuccino we featured was withdrawn from the sale. Check out complete results here.

On to Mecum in Houston. This 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Fastback was the top sale at $325,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Oakland we featured sold for $30,000 and the Stutz seemed like a bargain at $35,000. Click here for more results.

Early April is when Barrett-Jackson holds their annual Palm Beach sale. We only featured one car: a Torino Talladega that sold for $41,800. The top sale was this 2006 Ford GTX1 that brought $401,500. Click here for the rest of the results.

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

Next up, Brightwells and the first of their two April sales. The top sale at this one was this 1923 Vauxhall OD 23-60 Kington Tourer that went for $80,730.

Photo – Brightwells

Both of our feature cars sold, with the Riley bringing more at $47,196. The McEvoy Special came in at $28,566. A previously-featured Aster sold for $32,292. Click here for everything else.

Finally, Worldwide Auctioneers held their Texas Classic Auction. We featured a beautifully original 1912 Cadillac that sold for $36,300. The top sale was this 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for $1,111,000. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers

Stellite

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1914 Stellite 8/10HP

Offered by Mecum | Indianapolis, Indiana | May 16-21, 2017

Photo – Mecum

Wolseley, which finally went out of business in 1975, was founded in 1901 by Vickers, the former British armaments manufacturer. Early on, they were known for their luxury cars. So when Wolseley designed a light car, Vickers decided to have it produced by another company under their umbrella: the Electric & Ordnance Accessories Co. And it would be a separate marque, Stellite, to preserve the Wolseley brand.

The Stellite was powered by a 1.1-liter straight-four rated at nine horsepower. Cruising speed was a comfortable 30 mph and at launch only two-seater convertibles were offered. The car was introduced for 1914 and went out of production once WWI started. It reappeared briefly after the armistice but was quickly replaced by the 1920 Wolseley Ten.

Stellite was a short-lived British marque that was directly related to one of its oldest. Even Mecum’s catalog lists this as a “Wolseley.” They’re very rare, but not unheard of and this one should probably sell in the $15,000-$30,000 range. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold, high bid $10,000.

Update: Sold, Mecum Chicago 2017, $3,500.

Update: Sold, Mecum Kansas City 2017, $3,750.

NOTE: Dear owner, I’ve $$$ (more than you’re getting at auction) right now for this car. Just email me.

Hemi Challenger R/T

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1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi

Offered by Mecum | Indianapolis, Indiana | May 16-21, 2017

Photo – Mecum

The Dodge Challenger was the platform mate to the Plymouth ‘Cuda. While they have similar characteristics, they have quite different styling. The Barracuda was more angular, more aggressive, while the Challenger was slightly curvier and carried a more luxurious stance. While there might be something slightly luxurious about its looks, this car was all performance underneath.

The first generation Challenger was built from 1970 through 1974, with 1970 being the peak year for the car. The R/T was only available for ’70 and ’71 and Mopar’s 7.0-liter 426 Hemi V-8 was only available those years as well. This 425 horsepower beast has an automatic transmission – one of only 150 Hemi automatic Challengers built in 1970.

Listed in the Chrysler registry, this well restored R/T Hemi is sort of a sleeper in copper paint. A lot of people like these cars in bright colors and the restrained look here does the car some good. It’s simply one of the best muscle cars, and while it won’t be expensive as the Convertible variant, it will still not be cheap. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $145,000.

1931 Oakland Sedan

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1931 Oakland Model 301 Custom Sedan

Offered by Mecum | Houston, Texas | April 6-8, 2017

Photo – Mecum

Edward Murphy and Alanson Brush got together in 1906 after one of Brush’s designs was rejected by Cadillac. They started building their own car in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1907. But before production really gained any steam, Brush left to found his own company and Murphy died. Enter William Durant who scooped up Oakland and added it to GM’s growing stable of brands.

Some early Oaklands were rather large, but the company was a mid-range GM brand, slotting in between Chevrolet and Buick. In 1926, Pontiac was introduced and it outsold the Oakland it was marketed alongside. 1931 was the final year for Oakland and the Model 301 was the only model produced that year. Six body styles were offered, with the Custom Sedan being the largest and most expensive. It’s powered by a 4.1-liter V-8 making 85 horsepower, so it’s no slouch. The car is also much larger than the picture above does justice as its 117″ wheelbase is five inches longer than that of a new Ford Explorer.

This car is in beautiful shape with two-tone green paint and gray interior. Pontiacs outsold Oaklands by a wide margin, making this car extremely rare – as are most Oaklands built in the final years of the marque. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum.

Update: Sold $30,000.

March 2017 Auction Highlights, Pt. III

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We’ll kick this one off with Bonhams’ Goodwood Members’ Meeting sale in March. The top sale was this 1961 Aston Martin DP214 Replica GT Competition Coupe that brought $683,409 – that’s some serious replica money.

Photo – Bonhams

Both of our feature cars sold, with the 1903 Gladiator bringing $175,291 and the super cool NSU Kettenkrad $64,108. For the rest of the results, check out Bonhams’ site here.

Osenat held two sales in March, the second of which saw this 1932 Chrysler Imperial Custom Convertible by de Villars take top sale honors at $350,245.

Photo – Osenat

Our two feature cars both sold, with the Salmson race car bringing the most: $168,636. At the other end of the spectrum was the Georges Irat Roadster which sold for $32,430. You can see the rest of the results here.

Mecum’s Kansas City sale held in March saw this 2005 Ford GT go to a new home as the top seller at $300,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Pontiac Tojan we featured from this sale brought $13,500. You can see more from Mecum in Kansas City here.

Leclere held a sale in Avignon in their native France. This one popped on my radar too late to feature anything, but a weak sell-through rate had this 1966 Ferrari 330 GTC go as the top seller for $838,800. Click here for full results. There were some interesting cars in this sale and we’ll be sure to feature more from their upcoming auctions.

Photo – Leclere Maison de Ventes

The final sale from March is the Imperial War Museum sale held by H&H Classics. The top sale was the long-ago featured Ferrari Nembo Spyder for $744,015. The Armstrong-Siddeley Special we featured sold for $28,777 and we’ll give Most Interesting to a similar car, this 1928 Armstrong-Siddeley 20HP Long Ascot Tourer that went for $22,811.

Photo – H&H Classics

And the Bitter CD we featured sold for a healthy $84,228. Click here to see the rest of the results from this sale.

Stutz Speedway Four

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1923 Stutz Speedway Four Roadster

Offered by Mecum | Houston, Texas | April 6-8, 2017

Photo – Mecum

The Speedway Four was a model produced by Stutz in 1923 and 1924. This car is titled as a 1922 and is listed in the catalog as such, but Stutz’s 1922 line consisted solely of the 80 horsepower Series K.

Stutz produced two Speedway models – the Four and the Six. Which one do you think was larger and more powerful? You’re wrong, it’s the Four. It’s powered by a 5.9-liter straight-four making 88 horsepower and rides on a 130″ wheelbase. That compares to the Six’s 70 horses and 120″ wheelbase.

Eight body styles were offered and this Roadster looks the part of the performance car it was – and still is. Stutz motorcars are sought after for their power, build quality, and modern day usability. This well restored car is coming out of a decent-sized collection and you can find out more here. And for more from Mecum, click here.

Update: Sold $35,000.

Update: Not sold, Mecum Harrisburg 2017, high bid of $80,000.

Update: Sold, Mecum Indy 2018, $71,500.

Pontiac Tojan

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1991 Pontiac Tojan Knightmare

Offered by Mecum | Kansas City, Missouri | March 24-25, 2017

Photo – Mecum

Ford Mustangs have their famous aftermarket tuners, specifically, Saleen. General Motors never quite had the same thing (they did in the 60s, with Yenko and the like). But for more modern Camaros and Firebirds, you were pretty much left to either DIY or hope GM put out some factory monster. Most GM tuners were focused on Corvettes.

Enter Nebraska-based Knudsen Automotive (who also built a low-run neo-classic). They lent their hand to turning third generation Pontiac Firebirds into more exotic-looking sports cars. Between 1985 and 1991, they made 133 Tojans. Only three of those were “Knightmares.” Powered by Pontiac’s 5.7-liter V-8, this Knightmare also features the optional rear wing that looks like it was plucked directly off a Countach.

The point of the Tojan was, for some serious cash (about $55,000 in the late 80s), give you an American sports car that could keep pace with a Ferrari 308. This 41,000 mile car with cousin-to-KITT appearance is pretty rare. I saw a red Tojan at a car show once and it definitely got my attention. Click here to see more about this car and here for the rest of Mecum’s Kansas City lineup.

Update: Sold $13,500.

Nissan Pao

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1989 Nissan Pao

Offered by Mecum | Los Angeles, California | February 17-18, 2017

Photo – Mecum

I just asked someone in the room when they thought this car was built and their answer was “1969.” Something funky was going on in Japan in the 1980s (and let’s face it, every year before and after that, too). Mazda and Toyota were building strange things, but Nissan was taking the cake.

Their “Pike” series of cars was a line of four small cars with far-out designs. The Pao was the second “Pike” car introduced and it was only sold during the 1989 through 1991 model years. It is powered by a 1.0-liter straight-four making 51 horsepower that could regularly get over 50 mpg.

These cars were only ever sold in Japan and could be had with a cloth sunroof. Their retro styling was, strangely, ahead of its time. In just 1.5 years of production, Nissan moved 51,657 cars – which they managed to sell all of in just three months. This 65,000 mile example is a rare bird in the U.S. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $12,500.

January 2017 Auction Highlights

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We have a leftover from 2016 to start with, that being Bonhams’ December Sale. The top seller was this 1967 Aston Martin DB6 that brought $454,529.

Photo – Bonhams

A pair of our feature cars failed to sell: the Lola and the Stanley. The Métallurgique exceeded its estimate, bringing $46,475. The Delahaye went for $78,276 and the Daimler $72,618. Click here for complete results.

Moving into 2017, we start with Mecum in Kissimmee. The top sale was this 1969 Maserati Ghibli Spyder for $920,000.

Photo – Mecum

Now on to our feature cars, of which there were many. Of the three Mustang SVT Cobra Rs, only the 1995 sold, bringing $35,000. The other two did not. The Impala Z11 also failed to meet its reserve.

Previously-featured cars that also failed to sell here include this Packard and the Hupp Comet. Of the five Max Wedge Mopars, the ’63 330 brought $70,000 and the Belvedere $140,000. The ’64 440 failed to sell at that same price. The Polara 500 and Dart 330 will both remain a mystery as to what happened because they’ve yet to be updated, even though every other lot was. Full results can be found here.

Moving into the week of sales in Arizona, we have RM Sotheby’s where the Ferrari 365 GTS we featured sold for $3,602,500. It was only outsold by the top seller, the 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster by Sindelfingen for $6,600,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The brand new Isotta Fraschini sold for $434,500 and the Cord L-29 $236,500. Click here for all of the results.

Now we’ll move on to the big daddy of Scottsdale auctions, Barrett-Jackson. We featured quite a number of cars, but not the top-seller, which was this 1964 Aston Martin DB5 for $1,485,000.

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

The Ghia Streamliner we featured at the last second failed to sell, but everything else did. Big dollar cars included the Chevrolet CERV-I (that we had previously featured) that sold for $1,320,000. Another previously featured car was the Ford EX Concept that brought $110,000 here. Steven Tyler’s Hennessey Venom GT went for charity at $800,000.

The Duesenberg from this sale sold for $880,000 and the Callaway brought $115,500. The Falcon F7 supercar went for $148,500, the Pontiac Kammback Concept brought $44,000, and the pair of Goggomobils sold for $12,100 each. Click here for complete results.

The last auction for this post is Gooding & Company’s Arizona results. The top price paid was $3,300,000 for this wonderful 1925 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix. Look at it – what a car.

Photo – Gooding & Company

The top selling of our feature cars was the Ferrari Superfast for $2,915,000. The AMC AMX/3 was pretty far behind, but still brought strong money at $891,000. The outlandish Tempo Matador sold for $132,000 and the Fiat 1100 failed to meet its reserve. Find complete results here.

Impala Z11

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1963 Chevrolet Impala Z11

Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 14, 2017

Photo – Mecum

The third generation of the Chevrolet Impala was built between 1961 and 1964. It was Chevy’s full-size model – the largest car they offered in 1963. The Impala was made iconic by the Beach Boys and their song “409” which referenced the largest engine available in these cars.

Well, until 1963 anyway. The Z11 was a rare option code that could be applied and it came with a 7.0-liter V-8. The 427 put out 430 horsepower and as you can see it doesn’t look much different than your aunt’s Impala two-door hardtop. It was the ultimate sleeper, with a higher power rating than what Chrysler would slap on their Hemi years later. The 427 was based on the 409, but bigger and better. Top speed was 120 mph.

This three owner Z11 is one of just 57 built, as 1963 was the only year this option was available. Only two were built in green, with this being one of those. A comprehensive restoration was completed, which included installing a correct Z11 engine (the car was probably raced in 1963 and was sold to its second owner with a 409 under the hood). It is expected to bring between $375,000-$450,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $250,000.