November 2016 Auction Highlights

The top seller from Mecum’s Dallas sale was this 1965 Shelby GT350 that went for $410,000, which means the Porsche 911 GT2 Evo we featured failed to meet its reserve.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

But the Graham Hollywood did manage to sell, for $47,000. Click here for complete results.

Auctions America’s Hilton Head sale saw our featured Porsche Carrera GT sell for $800,000, which was more than any other car there. The Ruf RGT brought $73,700. We’ll give Most Interesting – or at least Well Bought – to this 1928 Buick Six Coupe that went for $10,450. Click here for the rest of the results.

Photo - Auctions America

Photo – Auctions America

The Delahaye we featured from Osenat’s sale blew past the upper end of its estimate, bringing $261,352. Most interesting goes to this 1959 Bond Minicar Mk F which sold for $5,880. Click here for all of the results.

Photo - Osenat

Photo – Osenat

November was the first time we featured a car from an Aguttes auction. It was a Venturi Atlantique that ended up not meeting its reserve and therefore not finding a new owner. The top sale was this 2004 Porsche Carrera GT that brought $604,737. Click here for more results.

Photo - Aguttes

Photo – Aguttes

And finally, Silverstone Auctions’ NEC Classic Motor Show Sale where the top sale was yet another Porsche, this time a 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster that was hammered away for $328,706.

Photo - Silverstone Auctions

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

The Noble M12 brought $32,568 and complete results can be found here.

Studebaker Stake Bed

1947 Studebaker M15A Stake Bed

Offered by Mecum | Anaheim, California | November 17, 2016

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

You’ll never see another truck like this in this shape. The odds are simply too low. First of all, it was built by Studebaker, so production numbers were much lower than its GM or Ford counterparts. As such, people who collect Studebakers as opposed to Fords or Chevys are a much rarer breed. Add to it that stake bed trucks were used and abused on farms across the country and you end up with a very small survival rate.

This one has been immaculately restored. The M Series line of trucks was introduced for the ill-fated 1941 model year and would resume, post war, in 1946 and run through 1948 (they were built in 1942 as well before the company switched to military production). The M15A was only available from the factory with a pickup bed and was the largest such model offered before you got into heavier truck territory. This was converted to its current look later on.

Power comes from an 80 horsepower 2.8-liter straight-six. The transmission is classified as a very old-truck-like “crashbox” four-speed. In 1947, Studebaker built 6,738 of these trucks and over 67,000 commercial vehicles in general that year alone. That number is larger than Studebaker’s entire pre-war commercial vehicle production total combined! We think this truck is awesome. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $14,000.

Graham Hollywood

1941 Graham Hollywood Sedan

Offered by Mecum | Dallas, Texas | November 2-5, 2016

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

There are two separate automotive histories that converged in the late 1930s to allow this spectacular car to come to life. First, the story of Graham: brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham founded Graham Brothers in 1919 and began building trucks under that name. In 1925, they sold the company to Dodge and a year after Chrysler bought Dodge in 1928, the Graham Brothers brand was shut down.

In 1927, the brothers bought the company that built Paige and Jewett cars and in 1928 started building cars branded as Graham-Paige. Eventually, they dropped the “Paige” and just sold cars as Graham.

Now the other side of the story… E.L. Cord’s automotive empire failed in the 1930s and the brilliant Cord 810/812 “coffin nose” design of Gordon Buehrig was too good of a design to simply disappear. Enter Hupmobile, which by this point in the Depression was also failing. They bought the dies for the Cord but didn’t have any money to build the cars. So Graham stepped in and made a deal to build cars for Hupmobile if they were allowed to build some for themselves, too. In 1940 Graham started building the Graham Hollywood and its sister car, the 1940-only Hupmobile Skylark.

The Hollywood was available in 1940 and 1941 and this well restored example is powered by a 3.6-liter straight-six making 85 horsepower (a supercharged version could be had as well). Unlike the Cord, the Hollywood is rear-wheel drive. Production delays frustrated customers and, despite high initial public interest, the car was considered a flop. Only about 1,500 Hollywoods were ever built and this one is from Graham’s final year of automotive production. They remain a rarity today, but stand as one of America’s most stylishly advanced cars of the immediate pre-war period. This one should bring between $50,000-$65,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $47,000.

October 2016 Auction Highlights

We’ll pick up in October where we left off in September: with Bonhams and their Zoute sale in Belgium. The top sale was this 1955 Porsche 356 Pre-A 1600 Speedster that brought $653,361.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Porsche 911R we featured broke the bank, too, bringing $538,062. Complete results can be found here.

Now onto the biggest sale of the month: RM Sotheby’s in Hershey, where one of the Duesenberg‘s we featured came away as the top sale at $2,090,000. The other Duesey, the Prototype Model J, brought $340,000. The Regal was the only no-sale among our feature cars and our Most Interesting award (not to mention well bought) goes to this 1929 Lincoln Model L Five-Passenger Brougham by Brunn that was bought new by gangster Legs Diamond. It sold for $38,500.

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

Other well-bought cars included this Oakland Touring for $44,000 and this Pullman Touring for $51,700. The other Pullman brought $66,000 while a previously-featured White Yellowstone Park Bus sold for $88,000. And finally, the Chalmers sold for $71,500 and the Winton $160,000. Full results can be found here.

Mecum’s Chicago sale ended on October 8th and this 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Fastback was the top sale at $245,000.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

The Reo The Fifth Touring car we featured failed to sell, having been bid to only $9,000. Click here for complete results.

Artcurial liquidated a collection in France that featured a variety of American vehicles, where the top seller was this 1932 Packard Deluxe Eight Model 904 Convertible Victoria in the style of Rollston for $58,696.

Photo - Artcurial

Photo – Artcurial

The Matford we featured brought $20,010 and the Meteor $8,004. Click here for more results.

Silverstone Auctions held an all-Porsche sale in October and this 1972 911 S 2.4 Coupe was the top sale at $243,925. Click here for complete results.

Photo - Silverstone Auctions

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

911 GT2 Evo

1996 Porsche 911 GT2 Evo

Offered by Mecum | Dallas, Texas | November 2-5, 2016

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

The 993 generation of the Porsche 911 was produced between the U.S. model years 1995 and 1998. This generation’s Turbo model was the first to feature all wheel drive – but that was a no-go for the FIA, which required manufacturers to base their race cars on road cars – and race cars had to be rear wheel drive.

So Porsche decided to build a 911 called the GT2 that would be very similar to the Turbo, but without drive going to the front wheels. This car is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter flat-6 making 600 horsepower. The base GT2 was built between 1995 and 1998 and only made 444 horsepower, but as you can see, this Evo version produced much more and has a lot of racing bits bolted on to the car.

Only 11 GT2 Evos were built by Porsche, making it a very rare homologation special. It’s also pretty extreme, with a roll cage and a single seat – perfect for track days. Whether or not it is street legal I’m not certain, but I am sure there are states that would say “NO!” This exact car no-sold at Mecum in Monterey for about a million bucks, so expect it to take more than that to find a new owner in Dallas. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum.

Update: Not sold, high bid $950,000.

Update II: Sold, Mecum Indianapolis 2017, $1,450,000.

Reo The Fifth

1914 Reo The Fifth 5-Passenger Touring

Offered by Mecum | Schaumburg, Illinois | October 6-8, 2016

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

As of 1975 (when the Reo brand finally bit the dust as a truck manufacturer), Ransom Eli Olds was one of three American men to have both of the automobile companies they founded still producing vehicles (the others being Henry Leland and Walter Chrysler). He founded Reo immediately after leaving Oldsmobile and the company set out to build the best cars they could at specific price points.

In 1912, Reo launched a model called “The Fifth” – it was an evolution of his previous cars and he called it the best car he knew how to build. It was his “farewell” car – the last one he would design before handing over the reigns to his company. It is powered by a 3.7-liter straight-four making about 30 horsepower. The car was interesting in that it introduced a center gearshift instead of those old externally mounted brass sticks everyone else was using.

This car, during a partial restoration at some point, had an electric starter added (though the original crank is included). The interior, which shows nicely, is original. While it might look like a run-of-the-mill WWI-era touring car, it really is a landmark automobile from one of America’s automotive greats. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum in Chicago.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $9,000.

September 2016 Auction Highlights

First up, Bonhams’ Chantilly Sale. There was a collection of Horch motorcars offered here and we were able to feature two of them. The streamlined coupe was withdrawn from the sale but the 780 B Cabriolet brought $712,701. The top overall seller was this 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Roadster for $5,960,772. Click here for all of the results.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Hopping across the English Channel to London, we have RM Sotheby’s and the big money they drew for this 1960 Aston Martin DB4GT that went for $3,226,720.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

A previously-featured Vallee sold here for $114,061. Our two feature cars both sold, with the Morgan bringing $172,592 and the Monteverdi $210,112. Full results can be found here.

Onward, and back to America, for Auctions America and their fall Auburn sale. The top two sales were both feature cars – and both Duesenbergs. The Franay Sunroof Model J sold for $715,000 and the Murphy Convertible Sedan went for $880,000. We’ll give our Interesting Sale award to this 1930 Buick Series 60 Sport Roadster that sold for $69,850.

Photo - Auctions America

Photo – Auctions America

The Dart Highwheeler we featured sold for $14,300 and you can see all of the other sales (and cars still available) here.

Mecum’s inaugural Louisville sale ended on September 10th and, while we didn’t feature anything from this sale, the top seller was this 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS6 Convertible for $280,000. Check out full results here.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

And the last auction for this rundown is Artcurial’s dispersion of the Normandy Tank Museum in France. We featured an M4 Sherman that sold for $330,540 but the top sale was a different M4 Sherman (technically, a 1944 Chrysler M4A4 Sherman) for $387,242. Click here for more WWII relics.

Photo - Artcurial

Photo – Artcurial

August 2016 Auction Highlights

First up for August is the final sale of July, Silverstone Auctions’ Silverstone Classic sale. The top sale was this 1958 AC Ace Bristol for $333,550.

Photo - Silverstone Auctions

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Our featured Mitsubishi Pajero Evo went for $15,776. Full results can be found here.

Now we move into Monterey and all of the Pebble Beach car craziness. We’ll start with Bonhams and their top seller, the Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix for $4,000,000. Other million dollar sales included a previously-featured Duesenberg for $1,254,000, the Mercedes-Simplex for $2,805,000, and the LaFerrari for $3,685,000.

The Cheetah GT failed to sell, but for our Most Interesting, we’ll pick this beautiful 1930 Lincoln Model L Convertible Roadster that brought $66,000.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Other sales included the Studebaker-Garford for $126,500 and a previously-featued Delaunay-Belleville for $450,000. The best-bought car of the sale (and thus far, the entire weekend), was this 1908 Fuller that someone practically stole for $11,000. I wish I would’ve been there because that thing would currently be in my garage. Click here for more results.

Now we move across town to Mecum’s Monterey sale. The top seller here was a 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari for $4,700,000 – over a million more than the one Bonhams sold. Either the atmosphere of Mecum’s sale got two people over-hyped and one of them overpaid (though, in five years, this will likely seem like a bargain) or the fact that Bonhams was unable to get their LaFerrari to cross the stage costed them a lot of money.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

There were a lot of no sales here, leading us to believe that a lot of people are still thinking their cars are worth the going rates from a few years ago. No sales among our feature cars included the Snowberger Indy car, a Porsche 912 Prototype, a Bohman & Schwartz Duesenberg, another, previously-featured Duesenberg, a previously-featured Packard, the Aston Martin Vulcan, and a Locomobile we featured years ago that has failed to meet its reserve at five Mecum sales. On a positive note, another previously-featured Duesenberg was hammered sold for $600,000. Click here for complete results.

Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach sale saw our featured Ferrari California Competizione sell for a very nice $18,150,000. A pair of cars that failed to sell were the Ferrari Daytona Shooting Brake and the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith. A previously-featured OSCA race car sold here for $605,000. As far as Most Interesting, how does this 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Roadster grab you? Someone grabbed it for a hefty $10,400,000.

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

Other no-sales included the Abarth Record Car, the four-door Rolls-Royce Convertible, and the Cisitalia. There were some more big dollar cars here as well, including $11,990,000 for an Alfa Romeo, $907,500 for a Cadillac and the following for three Maseratis: the A6G/54 brought $3,300,000, the Ghibli SS Spyder $1,500,000 and the A6/1500 Coupe $852,500. Click here for complete results.

Another Monterey auction was that of RM Sotheby’s and they boasted the weekend’s biggest dollar value sale with $21,780,000 for the 1955 Jaguar D-Type that won the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Other big money cars included the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B for $19,800,000 and the first Shelby Cobra for $13,750,000. All three of these sales are world records – the Jaguar for most expensive British car; the Alfa for most expensive pre-war car; and the Cobra for most valuable American car. Pretty impressive.

Other million dollar feature cars were the Maybach for $1,072,500 and the Duesenberg Tourster for $1,320,000. The Ferrari 268 would’ve been on that list, but it failed to meet its reserve. Other no sales included the Maserati A6G/2000 and a previously-featured Lotus 56. The Bocar brought $412,500, a Moretti we featured in 2013 sold for $132,000, and the Maserati Quattroporte went for $88,000. Click here for everything else from RM.

July 2016 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

We’re back with more highlights from July, beginning with Mecum in Harrisburg, PA. We featured a 1940 International Pickup that failed to meet its reserve with a high bid of $26,500. The top sale was this 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Fastback for $220,000. Click here for full results.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

H&H Classics held a sale at Donington Park and this 1972 Jaguar E-Type Series 3 Coupe was the top sale at $54,550.

Photo - H&H Classics

Photo – H&H Classics

The Mini Scamp we featured failed to sell but you can see all of the results here.

And to continue the theme of unsold feature cars, the Arrows-Megatron we featured from Silverstone Auctions’ Competition Car Sale also failed to sell. The top seller was this massively-priced 1981 Porsche 924 Carrera GTR that sold for $654,660. Click here for more results.

Photo - Silverstone Auctions

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

On to RM Sotheby’s Motor City auction where our featured Duesenberg was far and away the top sale at $1,540,000. Second behind that was the Saleen S7 for $632,500. For our “Most Interesting,” we’ll go with this gorgeous 1930 Cord L-29 Cabriolet for $187,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby's

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Glas Isard we showed here on our site went for $24,200 and the Detroit Electric Brougham sold for $66,000. Click here for complete results. The last sale for this post is Brightwells’ Modern Classics sale. We weren’t able to feature anything from this sale, but the top seller was this 2002 Bentley Arnage R – one of our absolute favorite Bentleys. It sold for $25,890. Click here for more results.

Photo - Brightwells

Photo – Brightwells

July 2016 Auction Highlights

First up, from June, Auctions America’s Santa Monica sale. Our featured Clenet Series II sold for $28,000. The top sale was one of the 1990s best supercars, a 1995 Ferrari F50 that went for $1,952,500. Click here for complete results.

Photo - Auctions America

Photo – Auctions America

Next we move on to Mecum in Denver where this 1963 Ford Galaxie 500XL R-Code was the top sale at $155,000.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

We featured an Oldsmobile Bravada from this sale and it failed to sell with a high bid of $11,000. Click here for complete results.

Artcurial’s Le Mans Classic sale was this month and because of poor time management on our part, we were only able to feature one car, a Delahaye 148L, that sold for $276,265. The top seller was this bewinged 1977 Porsche 935 Group 5 race car for $1,436,510. Full results can be found here.

Photo - Artcurial

Photo – Artcurial

H&H Classics were at Chateau Impney in July. We featured three cars from this sale and the top seller among them was the Costin-Nathan for $105,855, blowing its estimate out of the water. The top seller overall was this 1990 Ferrari Testarossa for $140,384.

Photo - H&H Classics

Photo – H&H Classics

Our other feature cars both sold, with the Connaught bringing $104,397 and the Saxon $14,953. Click here for more.

And finally, Brightwells’ July sale. This 1966 Citroen DS 21 Chapron Decapotable was the top seller at $73,886.

Photo - Brightwells

Photo – Brightwells

The one-off Silurian Tourer that we featured sold for $29,026 and the older of the two Albion trucks sold, bringing $27,707 (the other failed to meet its reserve). Click here for complete results.