Tag Archives: race cars

Mercedes W04 F1

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2013 Mercedes-AMG W04

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 17, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Mercedes-Benz took quite the hiatus from Formula One, departing in 1955 after murdering a bunch of spectators. They returned as an engine supplier in the 1990s, but didn’t come back with a full team effort until the 2010 season, a year after purchasing reigning champions Brawn GP.

After three somewhat disappointing seasons, they showed up in 2013 with this, the W04 that was to be fielded by drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. It would take them to second in the constructors championship, bettering the fifth they achieved the year prior. It was clear they were onto something, as the following year they would win the championship… and then keep doing so year after year after that.

The W04 is powered by a 2.4-liter V8 with a KERS system that can produce 750 horsepower (or 830 with the KERS enabled). All while revving to a cool 18,000 rpm. This was the last season of F1 to feature V8 engines. The race history for this chassis, #F1W04-04 includes:

  • 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix – 3rd (with Lewis Hamilton)
  • 2013 Chinese Grand Prix – 3rd (with Hamilton)
  • 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix – 1st (with Hamilton)
  • 2013 Belgian Grand Prix – 3rd (with Hamilton)

This chassis was actually used in 14 races that year. It has somehow escaped Mercedes’ hands and has a pre-sale estimate of $10,000,000-$15,000,000. Click here for more info.

Peugeot 3008 Dakar

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2017 Peugeot 3008 DKR

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 25, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Peugeot‘s 3008 road model is a compact SUV. And it looks nothing like this. I think, for this rally raid race car, they carried over the headlights and grille shape. And that’s about it. But hey, it gives everyone who drives a 3008 the feeling that their front-wheel-drive hatchback wagon could go anywhere if they slapped some Red Bull graphics on it.

Peugeot entered five of these in the 2017 Dakar Rally. It’s powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter diesel V6 that makes 340 horsepower. So it can pretty go much anywhere, and fast. The competition history for this chassis, C22, includes:

  • 2017 Dakar Rally – 3rd (with Cyril Despres and David Castera)
  • 2019 Dakar Rally – 3rd (with Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena)
  • 2022 Dakar Rally – 42nd (with Khalid Al Qassmi and Dirk von Zitzewitz)

After its last outing it was rebuilt and should be instantly usable. It has an estimate of $370,000-$700,000 – a range that says “we have no idea what this is worth.” Click here for more info.

Gillet Vertigo

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2002 Gillet Vertigo Race Car

Offered by Bring a Trailer | October 2023

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Gran Turismo fans know exactly what this is. The Vertigo is the product of Gillet Automobiles of Belgium. They’ve been making versions of it since the early 1990s, and some of them look quite different than others, but this is the most famous one.

The race car (there are apparently a few road cars) was aimed at the FIA GT Championship, and it won its class three years in a row in the late 2000s. Power is provided by tuned 3.0-liter Alfa Romeo V6, and the car features a carbon fiber monocoque and bodywork.

This particular car competed in the 2005 FIA GT series, winning its class at Zhuhai in China. It’s said to be one of three such race cars built. It was later restored by Tony Gillet himself and has about a week left to bid on. Click here for more info.

Ferrari 412P

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1967 Ferrari 412P

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

This car is proof that, if you watch long enough, just about everything will come up for sale. Ferrari‘s “P”-line of sports prototype race cars are among the most valuable and sought after vehicles in the world. Only four 412Ps were built, and two of those were actually converted from P3s.

This car, chassis number 0854, is one of two factory-built 412Ps. But not much left on it is from the factory. The car was purchased by David Piper in 1968, and the original aluminum body had seen a few years of hard racing duty at that point. And instead of repair it, he replaced the body with a fiberglass one. Which was then destroyed in a fire in 1969. It was then rebuilt again, and this time as a spyder, before it was actually restored to how it looked when new. This was done by the current owner, famed Ferrari guy Jim Glickenhaus.

With these old racing cars, it’s sort of like the “idea” of them. Eventually every part will be replaced, but as long as you can link the chain back to when it was new, then you’ve got the real deal.

The engine is a 4.0-liter V12 that makes somewhere around 420 horsepower. The period racing history for this chassis includes:

  • 1967 1000km Spa – 3rd (with Richard Attwood and Lucien Bianchi)
  • 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans – 23rd (with Attwood and Piers Courage)

All of this is good and well, but there is still one more important detail (it’s not the price, which most cannot afford anyway and will be well into the eight figures). It’s this: this car has license plates. The late 1960s is when the end came for sports prototypes to also be made street legal. By the 1970s, the cars were too extreme. This is pretty extreme, but you can still take it to the grocery store. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $30,255,000.

Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S

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1999 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

The insane front-engined Panoz Esperante GTR-1 put Panoz on the map, and once that class was eliminated from FIA GT competition, Panoz re-tooled and came up with the LMP-1 Roadster S. Then they also founded the ALMS so they had somewhere to race it in the U.S.

It looks like an open-cockpit GTR-1, and it kind of is. They were powered by a 6.0-liter Ford-based Elan V8 that made 620 horsepower. This particular car is without an engine. It is chassis #002, and its competition history includes:

  • 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans – 11th (with Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen, and Max Angelelli)
  • 1999 Petit Le Mans – 5th (with O’Connell, Magnussen, and Memo Gidley)

Those are some grade A late-90s/early-00s endurance racing names. These Panoz prototypes are LOUD – you know, when they have an engine. And this one would be welcome at most historic racing events. It has an estimate of $350,000-$550,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $428,500.

Ferrari F2001B

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2002 Ferrari F2001B

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 16-19, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferrari’s F2001 was a dominant car in Formula One. Michael Schumacher won eight races in an F2001, securing the driver’s and constructor’s titles. For the start of the 2002 season, Ferrari tweaked the prior year’s chassis and dubbed it the F2001B. This car was used by Schumacher for the first two races of the 2002 season and the first three for teammate Rubens Barichello.

This chassis, #215, was a success right out of the gate. It’s competition history consists of:

  • 2002 Australian Grand Prix – 1st (with Schumacher)
  • 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix – 3rd (with Schumacher, from pole)

Schumacher won the title again in 2002, using the F2002 for the rest of the season. They used 3.0-liter screaming V10s during this era. This car is one of likely two built, and it’s a race winner to boot. You can read more about it here.

Update: Withdrawn.

Lorraine-Dietrich Grand Prix

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1909 Lorraine-Dietrich 16.4-Liter Grand Prix

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

Well, there’s no replacement for displacement. Back in the early days of competition motoring, companies just put bigger and bigger engines on their relatively simple chassis and hoped for the best. The crazy part is they rarely ever added cylinders. They just made them bigger. Coffee cans that you can count rev.

But! This car is not from 1909. Maybe a few of the components are, but this car was assembled much more recently. It started as a rolling 1909 Lorraine-Dietrich chassis that was fitted with an actual chain-driven Lorraine-Dietrich gearbox and a custom-built giant motor.

It’s a 16.4-liter inline-four that develops 200 horsepower and a crazy 850 lb-ft of torque, the latter at 1,500 rpm. Here’s an old car that can easily keep up with modern traffic. It has a pre-sale estimate of $600,000-$800,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $1,270,000.

Delage D6 Grand Prix

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1939 Delage D6 3-Litre Grand Prix

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 17-19, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The D6 was a long-lived line of Delage cars that started in 1930, took a break during the war, and returned to production afterward and on through 1953 or 1954. The D6 3-Litre road model went on sale in 1946 and lasted until the end of D6 production. It was powered by a… 3-liter inline-six. But so were other, earlier D6s.

This pre-war grand prix car is one of two constructed in preparation for the 1939 season. It’s got a 150-horsepower, 3.0-liter inline-six and was campaigned in the following:

  • 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans – 2nd (with Louis Gerard and Georges Monneret)
  • 1940 Mille Miglia – DNF (with Gianfranco Comotti and Archimede Rosa)

This car was damaged during the race and was left behind in Italy. The disassembled chassis later found its way into the reserve collection of the horrible Schlumpf brothers, remaining there until 1966. The car was returned to the state you see here by a later owner in the 1990s.

It’s now got an estimate of $600,000-$750,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Kurtis/Diedt-Offy Special

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1949 Kurtis/Deidt-Offenhauser FWD Special

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 17-19, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Here’s a handful of names that once dominated at Indianapolis: Frank Kurtis, Emil Deidt, Fred Offenhauser. Combining all three into one car? Should be pretty special. And that’s kind of what happened here.

So, what happened here was: owner Gil Pearson commissioned Deidt to build two front-wheel-drive race cars. Frank Kurtis built the body and frame, and then they stuffed a 4.4-liter Meyer-Drake-Offenhauser inline-four up front to drive the front wheels. They took it out to the Muroc dry lake bed and hit 176 mph.

It was then used in some movies before being parked with its sister car behind Gil Pearson’s house until the 1990s. It was then restored before being invited to Pebble Beach in 2001. Now it has a pre-sale estimate of $350,000-$500,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

1996 Champ Car

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1996 Reynard 96I

Offered by Mecum | Monterey, California | August 17-29, 2023

Photo – Mecum

This is what race cars are supposed to look like. Team Rahal Reynards. The main chassis producers for the 1996 Champ Car season were Reynard and Lola. Team Rahal ran Reynard 96Is for Bobby Rahal and Bryan Herta, the latter of whom drove the Shell-liveried car you see here.

Back in the day, these were powered by a Mercedes/Ilmor 2.7-liter V8. This one is currently engineless. Unfortunately no competition history is provided for this chassis, but the catalog insinuates (a bit disingenuously) that this was the car involved in “The Pass” by Alex Zanardi at Laguna Seca.

Anyway, even without an engine this remains a fine example of the glory days of Champ Car. It has an estimate of $50,000-$80,000, and you can find out more about it here.