Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Essen, Germany | April 12, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Italdesign is a design company based in Moncalieri, Italy, near Turin. Co-founded by legendary designer Giorgetto Giugiaro in 1968, the company was mostly acquired by Lamborghini in 2010. In 2017, an offshoot was formed called Italdesign Automobili Speciali. Their mission is to actually build low-run supercars, instead of just designing them.
Their first car is this, the Zerouno, and it was launched in 2017. We’ll just say it’s related to the Lamborghini Huracan, as it is powered by a 5.2-liter V10 that makes 610 horsepower and has all-wheel drive. Top speed is 205 mph.
Only five units of the Zerouno were constructed, with this being the final one (an additional five examples of the Zerouno Duerta drop-top will also be made). It’s basically brand new with delivery mileage. This could very well be the last time you ever see one of these for sale, and it should bring between $1,050,000-$1,700,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Essen, Germany | April 11-12, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Most boutique car companies focus on high-end sports cars. Not Peter Monteverdi’s Swiss shop. In addition to building superfast sports cars, he sold high-end SUVs and extremely lengthy sedans for the world’s elite.
The High Speed line of cars was produced between 1967 and 1976. Most of them were 2-door coupes. There is one surviving convertible. And then there are these, the sedans. Fewer than 30 were built, and after production ceased, the Qatari Royal Family wanted some, so Monteverdi built seven more in the late 1970s. I once saw one of those cars plow into the back of a McLaren MP4-12C. So that was fun.
This car is powered by a 7.2-liter Chrysler V8, which makes a great sound, and the chassis features a 20-inch stretch over the coupe. The wheelbase looks insane, but these are big cars. For royalty. And they never change hands. This one is expected to bring between $225,000-$275,000. Click here for more info and here for more from RM Sotheby’s in Essen.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | March 29-30, 2019
1965 Goggomobil TS300 Cabriolet
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Goggomobil was built by Hans Glas GmbH between 1955 and 1969. There were a number of different models offered, with the TS coupe model available in TS250 or TS300 form.
They are powered by a 15 horsepower, 293cc 2-stroke twin. The cabriolet is very rare, with only seven examples produced. This former museum car carries a pre-sale estimate of $35,000-$45,000. Click here for more info.
Update: Sold $20,350.
1958 Biscuter 200-1 Furgoneta
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Biscuter was a microcar built by Autonacional of Spain. It is a descendant of Gabriel Voisin‘s post-war Biscooter French microcar. Different models were available, including the Pegasin sports car and this Furgoneta commercial van.
Power here is from a 197cc 2-stroke single-cylinder making a whopping nine horsepower. It’s wearing a wrap, which is an interesting thing to do to a classic car. Not many examples remain, and this one sports some pretty awesome wood work. It should bring between $20,000-$30,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | March 29-30, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Biscuter was a microcar built by Autonacional of Spain. It is a descendant of Gabriel Voisin‘s post-war Biscooter French microcar. Different models were available, including the Pegasin sports car and this Furgoneta commercial van.
Power here is from a 197cc 2-stroke single-cylinder making a whopping nine horsepower. It’s wearing a wrap, which is an interesting thing to do to a classic car. Not many examples remain, and this one sports some pretty awesome wood work. It should bring between $20,000-$30,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | March 29-30, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
This is the best Lotus. Okay, well it’s at least my favorite Lotus. And it’s in the best color, with the best wheels. The Esprit debuted in 1975 for the ’76 model year, and the above car is a Series 4 example – which was actually the fifth iteration of the model.
The S4 was built between 1993 and 2004, and damn if they aren’t just great-looking sports cars – especially in Yellow Pearl. In 1996, the company decided to stop screwing around with lousy four-cylinder engines and finally stuffed a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V8 in there. It was good for 350 horsepower. It could do 175 mph.
This 37,000-mile example carries a pre-sale estimate of $60,000-$70,000 – which seems steep – and it is one of 1,237 V8 models built. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
We stay in Britain for Brightwells’ Leominster sale where our lone feature car, the Jaguar XJS Monaco, failed to sell. The top seller was this 1989 Ferrari 328 GTS for $75,101. Click here for additional results.
Photo – Brightwells
Onward now to Amelia Island and Bonhams, where we featured a lot of interesting cars. Remarkably, only one of them didn’t sell according to Bonhams’ results: the 1910 Pope-Hartford that was supposed to be offered without reserve. Not sure what’s going on there.
Relative deals consisted of the $62,720 Columbus and the $60,480 Crow-Elkhart. A previously-featured 1904 Knox sold here for $252,000. Final results can be found here.
We also featured quite a few cars from the RM Sotheby’s sale in Amelia Island, including some we featured from past sales like this 1924 Isotta Fraschini, this V-12 Cadillac, this AAR Eagle – all three of which failed to sell. The big-dollar Bugatti failed to find a new home as well. The overall top sale was the 1930 Duesenberg we featured. It sold for $1,650,000. We will award Most Interesting to this wicker-bodied 1911 Napier 15HP Victoria that brought $156,800.
Of our feature cars, the OSCA 1600 GT sold for $489,000 and the Kurtis $263,200. A previously-featured Abarth 207/A went for $362,500. Click here for complete results.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | March 29-30, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
When Stutz was revived in 1968, it’s most famous product was the Virgil Exner-styled Blackhawk that was produced between 1971 and 1987. They were definitely a product of their time, but they kind of have a following and were pretty nice cars when new.
The original cars were based on Pontiac Grand Prix running gear, which was okay because they kind of looked like a gussied-up Grand Prix anyway. This particular car is described as having a “V8 engine” which is not too helpful as a variety of engines were used during the course of production.
The 1973 models were considered their own generation as the cars received annual updates during the first three years of production. These were expensive cars (they’d over $150,000 today), and there were a lot of celebrity owners, too. By the time production wrapped, about 600 examples had been produced. This one is expected to bring between $75,000-$105,000, which seems like a lot. Oh yeah, they also built other models that were essentially the same car but with four doors, which is kind of weird. Click here for more info about this car and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Type 57S and Type 57C were the ultimate versions of Bugatti’s long-lived Type 57. This marks the second Type 57SC we’ve featured, and both cars look as if they were bodied much more recently with replica coachwork. I guess there’s something just too low and sporty about these cars to believe that they could’ve possibly been designed in the 1930s.
The 57S was the lowered version and the 57C was the supercharged version. Only 40 57S cars were built, and most of them carried closed coachwork. Only 16 were drop-tops, including this one. What isn’t clear is when the supercharger was added to this car’s 3.3-liter straight-eight. What is for sure is that only two cars were built by the factory to 57SC specification. Most owners of 57S cars had superchargers fitted afterward, to bump power to that magical 200 horsepower mark.
Speeds of 120 mph were quoted in the day, making these as quick of cars as money could buy before WWII. This car was supercharged early in its life but was not originally built that way. The body is by Corsica, and it was separated from the chassis for 43 years before it was reunited and restored.
The rarity and beauty factors have the ability to push this car to near eight-figure territory. It’ll be interesting to see where this one ends up… if it sells. Click here for more info and here for the rest of the lineup from RM Sotheby’s.
We’ll pick up where we left off last time, Scottsdale. This time it’s Russo & Steele, where this2012 Lexus LFA blew everything else away, selling for $412,500. Complete results can be found here.
Photo – Russo & Steele
Now we’re on to Retromobile in Paris, where RM Sotheby’s led it off with a huge number for this 1987 Ferrari F40 LM: $5,489,215.
The second sale of the Retromobile week was held by Bonhams, and we featured a lot of cars from this event. On the extreme one end of the spectrum was the Red Bug buckboard we featured. It sold for $4,958. Now a quick rundown of no-sales from this auction: the Clement-Bayard, the beautiful Darracq, the 1911 Renault, the Bellanger, and a previously-featured Horch. The overall top sale was this 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet A for $1,794,086.
Finally, we have Silverstone Auctions and their Race Retro Classic Car sale. The biggest money was the $381,813 paid for this 1958 Porsche 356A Speedster.
Photo – Silverstone Auctions
The Ginetta G4 we featured sold for $40,824, but the De Tomaso Longchamp Spider failed to find a new home on the block. You can see more results from this sale here.
1926 Hispano-Suiza H6B Cabriolet Le Dandy by Chapron
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Amelia Island, Florida | March 8-9, 2019
Photo courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Hispano-Suiza was a Spanish/Swiss company that set up a French arm in 1911, which became their main factory in 1914. And in 1923, the French part sort of became its own company altogether, which is why this car is listed under “France” in our cars by country list.
The H6 went on sale in 1919 and was usurped by the H6B in 1922. More powerful than its predecessor, the H6B gets moved along by a 135 horsepower, 6.6-liter straight-six. It was a popular model and remained in production alongside the even-better H6C for a few years.
The Henri Chapron-built body currently on this car was added five years after it was originally sold, replacing whatever the original body was. The car has been stateside since the 50s, and has been winning awards at major shows for the last 15 years. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
