Tag Archives: supercars

Vanquish Zagato Speedster

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2018 Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Speedster Storck Vintage

Offered by Bonhams | Knokke-Heist, Belgium | October 10, 2021

Photo – Bonhams

That’s quite the name, isn’t it? There’s a lot to break down. First, the second-generation Vanquish was produced by Aston Martin by 2012 through 2018. It was replaced by the DBS Superleggera. Then there’s the Zagato aspect. Aston teamed with Zagato for a limited run of Vanquish models at the end of the the gen 2’s run.

There was a one-off Zagato Roadster during the first-generation’s run, but it never reached production. This time around, there were four Zagato models to choose from: coupe, convertible, shooting brake, and Speedster. Only 99 were built of each, except the Speedster. This is #25 of just 28 Speedsters.

Power is from a 5.9-liter V12 rated at 595 horsepower, which was good enough for a sprint to 60 of 3.5 seconds on the way to a 201-mph top end.

Storck Bicycle is a German bicycle company headed by designer Markus Storck. He collaborated with Aston for a limited run of seven Vanquish coupes, and he was brought back for three special Speedsters, including this, the Vintage. It added some special paint and trim touches – and a bit chunk of change to the final price when new.

The car is essentially brand new and is expected to sell for between $1,000,000-$1,500,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Dallara Stradale

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2019 Dallara Stradale Berlinetta

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | St. Moritz, Switzerland | September 17, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Gian Paolo Dallara has been designing cars since the 1960s. His career highlight is probably the Lamborghini Miura. In 1972 he founded Dallara Automobili, which has been designing racing cars since, including Indy Cars since the late 1990s.

But as has been vogue for the last half decade, boutique firms that specialize in one small segment of automobile design or production have been getting into the specialty car business themselves. This includes design houses like Zagato, Touring, and Italdesign.

The Stradale was Dallara’s first road car, and production started in 2017. They offer four body styles, three of which don’t have any doors. This berlinetta has two gullwing doors. Power is from a turbocharged 2.3-liter inline-four sourced from a Ford Focus RS. Output is 395 horsepower, and 60 arrives in 3.2 seconds. Top speed is 174 mph.

We typically don’t feature cars still in production, but since these boutique cars seem to vanish without a word, we’ll go ahead and get this one on the books. Dallara claims they will build “no more than 600” examples over a five-year run. The price when new was about $236,000, and this one is essentially brand new. You can read more about it here and see more from this sale here.

Update: Not sold.

SSC Ultimate Aero

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2007 SSC Ultimate Aero TT

Offered by Mecum | Monterey, California | August 12-14, 2021

Photo – Mecum

If you’ve haven’t been following the drama of SSC’s current Tuatara supercar we’ll fill you in: there was a video online in 2020 of the car purportedly breaking the 300-mph barrier. People called it bogus, and very recently SSC admitted it did not actually happen. The company’s first model was the Aero, which debuted in 2004. We featured the second one of those that was built before it was withdrawn from a previous auction.

The upped the Aero to the Ultimate Aero in 2005 and continued piling power on with 2007’s Ultimate Aero TT. This is the first of those built. It is powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.3-liter V8 that was rated at 1,183 horsepower. The top speed was 257 mph, which made it the fastest “production” car at the time.

Mecum notes that 24 were produced between 2006 and 2007. I’m not sure what model(s) that number covers, or even if it is true. Remember that they announced the Tuatara in 2011 but it is unclear if customer deliveries have begun as of 2021.

All that said, this is a pretty cool American supercar. It’s like a 21st Century Vector. It is expected to sell for between $600,000-$750,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $400,000.

Lamborghini Diablo GTR

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2000 Lamborghini Diablo GTR

Offered by Bonhams | Cheserex, Switzerland | June 20, 2021

Photo – Bonhams

The Diablo is the ultimate 90s supercar, and the model received a facelift in 1998 when the pop-up headlights were replaced. In 2000, the car also got a mechanical overhaul and some styling tweaks for the end-of-the-line Diablo 6.0.

But what we have here is a super rare track variant. Lamborghini sold 80 examples of the track-oriented Diablo GT road car between 1999 and 2000. Then they also built 40 GTR full-race variants. It was the last of a short line of Diablo race cars. It was basically a stripped GT with pneumatic air jacks, a big rear wing, and magnesium center-lock wheels.

The 6.0-liter V12 was also revised to produce 590 horsepower. The car was rear-wheel drive and featured a five-speed manual transmission. This is car #11 and it won the 2001 Lamborghini GTR Supertrophy series. It also competed in the 2003 French GT Championship. It’s now ready for some historic stuff, at a price of $890,000-$1,100,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Koenigsegg CCR

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2004 Koenigsegg CCR

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Milan, Italy | June 15, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Koenigsegg produced three prototypes of its first car, the CC, before entering production with the CC8S in 2002. Two years later they upped the ante with the CCR, which was an evolution of the CC8S with revised braking and suspension systems. Aerodynamic updates, bigger wheels, and engine upgrades were also part of the package, which made the CCR one of the most outrageous supercars of the 2000s.

Built between 2004 and 2006, the CCR is powered by an 806 horsepower, twin-supercharged 4.6-liter V8. It was capable of hitting 60 in about 3.2 seconds on its way to a record-breaking 245 mph.

Only 14 examples were produced, and this is number three. It was the first CCR unveiled to the public and is finished in Lava Orange over a pretty decent-looking interior for a low-volume, upstart supercar manufacturer from 2004. No estimate is available, but it sure won’t be cheap. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $946,974.

McLaren Elva

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2020 McLaren Elva

Offered by Bonhams | Los Angeles, California | April 10, 2021

Photo – Bonhams

McLaren has gone on a spree of producing pretty out there cars of late. From the P1 to the Senna to the Speedtail and now this, the Elva. The name harkens back to the lightweight Elva racing cars of the 1950s and 60s. McLaren had a relationship with that company back in the day, too.

This new Elva features a carbon-fiber monocoque, a full carbon-fiber body, and no windshield. In place of the latter, the car has an air management system that directs air from the nose up and around the cockpit. It’s like a windshield made of air. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect James Dyson to produce. Lamely, U.S.-market cars will get a windshield and side windows.

The twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 is rated at 804 horsepower. McLaren claims the Elva is the lightest car they’ve ever made. It’ll hit 60 in 2.8 seconds and tops out at 203 mph. McLaren was going to initially build 399 examples, and they later cut it back to 249. Bonhams claims this is car #45 of only 149 built. It carries a pre-sale estimate of $1,700,000-$2,100,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Withdrawn.

Ascari Ecosse

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1997 Ascari Ecosse

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 13, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Well, check this out. Ascari Cars is no longer around, but in the late 1990s and 2000s, they were a British supercar company that built extremely low volume stuff out of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Their models included the FGT race car, the Ecosse (their first road car), and the KZ1. They went out of business in 2010, and their old place is now used by the Haas F1 team.

The Ecosse was produced between 1997 and 2003 and was kind of a road-going version of the FGT. In that time, only 19 examples were built. This one was once owned by the family of Ascari owner Klaas Zwart. It was sold by his family in 2019 to the current owner.

This car is powered by a 4.4-liter BMW V8 that makes 300 horsepower. That is enough to push the car to 200 mph. Oh, by the way, the car isn’t black. It’s a very dark green, which really makes it better. This ultra-rare late-90s supercar should sell for between $185,000-$235,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Gumpert Apollo

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2008 Gumpert Apollo

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 13, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Roland Gumpert previously worked for Audi Sport and founded his own company in Germany in 2004. The next year the company launched the Apollo supercar. Production would continue until Gumpert’s bankruptcy in 2013. In 2016, the remnants of the company were acquired by a business out of Hong Kong that also owns the rights to the De Tomaso brand. Apollo Automobil (the new company) can offer parts assistance for exiting Apollos and are working on their own new models.

The Apollo is powered by an Audi-sourced twin-turbocharged 4.2-liter V8 rated at 641 horsepower. This was the base model, and it would do 223 mph and 60 in 3.1 seconds. Two more-powerful variants were also offered. This particular car was used as a factory demonstrator and was sold new in Italy. At a 2013 track day at Monza, it experienced a rear-wheel hub failure and crashed into the pit wall. Unfortunately this coincided with Gumpert’s bankruptcy, so the car was unable to be repaired at that time.

But once Apollo Automobil sprang up, a complete overhaul (RM calls it a “restoration”) was performed, wrapping in 2017. This is the 20th Apollo built, although I have no idea how many were built in total (it’s at least 40). You can see more about this one here, and more from RM here.

Update: Not sold.

Koenigsegg Regera

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2019 Koenigsegg Regera

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Phoenix, Arizona | January 22, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Here’s another rule-breaker (kind of, more on that in a minute). Introduced in 2016, the Regera was designed to be more practical and luxurious than its sister car, the Agera, which was built from 2011 through 2018.

So what does the Regera bring to the table? How about a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V8 combined with three electric motors for a combined system output of 1,500 horsepower? the car has active aero, carbon fiber wheels, a fixed-gear direct-drive transmission, and, of course, dihedral doors. It has an electronically limited top speed of 251 mph. Sixty is gone in 2.8 seconds. It can hit 249 mph in 22.8 seconds. And this is their grand touring car.

Koenigsegg planned to build just 80 examples of the Regera, and as of the end of 2020, they have apparently all been built. So there we go, it’s technically out of production. Interestingly, this is the 175th Koenigsegg car built – talk about low volume. It was delivered new to a dealer in Illinois, has over $215,000 in options, and is the first Regera to hit the public auction block.

Gotta love supercars. And this one is pretty awesome. It carries an estimate of $2,600,000-$2,900,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

McLaren Speedtail

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2020 McLaren Speedtail

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Phoenix, Arizona | January 22, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ever since McLaren got back into the production car game with the 12C, people have been waiting for the “successor to the F1.” McLaren has churned out supercar after supercar but didn’t start with their “Ultimate Series” until the P1, which some consider being the F1’s successor (but not here). Deliveries of the Speedtail began in 2020, and it is considered as “more of a successor” to the F1 than the P1. But I don’t think the F1 needs a successor. Even if this car shares the F1’s three-seat, center-driver layout.

Maybe just consider this as a 21st Century take on the F1. Top speed was the target here, and although it won’t take the worldwide record for the fastest production car as the F1 did, it is still capable of 250 mph, making it McLaren’s fastest road car. The twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 is combined with an electric motor for a combined output of 1,306 horsepower.

This car has over $170,000 in MSO options on it and is the 36th Speedtail constructed. They are not street legal in the U.S., so this one is likely here on a Show or Display exemption.

The fact that this car is still in production does fly in the face of our “no current production cars” rule. But, the Speedtail is supposed to be limited to 106 units, matching that of the F1. When production wraps is TBD, but it will likely be in the next year or two.

This is the first Speedtail to come up for auction, and because all Speedtail owners were selected by McLaren, this is the first chance most people will have to buy one. I doubt this will ever be a $20 million classic like the F1, but time will tell. Click here for info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $3,277,500.