Tag Archives: cars

Bugatti Centodieci

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2022 Bugatti Centodieci

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Bugatti doesn’t like to design new cars (neither does Lamborghini… must be a Volkswagen thing). Instead they design one car and they keep producing new “models” with different names that are essentially the same car with some different exterior bits glued on.

That’s what we have here. Based on the Chiron, the Centodieci is a tribute to the EB110 of the 1990s – which was made by an entirely different, pre-VW Bugatti company based in Italy. It has that straked front grille and those little dots on the sail panels. Money, please.Power is from a quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W16 rated at 1,578 horsepower. Top speed is limited to 240 mph.

This car is number six of 10 produced. They cost $10 million new. Which is kind of a straight-up rip-off. But if you’re going to flip one after a few years you’ll make a quick buck. The estimate here is $10,500,000-$16,000,000. More info can be found here.

1910 Mitchell Touring

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1910 Mitchell Model S Seven-Passenger Touring

Offered by Bring a Trailer | December 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Mitchell: Like many of its contemporaries, Mitchell got its start as a wagon builder. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Mitchell‘s wagons started rolling out in the 1880s. The switch to cars happened in 1903. They ended up going out of business in 1924, with the factory being purchased by Nash to produce their Ajax.

Model S: The Model S was introduced for 1910 with power from a 7.0-liter inline-six. It was a range-topped over the company’s earlier four-cylinder models. It would be produced through 1911, with two touring car body styles offered.

This car was restored in the 1950s under the ownership of OG collector Winthrop Rockefeller. Bill Harrah bought it in the 1970s, and after it left his collection, it was part of the Imperial Palace collection before being purchased by John McMullen. That is some pretty stout history. Big tourers from this era command big prices. Click here to see how it’s going.

Mercedes 35 PS

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1910 Mercedes 35 PS Landaulette

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 2024

Photo – Bonhams

Mercedes: Wilhelm Maybach, Emil Jellinek, and Paul Daimler helped design the original Mercedes 35 HP in 1901. It was a revolutionary thing, and is often considered the first “modern car.” It’s what set Mercedes on the path of being one of the finest machines in the world. They’d team up with Benz in the 1920s.

35 PS: In 1908, a new 35 HP Mercedes appeared. While the original 35 HP model was chain driven, this new era of cars featured driveshafts. Even more modern. Built in 1908 and 1909, the 35 HP was powered by a 5.3-liter inline-four rated at, well, 35 horsepower. Top speed was around 43 mph.

This car wears landaulet coachwork, which was one of three styles offered by the factory. While it has been restored, it features a replacement engine from an earlier Mercedes displacing 8.5 liters. The body is also said to not be the original configuration. The estimate is $130,000-$250,000. More info can be found here.

Koenigsegg CCXR

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2006 Koenigsegg CCXR

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 2024

Photo – Bonhams

Koenigsegg: Christian von Koenigsegg’s insane Swedish auto manufacturer has been around for 30 years now, building some of the world’s fastest cars.

CCXR: the CCR launched in 2004 and was clocked at 241 mph. The 245-mph CCX arrived in 2006. And the CCXR debuted a year later. Just nine examples were produced through 2009. The biggest thing differentiating the CCXR from the CCX is that the twin-supercharged 4.7-liter V8 in the “R” model was modified to run on E85 or E100 ethanol. Output was rated at 1,018 horsepower. The claimed top end was 249 mph.

This car: was the first production CCX. It has had one owner since new and was converted to a CCXR in 2014. So maybe there are now 10 CCXRs running around? The estimate here is $1,800,000-$2,300,000. Click here for more info.

Riley & Scott Mk III

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1999 Riley & Scott Mk III Series 2

Offered by Bring a Trailer | December 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Riley & Scott: Bob Riley and Mark Scott founded their racing car constructor in 1990. They sold out in 1999 to Reynard, who went bankrupt in 2001. Bob Riley resurfaced that same year with Riley Technologies.

Mk III: debuted in 1995 and was the most famous (of only a few) products the company would offer. Iterations of the Mk III would race through 2005. Just 17 of the original Mk III were built from 1995 through 1998. Just four Series 2 cars were built in 1999 before being replaced by the Mk III C.

This car: was acquired new by AutoExe Motorsport in Japan. It’s currently powered by a 6.0-liter Ford V8. The race history for this chassis is below, but after a 1999 Fuji Speedway crash, the car was rebuilt in-house by AutoExe with the goal of being at Le Mans in 2000 as the AutoExe LMP99. That didn’t happen. It later made its way to the U.S., where it is now being offered.

Competition history: (chassis LMP-021)

  • 1999 12 Hours of Sebring – 35th (with Yojiro Terada and Franck Freon)
  • 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans – 40th, DNF (with Terada, Freon, and Robin Donovan)
  • 1999 1000km Fuji – DNF (with Terada, Freon, and Kaichi Satou)

Tiga GT286

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1986 Tiga-Buick GT286

Offered by Bring a Trailer | December 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Let’s try something a bit different for a bit…

Tiga: founded in 1974 by ex-F1 drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley. It was based in the U.K. and built open-wheel and sports racing prototypes through 1989. A few companies have owned the name since, and “Tiga” has appeared on a few race cars here and there over the years.

GT286: only 10 of these were built for the 1986 season. They were called GT286 if they were built for IMSA Lights and GC286 if they were bought for Group C.

This car: competed in IMSA Lights with owner/driver Charles Morgan, who won his class at Watkins Glen. The chassis was used by various teams (in various configurations) into the 1995 season before being retired. It was restored in the 2000s and is powered by a 4.2-liter Buick V6. It has since competed in events like the Le Mans Classic. Click here for more info.

W196R Streamliner

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1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Stuttgart, Germany | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum had one of the world’s great collections of cars. And it’s slowly dissipating. They sold a bunch of cars with Bring a Trailer a few years ago, including some wacky but not super notable race cars, some classics that formed the original basis of the museum, and some recent racing-related things, like a Honda Accord Hybrid IndyCar pace car.

They sat on the best stuff, some of the stuff that, once it’s gone, will never be back. Visiting the museum was always a treat, because you never knew what amazing thing might be on display. Well, they are narrowing their focus to “Indianapolis” and the W196R streamliner seen here never raced there. So it’s got to go. Along with other previously “priceless” treasures. It’s pretty sad.

The W196 Silver Arrow was Mercedes’ last F1 car until 2010. It competed in the 1954 and 1955 seasons before Mercedes pulled out of racing after their cars started killing pedestrians. They built 14 examples of the W196R, and 10 still existed at the end of the 1955 season. Four of those would end up getting donated to various museums. This one, chassis 00009/54 ended up going to Indiana.

Of the 10 surviving cars, only four were ever fitted with streamliner bodywork. The car is powered by a 2.5-liter inline-eight that was rated at 256 horsepower. The race history for this chassis includes:

  • 1955 Argentine Grand Prix – 1st (with Juan Manuel Fangio as open-wheel car)
  • 1955 Italian Grand Prix – 14th, DNF (with Stirling Moss as streamliner)

RM estimates a sale price “in excess” of $55 million. We’ll see. The car will probably end up somewhere and will never be seen again. Click here to read a LOT more about the car’s history.

DTM Audi TT

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2000 Audi TT-R DTM

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Audi launched the TT for the 1999 model year. What better way to get a new sports car on people’s radars than to take it racing? It just so happened that the reformed DTM was going to launch for the 2000 season. While Audi did not officially compete alongside Mercedes-Benz and Opel, their cars were on the grid with Abt Sportsline.

Abt entered four TT-Rs for the 2000 DTM season. The cars are not real TTs as they are silhouette tube-frame racing cars. This car is chassis #001 and is powered by a 450-horsepower V8. It was primarily raced by Laurent Aiello, though the TT-Rs did not have great success in 2000.

This car entered private ownership in 2001 and was restored between 2020 and 2021. It now has an estimate of $435,000-$650,000. More info can be found here.

Mercedes Indianapolis

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1923 Mercedes Type 122 Indianapolis Racer

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This is a Mercedes open-wheel race car. Not a Mercedes-Benz. Not a Mercedes-AMG. Mercedes. In 1922, Daimler started development of a racing engine for the 2-Litre European Formula, which the Indianapolis 500 was going to adopt for 1923. This meant Mercedes could go racing at the Brickyard.

That 2.0-liter inline-four was supercharged and was rated in period at 150 horsepower, but that is, by Mercedes’ own admission, what it made after a few years of development. On the grid at Indy, the motor put out about 125 horsepower with the supercharger engaged.

Mercedes sent four such cars to Indy for 1923. The competition history for this chassis, number 26913, includes:

  • 1923 Indianapolis 500 – 8th (with Max Sailer, although his nephew Karl Sailer drove relief from lap 73 through 200)

The American Mercedes Company held on to the car after the race, and it later changed hands a few times before finding itself entered in the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. But it was too outdated and did not compete. In the 1950s it was the property of Henry Austin Clark Jr. In the late ’70s it was in a Japanese collection, from which it was purchased by Bernie Ecclestone in 1995. It moved to its current collection the following year.

The car got a $200,000 engine rebuild in 2011 and now has an estimate of $4,150,000-$5,500,000. It also comes with a spare period body. Click here for more info.

Opel Olympia OL38

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1940 Opel Olympia OL38 Roadster by Glaser

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Well, the OL38 generation of Opel’s Olympia didn’t really look like this. The Olympia went on sale in 1935, and just two years later it was updated to the OL38, which remained in production until being interrupted by the war in 1940. It resumed production in 1947 and lasted through 1949, when a fresh generation debuted.

The OL38 was offered from the factory as a two- or four-door sedan as well as a two-door cabriolet. This car received, what is claimed to be, one-off roadster coachwork by Glaser. Power is provided by a 1.5-liter inline-four that made around 35 horsepower. It was capable of 70 mph.

This car was purchased out of Ukraine in 2014 and later restored. It now has an estimate of $22,000-$33,000. Click here for more info.