It has been a week since the Champagne poured and the confetti flew over the 18th green at the world’s greatest car show, Pebble Beach, and the event’s official auction house, Gooding & Company, has just finished tallying their sales receipts to find out that they moved over $50 Million worth of classic cars selling 129 lots, two of which sold over $4 Million each and setting three world records over the Monterey weekend.
The star of the show happened to be Lot 135, a silver 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider that sold for a record $5,115,000 on Sunday followed by a beautiful 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Drop Head Coupe which went home with a new owner for $4,180,000. Guests at the auction on Sunday night were also privy to the sale of the very first Bentley Mulsanne which sold for half a million dollars.
Bentley’s newest luxury sedan, which is proclaimed to be the “pinnacle” of high end automobiles, made its debut at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours. The car is named after the infamous 200+ MPH straight at the Circuit de la Serthe at Le Mans. The Mulsanne is set to replace the dearly departed Arnage and is being billed as the up-and-coming challenger to the Rolls-Royce Phantom for luxury car supremacy. It looks like we will have to wait until the world’s greatest car show rolls around again next year to see if any more of these records can be broken.
Sometimes, when you see a bargain staring at you right in the face, you’d be a fool to not bite on it, especially when you consider that the said bargain appeared in one the most successful movies in history and could fetch you twice – or maybe more – as much money down the road.
The car is a 4.6-liter V8 2005 Saleen S281 Extreme or, in the case of this ride, is more popularly known as Barricade, the card-carrying member of the evil Decepticons from the blockbuster movie, Transformers. The lucky collector who scooped up this beautiful ride got it for a tremendous bargain of only $36,000, which, if you’re curious to know, is exponentially smaller than the estimated price tag of $100,000 - $300,000 it was estimated to be.
Not that the collector had any problems with it. In addition to purchasing it at a discount, the lucky fellow should be ecstatic to know that only three of these cars were ever made and that it was fully customized to the brim not just by Saleen but by Dreamworks SKG as well. The best part is, the car has only logged about 4,550 miles on the odometer with most of it, we can imagine, used while chasing down Sam Witwicky and the galaxy-saving Autobots.
It didn’t take long for the 2011 Bentley Mulsanne to make an impression to car enthusiasts, did it?
Only a few hours removed from its unveiling at Pebble Beach, Bentley’s new flagship luxury car has already found a buyer willing to pay a cool $500,000 – with proceeds going to the Pebble Beach charity - for a chance to own the first Mulsanne ever produced after ‘chassis No1’ Mulsanne auctioned off at the Gooding & Company auction.
The Mulsanne, which is set to replace the dearly departed Arnage, is being billed as the up-and-coming challenger to the Rolls-Royce Phantom for luxury car supremacy and with car No. 1 being sold for half a million, the Mulsanne has served its notice to the Phantom. It has arrived and it’s ready for battle.
With the first Mulsanne already sold, the lucky buyer has around a year’s worth of bragging rights considering that his Mulsanne will be the only one out on the road until the rest of the cars go on sale around the summer of 2010.
The auction house Gooding & Company did alright for themselves this past Saturday the evening before the highly anticipated Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, selling an impressive 83% of all their lots earning more than $21 Million. The star of the block was a red 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider that sold for $2,750,000. There were also a few records set that evening, with the 1953 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Drop Head Coupe that went for $1,650,000, and the 1953 Jaguar XK120 SE Roadster that sold for $192,500. On a more technical note, the 1938 Buick Limited Series 80 Opera Brougham only set a record for pre-war Buicks at $506,000.
Aside from the record breaking Aston Martin and Ferrari’s, the crowd in attendance was eager to catch a glimpse of Lot 31, Ettore Bugatti’s own 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Special Coupe. Originally assembled as a birthday present for Le Patron, founder of the ultra exotic car company, this particular Type 57C has been deemed as one of the automaker’s most cherished creations. The factory’s workers even went to great lengths to protect the Bugatti during World War II, the fighting between that Allied Forces and the Axis Powers ended up destroying the factory in Molsheim, France.
Even after Ettore’s death in 1947, the 57C was meticulously maintained and continued to receive updates as they were developed. The car is said to be extremely unique, with a distinct engine and transmission package, upgrades to the interior and one-off coachwork that is believed to be based on the last design ever created by Ettore’s son, Jean Bugatti who died at the age of 30 in an unfortunate incident, test driving a Le Mans winning Type 57 tank-bodied race car. Making for one very interesting conversation piece.
At any car auction, a 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe is expected to fetch a hefty sum of money. After all, it’s not that often where one of these extremely rare cars become up for grabs.
The recent Mecum Auction in Monterey, California saw six 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupes go up for auction with one of them fetching a bid of a staggering $7.25 million – the largest ever bid for a US car at any auction in history. The auction, which was held as part of the festivities of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, attracted a huge audience, some of which were serious bidders while others were only there to enjoy the occasion.
While there were a host of rare and vintage cars that also went up for auction, the clear star of the event was none other than the Cobra Coupe, specifically, the CSX2601, which is only one of just six models build by Carroll Shelby in an effort to go head-to-head with the Ferraris during the FIA World Manufacturers Championship. Now, 44 years after the car won the World Manufacturers Championship in 1965 in Reims, France, it was sold in the US for a whopping $7.25 million.
It goes without saying that the amount of money spent purchasing this one-of-a-kind car goes a long way in validating its legacy as a classic must-have among car enthusiasts, regardless of generation.
A few weeks ago, we talked about a fully-customized 2009 Ford Mustang GT that was created especially for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s “Gathering of Eagles”. The car, which was called the AV-X10 Dearborn Doll, came with a glut of performance enhancements including a 550hp (410kW) supercharger kit, a high-flow FR500S exhaust system, a short throw shifter, a new handling pack featuring dampers, lowering springs and an anti-roll bar, not to mention, of course, the star-designed glass roof on top of the car.
We’re going back to this because the car was recently auctioned off at the 2009 EAA Air Venture Oshkosh fly-in convention, which was held in Wisconsin from July 27 to August 2. The car went for a staggering $250,000, which ironically is smaller than the Ford AV8R that was auctioned off during last year’s event for $500,000.
Despite coming it at only half of the price of the AV8R, the proceeds from the purchase of the AV-X10 Dearborn Doll would go to the EAA’s Young Eagles program, a program that helps raise awareness and engages young people about aviation while also providing free introductory flights to nearly 1.3 million young people since 1992.
The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Gathering of Eagles charity auction is fast becoming a yearly affair for an iconic American car.
A year ago, Ford’s Mustang AV8R became one of the most sought-after items at the EAA auction, where it was sold for a whopping $500,000. Taking in the success of the limited edition AV8R at the event, Ford is back for this year’s EAA Gathering of Eagles with a new factory-produced, aviation-themed Mustang, which it so aptly called the AV-X10.
A 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa recently became the most expensive vehicle in the world when it crossed the auction block with a final bid of around $12 Million at Ferrari’s Legends and Passions event in Maranello last month. However all that could change between August 15th and 16th at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
That is because the auction house Gooding & Company will be bringing a very special vehicle to the world’s greatest car show. Ettore Bugatti’s personal 1936 Type 57C Coupe. Originally assembled as a birthday present for Le Patron, founder of the ultra exotic car company, this particular Type 57C has been deemed as one of the automaker’s most cherished creations. The factory’s workers even went to great lengths to protect the Bugatti during World War II, the fighting between that Allied Forces and the Axis Powers ended up destroying the factory in Molsheim, France.
Even after Ettore’s death in 1947, the 57C was meticulously maintained and continued to receive updates as they were developed. The car is said to be extremely unique, with a distinct engine and transmission package, upgrades to the interior and one-off coachwork that is believed to be based on the last design ever created by Ettore’s son, Jean Bugatti who died at the age of 30 in an unfortunate incident, test driving a Le Mans winning Type 57 tank-bodied race car. However; this 1936 Type 57C, with its rich history, and one of kind exclusivity should have no problem shattering the record set by Phil Hill’s old Ferrari.
Apart from being an incredibly beautiful machine, Alain Prost’s 1990 Ferrari F1 car is piece of racing history. The year before the Frenchman left McLaren to race for Ferrari he won the driver’s title after a championship deciding collision with then teammate Ayerton Senna.
Bad news for those who were hoping to get a rock-bottom price for the Shelby Daytona Coupe going to auction: it won its class at Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance over the weekend.
The economy may be slowing down, but a best in class win for Race Cars at the prestigious show will definitely add some extra bucks to the hammer price. Then again, this is also the car that brought Shelby Racing the World Manufacturers Championship title in 1965, so the price was never going to exactly be “affordable”.
This one of six ever will be a part of Mecum’s Spring Classic auction in Indianapolis Auction this May.
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