Monterey has always been one of the biggest car auction weekends in the world. This year’s event, which recently concluded last August 13-15, saw a total of 836 cars of all varieties being held up for auction.

Of the 836 cars, 558 were sold for a total of $118,296,823. While the numbers are impressive in all aspects, this year’s figure was actually 17 percent less than what the event took last year ($138,996,425)

The top money-maker this year was Gooding & Company, which sold over $50,753,850 worth of exotic cars, including a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder – that’s a long name – which sold for a whopping $5.1 million.

Coming in second was RM with a total amount of $35,522,600, including a special edition Phil Hill Jaguar C-Type that was purchased for $2.5 million.

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Even the new-comers fared pretty well at their inaugural auction. With 204 cars on sale, auction rookie Mecum sold 105 of them for a lump total of $14,249,725. The company’s biggest sale also happened to be a true vintage one-of-a-kind vehicle in the 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe – the only US made vehicle ever to win the FIA GT Championship – which was bought for a mind-blowing $7.25 million.

Rounding out the rest of the auctioneers were Bonham & Butterfields, which sold a total of $13,193,083 and Russo and Steele taking up last place with just $4,973,565.

Suffice to say, the auction did surprisingly especially when you consider that the global economic crisis has forced a lot of people – vintage car collectors included – to be more stringent with their expenses.