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Top 10 highest-priced cars sold by the remaining auction houses at Monterey

We’ve run down the Monterey Car Week auction results from RM Sotheby’s, Mecum and Gooding & Co. Here are the remaining Top 10 results from the other auction houses: Bonhams, Russo and Steele, and Worldwide.

All told, among the six houses, Auto Classics says total sales were $367.5 million from 841 lots — for an average sale price of, wow, $436,982:

Bonhams Quail Lodge Auction

1. 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Competizione Coupe: $3,525,000
2. 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Sports Roadster: $3,277,500
3. 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe: $1,875,000
4. 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series II Cabriolet: $1,682,500
5. 1928 Bentley 6½ Liter Open Sports Tourer: $1,655,000
6. 1953 Siata 208S Spider: $1,655,000
7. 1929 Bentley 4½ Liter Sports Tourer: $1,435,000
8. 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach: $1,407,500
9. 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K Touring Phaeton: $1,215,000
10. 1996 Porsche 911 GT2 Coupe: $1,105,000

Russo and Steele Monterey

1. 2017 Ford GT Coupe (the John Cena GT): $1,540,000
2. 1984 Lamborghini Countach LP500S Coupe: $308,000
3. 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 Coupe: $305,250
4. 1983 Ferrari 512 BBi Coupe: $225,500
5. 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series Convertible: $203,500
6. 1989 Porsche 911 Speedster: $181,500
7. 1932 Pierce-Arrow Model 52 Custom Club Berline Sedan: $176,000
8. 2012 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Executive Series Van: $154,000
9. 2000 BMW Z8 Roadster: $154,000
10. 2017 Mercedes-Benz G550 Custom Wagon: $148,500

Worldwide Pacific Grove Auction

1. 1931 Duesenberg Model J Derham Tourster: $1,320,000
2. 1962 Shelby Cobra 260 Roadster: $990,000
3. 1916 Locomobile Model 68 Cabriolet: $473,000
4. 1972 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS Spider: $341,000
5. 1968 Jaguar E-Type SI.5 Roadster: $247,500
6. 1958 Buick Limited Model 756 Convertible: $181,500
7. 1929 Packard Deluxe Eight-Series 645 Roadster: $176,000
8. 1967 Maserati Ghibli Coupe: $170,500
9. 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Yenko: $165,000
10. 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III LWB Sedan: $145,750

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August 27, 2018 / Comments Off

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The Jaguar XE SV Project 8 looks like an XE, but is almost completely new

Jaguar’s XE SV Project 8 is a thoroughly astonishing sports sedan. With a 592-horsepower V8, it’s the most powerful Jaguar road car ever produced. And it’s amazing to think that Jaguar’s most powerful car is a version of its entry-level sedan. Or at least it looks that way. In reality, the majority of the body is completely unique to the Project 8. A Jaguar representative told us that only the roof and door skins are shared with the standard XE. The other 70 percent of the exterior is completely unique to the car.

These changed body panels include wider fenders of course, and many of the pieces are made from carbon fiber rather than metal, but there are also some more unusual tweaks. For instance, the headlights actually had to be moved to a different position to make space for the Project 8’s massive wheels and tires. The tires, for reference, are 265-mm wide at the front, and the rears are 305-mm wide.

There were also some changes for style. The air vents at the front that consist of many small holes in the bumper are a tribute to Jaguars of the past. The hexagonal shape of the holes apes that of the vintage Jaguar logo, which featured the word Jaguar in an elongated hexagon.

All in all, there’s an impressive amount of new engineering that went into creating the Project 8. The results are, in a word, stunning.

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September 21, 2017 / Comments Off

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Hillclimb organizers fined $5,000 for Richard Hammond’s Rimac hypercar crash

Organizers of a Swiss hillclimb event have been fined and suspended over the crash in which Richard Hammond lost control of a Rimac Concept One in a curve. The $5,000 fine is a drop in the bucket compared to the loss of the $1 million electric hypercar, which was incinerated.

The Rimac left the mountain road, cartwheeling down a steep incline and narrowly missing a house before landing on its roof and burning. Hammond crawled from the wreckage and suffered a fractured knee.

Hammond was not a participant in the Swiss Hillclimb Championship. He and his co-hosts of Amazon’s “The Grand Tour” were there filming a segment. Jeremy Clarkson was driving a Lamborghini Aventador S, and James May was driving a Honda NSX. Clarkson said on Twitter that Hammond’s Rimac accident “was the biggest crash I’ve ever seen and the most frightening.”

From the video, it appears that Hammond entered the curve too hot on the Hemberg Bergrennen hillclimb, and simply lost control. He later did a video interview that gave his take on the crash. The Swiss sporting authority, Auto Sport Schweiz, in levying the fine, said the event had violated the FIA’s code of conduct. It’s a little unclear exactly wha’s meant by that, but the FIA had started looking into the crash immediately after it happened back in June, basically on the grounds that it made racing look bad.

“This accident tainted the reputation of motorsports in general and mountain races in particular, and the FIA has been forced to demand an opinion from [us],” Auto Sport Schweiz said in a statement at the time.

In addition to the fine, the hillclimb director and three stewards were suspended for six months. Motorsport.com says the future of the event is in question. Surely we’ll learn more about the circumstances of the crash when “The Grand Tour” second season begins in October.

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August 15, 2017 / Comments Off

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RM Sotheby’s sells 911 RSR for over $2M, 918 for over $1.5M

In the lead-up to RM Sotheby’s Villa Erba sale, the auction house revealed it had some pretty amazing machines lined up. Among them was a 1993 Porsche 993 RSR 3.8 that was only ever driven 6 miles. Three of this generation’s most potent hypercars also were slated to go across the block: a Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach, a McLaren P1 GTR, and a Ferrari LaFerrari. Interestingly, only two of these four cars sold, but they went for hefty sums.

The almost-never-used 911 RSR went for a whopping $2,254,492. The Porsche 918 Spyder was sold for $1,628,244. The RSR fit right in with RM Sotheby’s estimate, while the 918 exceeded the estimate by about $100,000. Both Porsches also ranked among the 10 top selling cars at the Villa Erba auction, with the RSR selling for the third highest amount behind a pair of pre-war French cars, and the 918 was fifth highest.

These pricey Porsches also show why buying limited production models to flip for profit would be appealing, which is an issue that Porsche is currently trying to resolve. Fortunately for Porsche these cars likely weren’t bought for profit making. The RSR was owned for many years before being sold, and the owner of the 918 managed to put on an impressive 6,800 miles before selling.

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May 30, 2017 / Comments Off

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Trump’s old Ferrari F430 sells for $270,000

You may remember that Auctions America was going to sell a 2007 Ferrari F430 owned by the current president of the United States. It was estimated at between $250,000 and $350,000. It went for auction this weekend and just barely fell into that range.

According to Bloomberg, Donald Trump’s old Ferrari failed to meet the reserve, set at $250,000, with a final bid of $240,000. However, Auctions America said the car sold after the auction at $270,000. So the auction company did get its estimate right, but just barely.

As for what the new owner purchased, he or she got an F430 with celebrity and presidential heritage, the F1 automatic gearbox, low miles, a service history, and a classic Ferrari red paint job. Of course we still stand by our preference for a manual one in our choice of color and without any celebrity history (or baggage depending on your opinion). Check out our original piece for more details on the car.

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April 3, 2017 / Comments Off

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Lamborghini: We did not cheat on Nurburgring record

“Why would we [cheat]? We have all the data, all the GPS data. It’s verified. It’s already verified.” – Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali

Lamborghini is doubling-down on the legitimacy of the Huracan Performante’s production-car record at the Nürburgring.

The Italian supercar maker should have been on a high when it launched its Huracan Performante at the Geneva Motor Show, but it was instead forced to defend the 6:52.01 lap time on the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife circuit in the wake of criticism.

Skeptics suggested the footage had been sped up from a rate of 24 frames per second to 25, arguing the ‘authentic’ lap time would have been closer to 7:08. James Glickenhaus, the owner of ultra-low volume supercar maker Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, even called for the circuit to hold a special day to verify production car lap times.

“Why would we [cheat]?” Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali asked incredulously. “We have all the data, all the GPS data. It’s verified. It’s already verified.

“The simulation we did before we did the lap was already better than the previous time [set by Porsche’s hybrid supercar, the 918 Spyder].

“What we saw was the great potential of active aerodynamics. The Nürburgring is a lot of partial throttle and long corners. The SV [Aventador] was for sure faster on the straight, but the lap [by the Performante] was all recorded.”

A Lamborghini spokesman suggested the entire controversy was rooted in “one blogger’s business model [of] paying for clicks.”

Audi Sport development head, Stephan Reil, also weighed in during last week’s Audi RS3 launch, insisting Lamborghini would have had no reason to cheat at anything and that its active aerodynamics would have more than made up for any power shortfalls. Audi is a sister brand of Lamborghini under the ownership of Volkswagen Group.

“We also know that architecture well [the Huracan shares its architecture with Reil’s R8]. We know what it’s capable of,” Reil said. “The Performante ‘Ring time is absolutely credible. Active aero makes a huge difference.

“We did a TT production racer for the ‘Ring with about 380 horsepower and gave it maximum wing. It was so slow down the straight that everybody passed it, but the overall lap time was very, very fast. Much faster than without the aero downforce. So I know how much real aero downforce gives you, and Lamborghini worked out how to get it without paying for it down the straights.”

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March 20, 2017 / Comments Off

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