January kicked off collector-car auction season with a big bang and big dollars. Following Mecum’s $275M haul in Kissimmee, Florida mid-month, the traditional Arizona auctions added about $245M more to the tally, with $200M of that from Barrett-Jackson’s no-reserve sale in Scottsdale. Bonhams, though, had the highest-priced auction sale in Arizona, with $5.175M buying a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ (as in 300+ mph test-track capability) for a car with just Bugatti’s test and delivery miles.
What does $400 million buy today? It was enough to take home about 1,200 of the world’s finest collector cars offered at the 2023 Monterey auctions held from August 17-19. That was down from $475M in 2022, and the sell-through rate was lower, too. Just the same, some stellar automobiles traded hands in Monterey at auctions held by Bonhams, Broad Arrow, Gooding & Company, Mecum, and RM Sotheby’s. The top sale was a 1967 Ferrari 412P racecar for $30.2M at Bonhams, while a 1957 Jaguar XKSS, one of just 16 made, was #2 at just over $13M.
Forget March Madness, Florida brought the heat to the collector car world with the quartet of Amelia Island auctions booking $186 million in sales, a record for the venue. The top sale, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider, accounted for $18M by itself. Ferraris grabbed 13 slots across the four auctions’ Top-10 lists, and Porsches took four. Modern supercars made some auction Top-10 lists, including $5.3M for a rare Pagani Zonda and $2.4M for a McLaren P1. A 1931 Duesenberg put the spotlight on Pre-war cars with a $4.3M sale.
The Bugatti Chiron you own, or are waiting for, or wish you had ordered one, will be the last of its kind. The last cars will be delivered in early 2022.
A Lamborghini Miura, vintage Porsche, McLaren 675LT, Ford GT and BMW M1 are among the highlights of Gooding & Company’s 2020 Scottsdale Auction. This year’s auction features 170 vehicles.
25 supercars and luxury models were confiscated by Swiss authorities from Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue and sold at Bonhams auction in Switzerland last month.
The Bugatti Centodeici is priced at $9 million, and there are just dieci (ten) of these in the world, coming out in 2021. The Centodeici is modeled after the first Bugatti revival of the early 1990s, the EB 110.
Owning a Bugatti is about having something rare and desired and experiencing a thrill that no other car in the world can deliver. Bugatti makes such cars because it is possible, and car enthusiasts of all stripes and demographics admire the car.
