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 2023 collector car auction season got off to a roaring start in January. The Bonhams Scottsdale auction reached $30M in sales, and RM Sotheby’s reported $44M. The big surprise came from Bonhams, where a 1912 Simplex brought $4.8M, a record for a pre-WWI car. Supercars were still supreme, though, with a Ferrari LaFerrari getting $4.075M at RM Sotheby’s and, earlier in the month, a Ferrari F40 topping the Mecum sale in Kissimmee, Florida at $3.135M.
The BMW 507 roadster, introduced at the 1955 Frankfurt Auto Show, is recognized as one of the most beautiful models that BMW ever produced. Only 252 hand-built 507s were produced, and despite their curb appeal, they were money losers that nearly sank BMW as a company. A 1957 BMW 507, discovered in a Philadelphia garage, sold last month at the Bonhams Audrain Concours Auction in Newport, R.I. for $2.1 million. Read the backstory on this historic BMW.
The Mercedes SL has been that marque’s luxury-performance flagship for nearly 70 years, and the all-new 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL is the model’s seventh generation. The new SL has 2+2 seating, with all-wheel drive and a return to a soft top after two decades of retractable hardtops. Pricing starts at $137,400 and can zoom toward $200,000. If you’ve not looked at an SL in a while, this one deserves close inspection.
Monterey Car Week 2022, including the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance®, is just days away, and our regional sales managers have made their annual “Cars to Watch” selections, covering a broad range of classic vehicles. Their picks include a 1995 Ferrari F50 (pre-sale estimate of $4.5 – $5.5 Million); a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 3.8 ($250K – $300K); and even a 1962 Volkswagen Type 2 Deluxe Microbus ($140K – $180K). Perhaps some of your favorites are among their picks.
If you’re lucky enough to purchase one of the 275 AMG One models that Mercedes-Benz plans to produce, you may have to keep the car at your European villa. This $2.7 million carbon fiber body supercar, derived from the F1 racer, will not be sold in the United States. Learn all about what the AMG-One buzz is about.
More than 10 years after the introduction of Ferrari’s 458 Spider, this open-top version of its mid-engine Berlinetta remains one the marque’s most sought after cars. Our most recent “Model Masterpiece” explains why.
The new Lotus Emira – the marque’s last gas powered sports car – takes dead aim at Porsche’s 718 Cayman series. Lotus’ goal is to broaden its customer base, and anticipates a global market for 4,500 Emiras a year…a huge leap over the carmaker’s previous production figures.
By all accounts, the auctions at The Amelia — now under the ownership of Hagerty — were a grand success, with the sales from RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Gooding & Company totaling nearly $126M. Notably, a 1937 Talbot Lago set a world record price for the marque and for French cars at $13,425,000
