This year’s Monterey Historics weekend saw five separate auctions, spread over four days, sell an utterly astounding $100,370,000 worth of collector cars. Just to give the gravity of this sale some scale, if the five Monterey auctions were a country, they would rank 169th in the world for Gross National Product (GNP) ahead of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Kiribati!
The weekend’s action started with Christie’s sale at the Monterey Jet Center on Thursday, which sold $9,651,608 worth of vehicles, including a 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder for $1,280,000 and a 1963 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS prototype for $565,000.
Bonhams & Butterfields was next on the calendar with their Friday sale at the Quail Lodge. With a large slate of historic racecars from the Rosso Bianco collection, Bonhams enjoyed their best Quail sale to date, selling nearly $13 million worth of vehicles. Highlights of the Bonhams sale included a 1956 Jaguar D-type for $2,097,000, a 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza for $1,107,000, a 1972 Porsche 917/10 Interseries for $579,000, a 1966 Porsche Carrera 6 for $557,000, and a 1974 Shadow DN4 Can-Am for $381,000.
Friday evening saw Russo & Steele launch their new two-night auction format, which translated into a record $13 million of sales for the relative new-comers. Some of the interesting racecar sales from Russo & Steele included the 1938 “Blue Crown Special” Champ car for $264,000, a 1966 Cobra 427 Comp for $643,500, a 1971 ex-Richard Petty NASCAR Plymouth Roadrunner for $192,500 and a 1961 Lotus 20/22 F.Jr. for $55,000.
That same evening RM Auctions—the 300-pound gorilla of the Monterey auction scene—launched its annual two-night juggernaut, which sold an eye-popping $43 million worth of cars from 191 consignments. Top car of not only the RM Auction, but also the entire weekend, was the sale of a rare 1958 Ferrari 412 S for $5.61 million. Eight other cars, in the RM sale, sold for over $1 million including a 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider for $2.28 million, a 1937 Bentley 4.5-liter Fixed Head Sport Coupe for $1.27 million, a 1964 Shelby Cobra B-production racecar for $1.24 million and a 2004 Maserati MC12 racecar for $1.07 million.
Last, but by no means least, auction of the weekend was Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach sale on Sunday, which fetched a total of $21.7 million in its one-night sale. Top car from the Gooding sale was a 1927 Bugatti Type 35C Grand Prix that sold for $2.58 million. Other noteworthy sports and racing cars included a 1939 Delahaye 135MS for $1.1 million, a 1937 Maserati 6CM monoposto for $726,000 and a 1947 Cisitalia 202 Spider Nuvolari for $385,000.
by Casey Annis
