Thursday 10 October 2019

Auction Round-Ups October 2019

Although I have not done 'Weekly Car News' for a while, I have been keeping up with the news and have decided that there are too many places that do this already, that I cannot make this unique. Therefore I am doing an auction round-up every month to see what cars are being auctioned when. This will be monthly due to the frequency of car auctions and I will be presenting it one auction house at a time. 

                                                                     RM Sotheby's                                                                                                                                                                                                           
This month, RM Sotheby's will be holding two auctions that are both highlights on their calendar. The first of which is the Hershey sale, held on the 10th-11th of October in the US, which focuses on vintage American classics from 1900 to 1970. Although I do not know a great deal about this niche in cars, I do appreciate some of the cars they are selling such as the 1936 Cadillac V16 Phaeton which starred in the 1964 film 'The Carpetbaggers' and is recognised as being one of the sole surviving V16s. The estimate price of $750k-$1.2m seems fair although as I've said, I do not have much knowledge of these cars so I'd love to talk about the lots more but I do not have a clue. The second Sotheby's auction this month is the famous London auction which is definitely more up my street. This auction mainly features classic racing cars as well as some modern classics and modern hypercars. Rather than going through every car in detail, I shall pick some personal highlights starting with a 2018 Porsche 911 GT3. This may be seen as just a regular Porsche, however with gold wheels, a manual gearbox, the Clubsport package and PTS Sepia Brown finishes allow for the £150k estimate to seem like a drop in the ocean. The first significant car to be auctioned will be the 1994 Ferrari 412 T2 Formula One car. This car has been driven by Tifosi legends Jean Alesi, who took this car to 3rd at the 1994 Brazilian GP, and Gerhard Berger, who took it to 2nd at the Italian GP. This was the first car to be designed by F1 legend Jean Todt and featured the roaring V12 that F1 cars in the 90s possessed. Although this car was not necessarily the most successful Ferrari F1 car, netting only 73 points between the two drivers, it has been in the ownership of Ferrari from production until 2003 when it was sold to a private owner. The estimate of £1.4m-£1.8m seems very fair and someone will be leaving the auction with a piece of Ferrari history. A few vehicles are being sold from the Youngtimer Collection which is a 100+ car collection to be entirely sold by RM Sotheby's in 2019. The feature cars of this auction are the 2014 Mercedes SLS AMG GT Final Edition with an estimate of £275k-£325k, a Lamborghini LM002 with an estimate of £180k-£230k, a Lamborghini Diablo VT for £150k-£175k and a Mercedes SL 73 AMG for £200k-£240k and which features the engine used in a Pagani Zonda. A few other high end cars selling includes a Maserati MC12 GT1 and a Porsche 962C from the Autobau collection, a barn find Lamborghini Miura P400S, a Ferrari Enzo, a Jaguar XJR-11, a Lancia Delta S4 Rallye, an Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Ville D'Este and finally the prettiest car in the auction, the Maserati 3500 GT Spider. Overall these two auctions should give a lot of car collectors new horses for the stable.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Rand Luxury

Now for an auction house I'd never heard of in the form of Rand Luxury in the US. Upon first glance they are just selling Ferrari F355s and Porsche 911s, but when filtering by price, we see there is a lot more than first thought. They are selling 5 of the world's most exclusive hypercars, 3 gorgeous classics and a few stunning supercars. The highlight of the sale is a Lamborghini Centenario LP770-4 which is superbly rare. One of 20 in the world, one of 6 in the US and one of 2 in exposed carbon fibre, this is one rare car. Finished in exposed carbon and red accents, this is one of the first Centenarios to come up for auction so the $3m-$3.3m estimate is justified. They also have a black Porsche 918 Spyder and a black Bugatti Veyron for just over $1.5m each which is justified as well as a white Ferrari F12tdf with a tricolore stripe estimated at $1m-$1.35m. The star for me though is the 2006 Koenigsegg CCX which is one of 49 cars, finished in silver over blue interior which will definitely sell for over its estimate of max $1.6m. A few more highlights include an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, Ferrari 458 SA, De Tomaso Pantera GT5-S, Ferrari 575M SuperAmerica and a Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS. This auction is to take place on the 12th and should be an interesting watch.                                                                                                            

                                                                           Bonhams

Bonhams have had a tough time recently, especially comparing their Pebble Beach auction to Gooding and Sotheby's, however their Zoute sale in Belgium looks to be a good one. The star of the show is a Ferrari 275 GTB Short Nose which has not been given an estimate but I predict it will be upwards of £2.4m. They are also selling a 250 GT Cabriolet S2 for a max estimate of £1.6m and a Ferrari Enzo for upwards of £1.5m. Besides these it seems to be a regular standard auction however I will draw attention to the Bonmont Sale which was legendary. Although the sale took place in the last week of September, I cannot help but mention it. In 2014, 20+ cars were seized from the president of Equatorial Guinea who was corrupt. These cars were kept in police lockups for 5 years until they decided to auction them all. Some of these cars did sell for a smaller price than expected such as the 1991 Ferrari Testarossa which can sell for up to £160k but only sold for a very cheap £69k. Moving up into the £150k range, we begin to see some of the President's cars such as a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead. Moving further up the prices, there is a Brabus 900 which is a 900hp Mercedes Benz S65 AMG which sold for £230k which I believe to be cheap. As prices increase and increase, we pass the matte black Lamborghini Murcielago SV, Lamborghini 400GT and the two Ferrari 250 GTs and get to the real stars of the auction. For £862k sold was a Giallo Modena Ferrari F12tdf and for £996k was the black Ferrari 599 SA Aperta which is the convertible version of the Ferrari 599 GTO, and much, much rarer. Next up are two cars that would be found in the alleyways of Bond Street. The Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf was originally created for customers in Saudi Arabia but some have made their way to Europe and clearly, Africa. The second is a Maybach Mercedes G650 Laudalet which is a strange car. It's a Mercedes G Wagon 4x4 that has been taken by Maybach and made into a convertible. Both of these cars unfortunately did not sell at the auction but sold afterwards for 'upwards of £1.2m each'. Now we have the hypercars, a McLaren P1 sold for £1.26m, a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 sold for £1.31m, a one of 77 Aston Martin One-77 sold for £1.52m, a one of one Porsche 918 sold for £1.55m, a one of 20 Lamborghini Reventon Roadster sold for £1.95m, a Ferrari LaFerrari sold for £2.1m and a Ferrari Enzo to match the LaFerrari sold for £3.1m. All these cars are good but still the two best cars have not been mentioned. A Koenigsegg One:1 sold at this auction, a one of 7 car that has a one to one power to weight ratio hence the name. Koenigsegg contacted Bonhams about this auction as the original estimate was only £1.2m-£1.5m. The estimate was raised before the auction but that did not make a difference as the One:1 sold for £4.6m which was twice the second estimate. The star of the show however was a Lamborghini Veneno Roadster. Finished in a cream over cream option which is not entirely delightful, only 9 of these cars were built to celebrate Lamborghini's 50th anniversary. The original price of the Veneno was £3m and this is the first time one has ever come up for auction, therefore it was a superb opportunity for collectors. One lucky owner got their hands on it for an insane £8.28m. 

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