Sales records tumbled in Pebble Beach and Monterey
Car collectors can breathe a sigh of relief. Prices for high-class classic cars have definitely not slipped. On the contrary! What the three auction companies RM Auction, Gooding & Company and Mecum pulled off over the last weekend in California can probably best be described as sales fireworks. The sales world records tumbled, especially in the highest price segment.
RM Auction sold the 1968 Ford GT40 Gulf/Mirage Lightweight Racing Car for USD 11 million on Friday. Gooding & Company was able to surpass this sum with the Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster from 1936, which was knocked down for USD 11,770,000 (including surcharges/taxes, picture above).
And Gooding pushed another lot into the eight-figure dollar league with the Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione from 1960, which sold for a record USD 11,275,000.
You could buy a 1972 Porsche 917/10 from Mecum for far less money, although this CanAm racer was also worth USD 5.5 million to the buyer. Interestingly, a similar vehicle remained unsold at RM Auction.
The Mercedes 300 SL faction also had a wide range of vehicles to choose from, with nine vehicles on offer. Gooding & Company took the cake, selling a 1963 300 SL Cabriolet for USD 1,595,000, which was also a new world record and significantly higher than the prices generally asked for gullwing cars.
And so we are approaching the million-dollar mark, which the Bentley Continental R-Type Fastback Sports Saloon from 1953 broke by a surprisingly large margin at USD 1.6 million.
Although the 1976 Lamborghini Countach LP 400 from Gooding remained well below one million, its USD 660,000 still represents a new sales record for this type of vehicle.
And the USD 470,000 that Mecum fetched for the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight from 1973 is also record-breaking.
But there were also records in the "lower" price segment, such as for the 1952 Hudson Hornet Four-Door Sedan, which Gooding was able to sell to a new owner for USD 178,750
So smiling faces at the major auction houses, hope for continued rising prices among collectors/vintage car owners and a lot of analysis work for the market experts. We have of course already published the detailed results of the RM Auction in Monterey and Gooding & Company in Pebble Beach .
