When the whole is (worth) more than the sum of the parts
The Rétromobile in Paris is already in full swing and yesterday evening RM/Sotheby's hosted the annual Paris auction at Place Vauban. As always, there were many high-priced and high-class cars up for auction, and we will of course report on the results in detail later.
One of the biggest surprises of the evening, however, was a Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 from 1969, clearly declared as a replica of the famous "Red Sow" that once caused a sensation at Spa. The replica looked just like the racing car of the time, but the builders had made it even more fun to drive by installing a six-speed gearbox, for example.
The Mercedes-Benz with lot number 148 was estimated at EUR 150,000 to 200,000, but there were obviously fans in the auction tent with much looser wallets.
It was only at EUR 380,000 that one of the last two bidders gave up, and the car sold for well over the estimate.
A rebuild of a similar car would probably be considerably cheaper, after all, you can buy a 300 SEL 6.3 saloon for a five-figure sum. I wonder what the bidders had in mind?
Conversely, it naturally made sense to buy parts lots and RM/Sotheby's also offered such lots. Lot 114 of Delahaye drivetrain parts came under the hammer. They included chassis and technical parts that some Delahaye restorers might be missing. Apparently there were several of them, because instead of the hoped-for EUR 3000 to 5000, the highest bid was an impressive EUR 23,000. A few minutes later, you could have bought an entire Delahaye 135 Coach from 1949 (lot 121, highest bid EUR 28,000) ...
And these were not the only parts that went under the hammer, either on their own or in conjunction with entire cars.
