Nigel Mansell’s IndyCar winner is up for sale

This is a huge sale. It’s all from a single team and comprises everything you would expect a long-lived and successful outfit to have: driver memorabilia and clothing, artworks, cups and trophies and a couple of road cars, but most of all racecars – 40 of them.

They are mostly Lola chassis (Carl Haas was Lola’s US importer) and tell of dominant seasons in the CART and subsequent Champ Car series for Newman Haas from 1983 when the larger-than-life Haas teamed up with Paul Newman to take on the world of IndyCar racing.

Carl Haas began his career by racing sportscars before moving into team management, something that reached its zenith when he formed Newman Haas with erstwhile Can-Am rival Paul Newman. Recruiting a legend like Mario Andretti as number one driver got the new team off to a flyer. The multiple open-wheel title holder driving a Lola-Cosworth Ford won the CART PPG Indy Car World Series in 1984 and paved the way for three more championships: Michael Andretti in 1991, Nigel Mansell in ’93, and Cristiano da Matta in 2002.

An overall 108 wins and eight championship seasons put Newman Haas in the top-tier of IndyCar teams and made Carl Haas, who died in 2016, one of the most powerful men in the history of auto racing.

And now it’s all up for grabs. The top racecar lot in the RM Sotheby’s sale? That would be the 1993 Lola-Ford Cosworth T93/00. With its famous Kmart/Havoline livery and even more famous driver, the then-current F1 driver’s champion Nigel Mansell, this was the car with which the British “Lion” fearlessly took on the world of IndyCar racing, thrilling US crowds and taking 1993’s CART PPG IndyCar World Series title. The chassis in the sale powered Mansell to four of his five victories that season for a title win that made him the only simultaneous reigning champion of both IndyCar and Formula 1. 

It’ll be quite some coup then for a race fan to get hold of this car. But it comes at quite some price, with a wide-ranging estimate spanning $400,000-$900,000. For those with more modest budgets there’s a model of the same car in a display case, complete with a moustachioed Nige standing beside it, in the sale at a guide price of $12,000-$17,000.

Just behind Mansell’s Lola, with an estimate of $500,000-$800,000, but even more significant in the Newman Haas IndyCar story is the Lola-Cosworth T800 that, in the hands of Mario Andretti, gave the new team its first CART title in 1984. The legendary driver won six races in the new British-designed car in that first year. In the Indy 500 qualifying sessions, Mario became the first driver to lap the Brickyard at 212mph.

His son Michael Andretti’s championship-winning Lola-Chevrolet T91/00 from 1991 is also in the sale, with a guide of $250,000-$750,000. More recent IndyCar offerings like Graham Rahal’s 2008 Dallara-Honda IR-05 come with guide prices from $75,000 (with display engine).

All in all, it’s an IndyCar mega sale, with something to tempt at every price, from $350 prints, to $4,500 CART trophies, and Mansell and Andretti race suits and helmets (up to $6,000). And if you want an ex-Newman Haas road car there’s a 1948 MG TC ($30,000-$50,000) and a 1954 Jaguar XK120 roadster ($50,000-$65,000), all offered at no reserve.

Images courtesy of RM Sotheby's.