A 1994 Toyota Supra that sold for – wait for it – $173,600 (£133,000) wasn’t the only surprise during the collectors’ cars auction in Amelia Island over the weekend. With results from RM Sotheby’s and Gooding & Co now in, here are the 10 big sellers…
The biggest ticket item of the weekend was this restored, platinum-award winning Ferrari 275 GTB. With matching numbers and Argento body, Nero seats and Borrani wire wheels, the steel-bodied short nose looks just as it did the day it left Maranello 54 years ago.
The second-to-last 427 Cobra produced has covered just 1,900 miles and came with a full history and its original “sunburst” wheels. As RM Sotheby’s said, “incredibly authentic with unquestioned purity” – hence the big price!
One of the classic pre-war American cars, the Packard that Gooding & Co sold is one of only 18 Speedster Runabouts known to survive and, as the auction house says, is “a true factory hot rod… an American classic of unrivalled beauty, rarity, and sophistication”.
This Duesy’s dual-cowl Phaeton body by LeBaron is the most iconic Duesenberg body style and as the only long-wheelbase version built is even more special. RM says the Duesy – powered by a twin-overhead cam straight-eight delivering 265bhp – has 70 years of known history.
Nine years before the La Voiture Noire (black car) one-off Chiron took the headlines at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, Bugatti released another tribute to the Type 57 Atlantic in the form of the Veyron Sang Noir (black blood). There were just 12 of the 1,000PS speed machines and the one that RM Sotheby’s sold in Amelia Island had covered just 3,500 miles. At $1.5m it sold for a tenth the price of La Voiture Noire – bargain!
Porsche built just 918 examples of its hybrid hypercar, a third of them destined for the USA, but as a car with the Weissach package this one is far rarer, especially in this liquid metallic chrome blue paint, a $64,000 option when the car was new. It looks new, too, since the car has covered just 40 miles. Despite this, at $1.5m Gooding & Co sold it for a half a million under its $2m top estimate.
This Volcano Red example of Britain’s hybrid hypercar comes with a special claim to fame: the car was timed at 205.296mph in the standing mile at the John F Kennedy Space Center. RM Sotheby’s says the car has only covered 750 miles with its two owners.
While RM sold a 275 GTB for $2.2m, one of Gooding & Co’s star cars was the convertible GTS version. The Brussels show car in 1965, the Pininfarina-bodied example is the fourth of around 200 examples made and had come with an estimate as high as $1.6m.
The 128th of around 350 Lussos made, this Ferrari is said by Gooding & Co to have been subject to an older restoration and today be in “serviceable” driving condition. But with matching numbers and a well-documented history it comes with plenty of concours restoration potential, particularly if it went back to its original Grigio Fumo paint.
Million-dollar 911s are nothing new but not many of them are from the 964 era. The RS 3.8 has long been one of them, sought after not just for its naturally-aspirated and air-cooled 300bhp flat-six but also its rarity: Porsche built just 55 of them as roadgoing homologation versions of the Le Mans class-winning Carrera RSR 3.8. As Gooding & Co say, “among the most collectible and sought-after of the legendary Rennsport models”. Oh, and this million-dollar Porsche has covered just 15,420km…
Ferrari
275
Shelby
Cobra
Packard
Duesenberg
Bugatti
Veyron
Porsche
918 Spyder
McLaren
P1
250
964