The 10 most expensive cars sold by Bonhams in 2019

Bonhams was thrilled about that – the 221mph V12 Lambo was the auction house’s top-priced lot in 2019, far exceeding its presale guide price. But it was particularly good news since the proceeds were being donated to help the citizens of Equatorial Guinea, people who continue to be impoverished despite that country’s oil wealth. 

The Veneno was one of an amazing collection of 25 of the world’s rarest and most sought-after super- and hypercars bought using misappropriated state funds by the playboy son of Equatorial Guinea’s president. After his conviction in France, the cars were seized by the state of Geneva, where the collection was kept, and entrusted to Bonhams for a no-reserve supercar sale – with the money the collection raised going to fund charitable works to help people in the west African country.

In all the 25 cars in the Bonmont Sale raised the equivalent of around £19 million, twice what Bonhams thought the collection would make. The world record Lamborghini Veneno had a guide price of £4.2m but after a two-way bidding battle the car went to a private collector for a couple of mill over that. 

The Lambo might have been the year’s auction superstar for Bonhams but, despite what Bonhams European director of motoring Philip Kantor described as a year of economic uncertainty, plenty more cars made headlines – including four more from the Geneva supercar sale.

Here are the other nine big-ticket highlights from Bonhams’ auction year, 12 months when hundreds of cars went to new owners after 20 sales in locations that ranged from Sussex to Switzerland, Paris to Philadelphia, and Bicester to Belgium.

Note: prices shown include auction premium and for the purpose of this list are shown in pounds with conversions where necessary at today’s exchange rate. 

£3.76m – 2014 Koenigsegg One:1, Bonmont Sale, Geneva 

In at number two in Bonhams’ list for 2019 is this 2014 Koenigsegg One:1, so named after its 1:1 power-weight ratio of 1,360 PS (one megawatt) to 1,360kg. It was enough in its day to make it the world’s fastest production car, according to Guinness World Records, astonishing for a company founded as recently as 1994. 

The Koenigsegg in the sale was one of the 25 supercars in the Geneva charity auction, and one of just six One:1s ever made. Each car cost over £2m when new and Bonhams guide price on it was £1.7m – in the event it sold for double that. Its Equatorial Guinean “owner” certainly picked a winner with this car, but he didn’t drive it much: the odo shows just 597km.

£2.7m – 1992 Williams-Renault FW14B, Festival of Speed Sale, Goodwood 

From Geneva to Goodwood and ‘Mansell mania’ made a welcome return to the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard in July with the sale of Nigel Mansell’s Formula 1 championship-winning Williams from 1992. At £2.7m it was Bonhams’ third highest priced lot of the year, and more than anyone has ever paid at auction for a Williams grand prix car. The familiar blue and yellow Camel-liveried car, which has had just one private owner since Williams sold it, is said to be in full running order. 

And what a racing machine it is: designed by Adrian Newey, the FW14B was the most dominant F1 car of its day with its sophisticated semi-automatic transmission, ride-levelling active suspension and cutting-edge aerodynamics. Powered by Renault’s RS3 3.5-litre V10 engine, FW14B chassis 08 – famously known as Red 5 after Mansell’s number – won the first five rounds of the ’92 championship all from pole position, setting a benchmark for consecutive wins for the time. 

£2.54m – 2003 Ferrari Enzo, Bonmont Sale, Geneva 

The Enzo appears to be on a roll right now, witness this 2003 car, the penultimate model of the 400 made, which comprehensively beat the LaFerrari in the same auction and pipped even a 275GTB in the Bonhams top 10 this year. True it’s a particularly magnificent example in pristine Modena Yellow – and it has covered just 21km from new. No wonder Bonhams said it was among the nicest they have ever seen. 

At the time it was the most expensive new Ferrari ever (at £450,000) and it wasn’t difficult to see why with its F1-style carbon-ceramic brakes (a production-car first), clever aero, electro-hydraulic manual transmission and even an F1-like steering wheel with a plethora of buttons, lights and switches. And the whole lot was honed by Michael Schumacher at the height of his winning ways. Even by today’s standards its performance is impressive: 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds, 0-124mph in 9.5 seconds and a top speed of 218mph.

£2.43m – 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/2, Zoute Sale, Belgium 

Ferrari 275 GTBs have long been highly collectible and this long-nose, alloy bodied two-cam example didn’t disappoint, crowning Bonhams’ £10m Zoute sale with a top price of €2,875,000, or about £2.43m. Rosso Chiaro with blue interior, the GTB is one of 60 of its type and was previously owned by Gregory Noblet, son of Ferrari privateer driver Pierre Noblet who with Jean Guichet made the Le Mans podium a couple of times in the 1960s racing a 250 GTO. 

The new owner is obviously a collector with eclectic tastes: the other car he bought at the Zoute sale was a twin-engined Citroen 2CV Sahara! 

£2.36m – 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Lightweight, Bond Street Sale, London

Bonhams’ last auction of 2019 at its Mayfair saleroom threw up a real rarity: the Aston DB4GT known as the “missing” Lightweight, first owned by renowned hillclimber Phil Scragg and available for sale for the first time in 50 years. No surprise it was the top lot, achieving £2,367,000.

Aston made only 75 DB4GTs, nine of which were to lightweight specification, and the car in the sale was the sixth of those nine. “Lightweight” meant perforated steel, aluminium panels, tank and bulkhead, Perspex side windows and rear screen, plus a blueprinted version of the 4.2-litre engine providing the DB4GT with revered combination of performance and drivability. 

£2.1m – 1951 Maserati A6G/2000 Spider, Scottsdale Auction, USA

Top lot at Bonhams’ first sale of 2019 in Arizona was a real Italian star: a Frua bodied Maserati convertible, one of just three cars of its type and, after its restoration in Italy, a regular high-achiever at concours events like Pebble Beach, Villa d'Este and the Quail. 

Its celebrity status belies the fact that its existence only came to light after an overheard conversation in a Californian restaurant in 1997 when the waitress, by the name of Dee Dee, mentioned to a group of car-mad diners she had inherited an old Italian car and didn’t know what to do with it. 

Maserati produced only 16 A6G/2000s, most of them Pininfarina coupés, but all powered by Maserati’s 1,954cc single-overhead cam all-alloy six-cylinder engine that produced around 110bhp for 115mph performance. 

£1.68m – 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari, Bonmont Sale, Geneva 

‘LaFerrari’ and ‘bargain’ are two words that don’t normally go together, but this 2015 example of Ferrari’s ultimate hybrid hypercar might disprove that. LaFerraris after all have sold in the past for a great deal more than this. The 560-mile example in the no-reserve Bonmont supercar sale came with a guide price of £2.1m but on the day it fell a way short of that. 

Maybe it was the Giallo (yellow) repaint job or yellow-striped interior the car received in 2016 that caused such a cool reaction, or maybe it was its Equatorial Guinea registration document. Either way, it’s still every inch a LaFerrari, one of 500 with a mighty 950bhp and enough straight-line performance to see off an Enzo.

£1.55m – 2010 Lamborghini Reventon roadster, Bonmont Sale, Geneva 

Ninth top-priced lot for Bonhams in 2019 was another Lamborghini roadster, not quite as awesome as the Veneno but still one heck of a looker and at “just” two million Swiss France a quarter the price of its even rarer Lambo convertible counterpart in the same sale. 

Based on the 6.2-litre V12 Murcielago and unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, Lamborghini made only 15 Reventon roadsters with their aircraft-inspired looks both outside as well as in the highly distinctive cockpit. Bonhams said the rare piece of supercar exotica had covered only 2,400 km from new and was in effectively as new condition.

£1.5m – 1935 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante, Goodwood Revival Sale

There were many so many highlights of the Bonhams Revival Sale here at Goodwood in September – the sale made a total of £11m – but one car that realty stood out was this super-elegant black and cream two-seat Bugatti “faux cabriolet”. Known, albeit somewhat unofficially, as the Atalante, it’s the sole survivor from an exclusive trio of Bugatti beauties from the 1930s and at £1.5m it sold for bang-on its pre-sale estimate to be the sale’s top lot.

It even came with a special registration: DYF 4 once graced the Type 57S belonging to Bugatti fan Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Images courtesy of Bonhams.