The 12 most expensive cars Bonhams sold in 2021

Lockdown regulations meant more online sales than ever but a gradual easing of restrictions saw a move back to physical sales, with two of the most anticipated being at the Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard and Goodwood Revival, put on by Goodwood’s auction partner Bonhams.

Globally, Mercedes, Bugatti and Aston Martin were three marques that came out on top on value for Bonhams, but there were strong results too for some spectacular cars from across the price range, with several auction records smashed.

At the Goodwood Revival sale, the Jaguar XJ220 hit a new auction mark by selling for £460,000, more than any XJ220 has made at auction before. The 1993 car had covered just 400 miles from new. Meanwhile in the US, a 1997 Porsche Turbo S made the equivalent of half a million pounds, an auction record for a 993-gen Turbo S.

Other new marque records set by Bonhams through the year included a 1974 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT 12 which sold for $1,677,000, the equivalent of £1.3m, and a 1934 Riley MPH which went to its owner in return for $967,500 (£735,000).

We are not sure what the record is for a tax disc but the £25,250 that someone at the Goodwood Revival sale paid for the actual disc out of the windscreen of 007’s Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger must surely come close. It sold for 10 times its estimate…

With the pandemic ravaging the world, Bonhams held its first digital-only auction in March. Star of the sale? That would be football superstar Diego Maradona’s old motor, a 1992 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 cabrio with a Turbo-look body. It made €483,000 (around £410,000) which was nearly double its high estimate. The hand of God maybe?

It wasn’t to be the most expensive online sale. Bonhams claimed another record in 2021: the first car to sell for £1m on a UK/European online platform. The click ‘n collect classic was a 1989 Ferrari F40, in a rare shade of blue, which sold for £1,000,500.

But what about the most expensive cars overall? Take a deep breath, these cars are stunning…

The 12 most expensive cars sold by Bonhams in 2021

1. £4.1m ($5,395,000) – 1928 Mercedes S-type (Quail)
2. £4.05m – 1937 Bugatti 57S (Bond St)
3. £3.72 ($4.9m) – 1934 Mercedes 540K (Amelia Island)
4. £1.975m – 1960 Aston DB4GT (Bond St)
5. £1.9m (euros 2,242,500) – 1994 Bugatti EB110 (Zoute)
6. £1.84m ($2,425,000) – 1913 Mercer 35K Runabout (Amelia Island)
7. £1.56m (euros 1,840,000) – 1989 Ferrari F40 (Zoute)
8. £1.43m ($1,875,000) – 1948 Talbot Lago T26 (Quail)
9. £1.38m ($1,820,000) – 1952 Ferrari 212 Europa cabrio (Quail)
10. £1.375m ($1,809,000) – 1959 BMW 507 (Scottsdale)
11. £1.3m ($1,710,000) – 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing (Quail)
12. £1.275m ($1,677,000) – 1974 Alfa Tipo 33 (Quail)

Bonhams’ top lot for 2021: £4m worth of supercharged Mercedes sportscar from the roaring Twenties. The 1928 S-Type, engineered by Ferdinand Porsche and one of only 146 ever made, was described by Bonhams as the “acme of motor car perfection”. It came with an estimate of $3-4m at the Quail Lodge auction in California but on the day sold for $5,395,000 (£4.1m). The car had been owned by the same family that bought it in 1964 – for just $15,000.

Four million would also have got you the auction house’s second most valuable lot of the year which was sold in London in February: a rare 1937 Bugatti Type 57S. This “sleeping beauty” had been off the road for the past 50 years. It had been the life’s work of Bill Turnbull who had been restoring the car in his Staffordshire garage since 1969. The fastest car of its day and one of only 42 made, the 57S lived up to the sale’s name as a true “Legend of the road”.

Another pre-war Mercedes rounded out Bonhams’ top three big-hitters for 2021, the bright red, chromed-up 1934 500/540K Spezial Roadster selling for $4.9 million (£3.7m) at the Amelia Island sale in the US, Bonhams’ first “live” sale of the year. And to think this car was discovered in pieces as a barn find in Poland in the 1970s.

Being in pieces is not necessarily a bad thing – not least when the pieces belong to something as special as an Aston Martin DB4 GT. The pieces were all there – right down to the car’s original push-button radio – just that they weren’t all attached. Described as a “part restoration”, the Aston sold at the February Bond St sale in London for an incredible £1,975,000 after an eight-way battle to buy it.

Bonhams’ most contemporary big-money car of the year was that 1990s supercar poster pin-up, the Bugatti EB110. One of 30 Super Sport variants of the model unveiled to mark the 110^th anniversary of Ettore Bugatti's birth, the 30,000km machine made an impressive €2,242,500 (£1.9m) at the Zoute sale in Belgium in October. A Dutch collector emerged triumphant after a 15-way bidding war.

By far the most valuable veteran machine of Bonhams’ year was the sole surviving original-bodied Mercer 35K Runabout ­– the 108-year-old sold for twice what Bonhams expected the super-rare American machine to make, at for $2,425,000 (£1.8m).

Bonhams’ most valuable Ferrari of 2021 was an F40 which came in at the top end of F40 values, selling for €1,840,000 (about £1.6m) in the Zoute sale. What was so special about this F40? Bonhams described it as a time-warp car, a one-owner machine which had been dry-stored since 1992 and covered fewer than 1,800km from new.

US sales dominated the next four places in the top dozen, all coming in around the $1.7-1.9m mark. The oldest car was an Art Deco beauty from Talbot Lago which made $1,875,000 (£1.4m), four times the price it made when Bonhams sold it last in 2006. Its stunning two-tone cabriolet Décapotable bodywork by coachbuilders Figoni et Falaschi makes it just one of four such cars made.

Also selling at the Quail Lodge sale were a 1952 Ferrari 212 Europa cabriolet which sold for $1,820,000 (£1.4m) and a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing – $1,710,000 (£1.3m). Almost as valuable, much newer and even sportier, a 1974 Alfa Tipo 33 sold at the same sale for $1,677,000 (£1.3m), a world record for that model.

The enduring appeal of BMW’s flagship 1950s sportscar, the 507, proved irresistible at the Scottsdale auction in Arizona. The 1959 Series II roadster, one of just 253 of the elegant Von Goertz-designed cars made, sold for $1,809,000 (£1.4m).

Meanwhile it was Ferrari that was flavour of the month at Goodwood in July for the Bonhams Festival of Speed sale. Three of Maranello’s finest took the top three spots, headed up by a Ferrari Dino 246/60 Formula 1 single-seater recreation, selling for £967,000. That was closely followed by an F40 (£883,000 ) and a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT berlinetta, one of 50 bodied by Carrozzeria Ellena, which made £514,167.

A the Goodwood Revival in September it was Jaguars that ruled. As well as setting a new auction mark for XJ220 values, Bonhams sold the well known historic racing D-type of Revival racer Valentine Lindsay for £799,000, the top lot of the day. The British theme continued with a brace of Bentleys: a 1955 R-Type Continental which made £642,200, and a 1931 4/8.0-Litre two-seater, achieving £603,000.

Great British sportscars made the headlines at Bonhams’ last sale of the year, in Bond St in December. Top price went to a 1965 “concours condition” Aston Martin DB5, (£582,000), followed by a 1955 Austin Healey 100S (£575,000), another well-known Revival racer and one of 55 100Ss that A-H made to celebrate the model’s success at Sebring in the 1950s.

*All prices include buyers’ premium; exchange rates $1=76p; 1 euro=85p

Images courtesy of Bonhams.