California car craziness
Monterey Car Week 2021 promises to dazzle, from the Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca and the manicured lawns of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance to, of course, the many amazing classic cars being sold at some of the year’s most prestigious sales.
We’ve put together a list of the top 30 cars in those auctions by pre-sale estimate – just in case you’ve found a spare $1m or $10m, even, down the back of the sofa (or couch, if you’re in the USA), ordered by highest pre-sale estimate. And, because classic cars are our passion, we have focused on pre-2010 cars.
You might need a lottery win to have a chance of landing one of these, but what a selection – which would you add to your dream garage?
30. 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Sanction II ($3-3.5m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato was shown at the London Motor Show in 1960, with high hopes. The original plan was to produce 23 of these lightweight-bodied cars, but with the Jaguar E-type undercutting it by around £4000, and being more than £1000 more expensive than the normal DB4GT, it wasn’t a sales success, and only 19 were built.
Fast forward to the 1980s, however, and a DB4GT Zagato sold for £1.7m, or $6.74m in today’s money – its maker couldn’t help but take notice. Aston Martin decided to team up with Richard Williams of RS Williams and Zagato to build four more examples to finish off the run after 20 years. The Sanction II project was born.
1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Sanction II (cont.)
Each one was built in ex-Zagato staffer Mario Galbiatti’s workshop as Zagato didn’t have the space, and each had an upgraded 4.2-litre engine that pumped out 352bhp.
This car, chassis DB4GT/0196/R, was first sold to Aston Martin collector Simon Drape. Over the next decade it would appear in several magazines, including Classic & Sports Car in 1998.
It was then sold to the USA, where the third owner converted the car to left-hand drive, and upgraded the transmission to a Tremec unit, along with a few other tweaks.
29. 1928 Mercedes-Benz 26/120/180 S-Type Supercharged Sports ($3-4m, Bonhams)
The sole lot in this list from Bonhams’ Quail Lodge Auction, at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel-by-the-Sea on 13 August 2021, is this serious head-turner.
The Mercedes-Benz S-type was a product from a glorious time for the three-pointed star – fresh from the merger between Daimler and Benz, Ferdinand Porsche was working his magic as chief engineer.
The S-type was a true high-performance machine, fed by a 6.8-litre straight-six that pumped out 120bhp. That wasn’t enough, however – bury the throttle and the Roots-type supercharger would deliver an extra 60bhp.
As a result the model was highly competitive across the world, and that led to a series of celebrity owners, including Sir Malcolm Campbell, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Al Jolson and the Marx brothers. However, it made its debut just as the Great Depression hit, meaning just 136 were built.
1928 Mercedes-Benz 26/120/180 S-Type Supercharged Sports (cont.)
This example, chassis number 35920, was sold to Louis Delling, a Dresden-based merchant. He’d originally wanted a Glaser body, but it wears a Buhne coachbuilding plate – however, Buhne itself didn’t believe it had constructed it.
By the 1930s it was in the UK where it was repainted white and it passed through several British owners – with a brief appearance in film I am a Camera – until 1954, when it moved to the USA.
A few attempts at restoration followed but salvation came when the current keeper’s uncle found the big Benz and suggested his brother buy it sight unseen. He did, and then set about more restorative work and another repaint, this time in yellow and black, colours it wore for the next 50 years. During that time this Mercedes did everything from concours events to the school run. The engine was rebuilt in the early 2000s.
The current owner’s father passed in 2016, but it has still been maintained – and since repainted as you see it today.
28. 1930 Duesenberg Model J Disappearing Top ($3-4m, Gooding & Co)
The Duesenberg Model J was the American automobile at its exclusive best – a powerful 265bhp straight-eight engine powering a beautifully sculpted body clothing an exquisitely constructed car with an advanced mechanical design.
It provided the canvas for many coachbuilders, and the Walter M Murphy Company produced 140 bodies for the 481 cars built in a wide array of styles. The firm’s Convertible Coupe design made up a third of that figure.
Just 25 received an articulated deck behind the passenger compartment, beneath which the convertible’s top would stow completely into a well behind the seats, giving the bodywork a sleek profile – it would become known as the Disappearing Top.
1930 Duesenberg Model J Disappearing Top (cont.)
The first owner of this example was Esther Fiske Hammond, the granddaughter of James Madison Beebe, the founder of the Jordan Marsh department store chain. After a divorce, she established homes in Montecito and Pasadena, both in California, and ordered chassis 2369 so she could drive between the two locations.
She specified changes to the aesthetics, moving the dual spare wheels to the rear, and added chrome spears ahead of the running boards. It’s believed three cars were built to this specification, and only one other example survives.
The current owner acquired the car in 2016, and has had it comprehensively restored to as-delivered condition with no regard to cost. After that work, it finished first in the Duesenberg class at 2019’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, with a perfect, 100-point score.
27. 1931 Bentley 4½ Supercharged Blower ($3-4m, Gooding & Co)
The Bentley Blower 4½-litre supercharged was an idea forged from competition – Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin felt he was being left behind by supercharged competitors from Alfa Romeo, Bugatti and Mercedes-Benz in his naturally aspirated Bentley 6½-litre.
WO Bentley was unhappy with the idea, as his firm’s reputation was based on endurance and reliability, winning when all the supercharged cars had broke down. Instead, Birkin turned to Amherst Villiers, who’d supercharged the Vauxhall Villiers Special.
With the backing of Woolf Barnato and the lukewarm nod of WO Bentley, the supercharged 4½ became a standard model. The car would never win a race, but it certainly made an impact – 50 cars were built over a two-year period.
1931 Bentley 4½ Supercharged Blower (cont.)
This car is chassis MS3928, and was delivered to Gordon Black of Fife in 1931. He kept the car for two years and 35,000 miles. It would go through a sequence of British owners before it went to the USA with Charles RJ Noble of Connecticut in 1966, five years after he bought it.
At the time it was a rolling chassis, which was then shipped back to the UK for the fitment of a Le Mans replica body, before recrossing the Atlantic to be enjoyed by the family for the next 38 years.
This Bentley’s current custodian acquired the car in 2008, and it has formed part of a large collection of veteran and vintage cars that has a full-time professional staff to look after them.
26. 1935 Duesenberg Model J ‘Sweep Panel’ Dual-Cowl Phaeton by LaGrande ($3-4m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Duesenberg Model J was intended to take on the likes of Rolls-Royce and Hispano-Suiza in the luxury car market.
Just one year after its 1928 introduction, the Great Depression hit – of 500 cars projected to be built that year, only 200 made it before the October crash, with 100 appearing in 1930.
The car was produced until 1937, with many changes along the way. One of these was company president Harold Ames’ plan to control body production directly via parent company Cord.
The ‘Sweep Panel’ Dual-Cowl Phaeton, which had originally been produced by LeBaron, was redesigned by Gordon Buehrig. The new design was produced by the Union City Body Company, though this distinctly non-luxury nomenclature was avoided by using the name ‘LaGrande’.
1935 Duesenberg Model J ‘Sweep Panel’ Dual-Cowl Phaeton by LaGrande (cont.)
In total, 15 LaGrande Dual-Cowl Phaetons are said to have been built on short- and long-wheelbase chassis. This is body number 1015, the last made, and one of only five to feature this style of front door.
Its early life was spent as the New York factory demonstrator, before it was bought by Hugh Bancroft Jnr, the heir to Dow Jones & Co and the publishers of The Wall Street Journal.
After WW2, it turned up at a Chevrolet dealer in San Francisco, and remained largely on the West Coast until it came to Europe in the ’80s. But it was soon back to the US and in 2000 its restoration began.
It appeared at Pebble Beach in 2002 without its body, returning a year later with its bodywork, where it received First in Class, followed by a Lion Award and the Buehrig Memorial Award at the Meadowbrook Concours d’Elegance in 2004, then Best in Class at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2007.
25. 1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo C 8C 35 ($3-4.5m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Alfa Romeo Tipo C was Vittorio Jano’s storming response to the onslaught of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union in Grand Prix racing. An enlarged 3.8-litre V8 with two superchargers made it potent, while its independently sprung chassis and rear-mounted transaxle made it very agile – and it was a winner in 1936 at Budapest, the Coppa Ciano and Donington. Four 8C 35s were built, on chassis numbers 50011-50014.
Peter Giddens was an avid marque enthusiast, who had 10 pre-war Alfas, including 8C 35 chassis number 50013. When a bare chassis similar to that used by the 8C 35 turned up in Argentina in 1996, he believed it was a genuine 8C chassis taken to South America by Piero Dusio of Cisitalia fame.
It had extensive damage and showed no markings, indeed the origins of the chassis are still unknown. The same cannot be said for the engine, which first called chassis 50012 home.
1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo C 8C 35 (cont.)
Chassis 50012 was sent to the USA in 1936 by Scuderia Ferrari for use as a spare car in the Vanderbilt Cup. It then remained in the US and was sold to Bill White in early 1937, for Rex Mays to drive in the Indy 500; it retired with overheating issues after just 24 laps. Mays and White then entered the 1937 Vanderbilt Cup race, finishing third.
After this, the engine was reworked to comply with the new-for-1938 Indianapolis and Grand Prix 3.0-litre engine regulations. In 1938, Mays returned to Indianapolis but retired once again. The following year, White entrusted driving duties to Babe Stapp, who finished fifth – it was also campaigned at Indianapolis in 1940, 1941, 1946 and 1947.
After this, chassis 50012 was restored by Alfa Romeo to 12C 36 engine specification. That chassis’ original 8C engine was due to be installed into a Tipo B, but problems getting it to fit meant the then current owner sold it to Peter Giddens, who shipped the Argentinian chassis, the newly acquired engine, brakes, suspension bits and two 12C 37 transaxles to Auto Restorations in New Zealand to restore the car, using Giddens’ other 8C as reference material. After completion in 2002, the car was campaigned in historic racing.
24. 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT ($3.4-3.8m, Gooding & Co)
The Aston Martin DB4GT was the answer to the Ferrari question – could Aston build a GT-class customer racing car to beat the 250GT Tour de France?
The race-winning DP199 prototype would form the basis of the DB4GT, which made its debut at the 1959 London Motor Show. Shorter, lighter and more powerful than the standard DB4, it proved successful but Maranello soon hit back with the 250GT SWB. Just 75 DB4GTs were built, of which 30 were in left-hand drive.
This car, chassis DB4GT/0154/L, was built in June 1961 and specified with a limited-slip differential. Understandable, given its first owner was an exacting racer – a certain Georges Filipnetti of the eponymous racing team. He kept the car until the end of the year, before trading it back to the supplying dealer, Patthey Garage in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
1961 Aston Martin DB4GT (cont.)
Its next owner, fellow Swiss Gwer E Reichen, tasked Aston Martin with preparing it for competition use with shorter gears and a Bosch brake servo.
Reichen campaigned it in hillclimbs and entered it into the Swiss round of the European Rally Championship in 1964. This ended in a crash that required a new front end from Aston Martin; Patthey Garage repaired the car, painted it blue and upgraded the valve springs.
Reichen used the car regularly until 2010, having had it restored in the mid-1990s and again in the early 2000s, returning it to its original road specification.
In 2010 this Aston Martin was sold to a German collector, who had it restored by Marksdanes Restorations in the UK in 2012. The car was imported to the US by its current owner in 2016, and since then it has been used on tours in Europe and across the US.
23. 1929 Bugatti Type 35B Grand Prix ($3.5-4.5m, Gooding & Co)
The Bugatti Type 35 was a revelation. Its aesthetics were groundbreaking, and it had innovative thinking with regards to its lightweight chassis, hollow front axle and cast aluminium wheels with integrated brake drums.
With power from the eight-cylinder engine rated at 95bhp, it was very potent, and it would prove to be almost unbeatable in the late 1920s and early ’30s, with Type 35 variants racking up more than 1000 wins, or 14 wins per week.
The Type 35 took the Grand Prix World Championship title in 1926, won the Monaco Grand Prix three times, and the Targa Florio five times.
This car, chassis 4938, is a Type 35B, a 2.3-litre, eight-cylinder model fitted with a Roots-type supercharger. It was originally registered in France as a works entry for the Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France (ACF) on 30 June 1929, and would form part of a three-pronged assault on the Le Mans 24 Hours.
1929 Bugatti Type 35B Grand Prix (cont.)
This car was be driven by William Grover-Williams (winner of the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix), who’d lead the 1929 Grand Prix de l’ACF almost from start to finish. It was later sold to Louis Chiron, who raced 4938 at the 1929 Spanish Grand Prix.
The car would spend time in Germany, and was found by a US Army colonel in the 1940s and brought to the USA. It was restored and then appeared on the cover of Road & Track in 1951.
After quickly passing through another owner, it was acquired by Lawrence Falvey of Detroit, who’d keep the car until 1985. It passed to his daughter, Mary, who restored it and showed it at Pebble Beach.
Chris Drake acquired the car in 2000 and commissioned a restoration that took six years to complete. It was then sold to its current owner, who has largely kept it as a static display piece, but with regular exercise to keep it in running order.
22. 1995 Ferrari F50 ($3.6-4m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Ferrari F50 really puts its money where its mouth is. Many cars claim to be racing cars for the road, but the powerplant sat behind the cabin is directly related to the V12 used in the back of the Formula One car raced until 1991.
F1 tech can be found elsewhere, with a carbonfibre body and tub to aid lightness and rigidity, while Bilstein was tasked with creating an F1-inspired electronic damping system. Meanwhile, the 512bhp 4.7-litre V12 was mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. All-out it would do 202mph, besting the F40 by 1mph.
1995 Ferrari F50 (cont.)
The car going under the hammer with RM Sotheby’s on 13 August at its Monterey sale is chassis 104262, one of just 349 F50s made – it’s more than two-thirds rarer than an F40, and a particularly uncommon sight in the USA.
Just 55 headed across the Atlantic, and this car’s first owner was renowned Ferrari collector Stanley Cohen. He owned this Ferrari for 22 years, before it passed to its current custodian, who has shown it at several US events.
21. 1964 Shelby 289 Cobra Works ($3.75-4.25m, RM Sotheby’s)
This Shelby 289 Cobra Works represents the honing of the base Cobra package into the race-dominating and sales-grabbing hero it became.
This car, chassis number CSX 2129, is the second of two rack-and-pinion steering 289 Cobras built for the Shelby factory racing team to ‘Sebring’ specifications. Built in March 1963, that Sebring spec included a 289 engine with Weber carburettors and four-speed manual transmission, auxiliary instrumentation, black rollbar, hood scoop, flared wings, Halibrand magnesium wheels, Raydot mirrors, side-exit exhaust, auxiliary oil coolers, competition brakes, improved suspension components, quick-jack pads and a riveted hood.
It was campaigned in that season’s USSRC with Bob Bondurant and Ken Miles behind the wheel. The latter would score this car’s first podium and victory at Lake Garnett Raceway in Kansas.
1964 Shelby 289 Cobra Works (cont.)
In all, Miles scored nine podiums in 15 races with the car, five of which as a factory Shelby entrant. It was sold to privateer Graham Shaw for the 1964 SCCA season with great success, before it was sold back to Shelby and shown at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
It then passed through several SCCA members, with a replacement engine and a new interior fitted along the way, before it ended up with Thomas Long of California, who owned it from 1968 until 2011, using it as his daily car until 1984.
In the mid-’90s it was extensively restored to Ken Miles’ number 98 livery, and was then used in competition and in concours, including the 2012 Goodwood Revival, Salon Privé and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, as well as 2014’s Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, and the Chantilly Concours d’Elegance in 2015.
20. 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder ($3.8-4.2m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Porsche 550 Spyder was the marque’s first purpose-built competition car – and it would turn out to be exceedingly potent.
Weighing just 550kg, its 1500cc four-cam engine was enough to give it class victories at Le Mans, the Mille Miglia and the Carrera Panamericana.
This example, chassis 0054, left the factory on 14 July 1955, coming to the USA via Hoffman Motors of New York City to West Coast Porsche agent John von Neumann’s Competition Motors operation in California. Its first owner, Coloradan amateur racer Robert ‘Bob’ Donner Jnr, competed against the likes of Ken Miles and Richie Ginther in 1956, before heading to Colorado to race in local events there at the end of the year.
1955 Porsche 550 Spyder (cont.)
At the start of the 1957 season, he won four times in this car, before the competition got much stronger in the form of a Mercedes-Benz 300SLS, Ferrari 750 Monza and a Maserati 300S. He only competed in two race weekends in 1958, and sold the car in 1959 after acquiring a Porsche 718 RSK.
This 550 Spyder then passed through several owners, did some more competition and was damaged in a garage fire, before it ended up with the current owner in 1983, who brought it back to life. Well, he is a Porsche master technician.
He restored the mechanical elements of the car himself, trying to keep as much of its originality as possible. In 1987 the bodywork was restored, though most of it is still as it left Stuttgart. The car was finished to running and driving condition in 2021, and the engine was run for the first time since its 2000 rebuild.
19. 1957 Maserati 200SI ($4-4.5m, Gooding & Co)
The Maserati 200 was part of a trio of sports cars aimed at privateers that was launched in 1955. The 200S appeared a year later with a 2.0-litre version of the four-cylinder engine. It was immediately successful, with a class win at the 1956 Mille Miglia, and a 1-2 finish by Jean Behra and Cesare Perdisa at the Bari Grand Prix
A 200SI version was made, with the ‘I’ denoting ‘Internazionale’ and thus compliance with FIA Appendix C rules. These models received five-speed gearboxes, larger brakes an extra 5bhp.
Though each car was individually specified, the 200S and 200SI were bodied by Fantuzzi.
This particular car is chassis 2423, which was originally sold a Tennessee-based Mr Jackson by Carroll Shelby’s Dallas agency.
1957 Maserati 200SI (cont.)
Jackson entered the Maserati in races for Joe Sheppard and it was immediately on the pace, with two podiums at Fort Pierce, Florida, in September ’57. A week later, Sheppard won his heat and the main race at Gainsville.
The car was raced until March 1958, when a connecting rod failed at Boca Raton and it had to be shipped to Maserati for a rebuild, and in the meantime the Sheppards bought a Porsche Spyder.
The Maserati remained at the back of the Sheppards’ garage until the early 1970s, after which it passed through several owners, some of whom raced it.
A 2.5-litre engine was fitted in 2008 because the original was discovered to have a crack in the webbing between two cylinders; the original motor is included in this Gooding sale.
18. 1953 Ferrari 166MM Spider Series II ($4-5m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Ferrari 166MM was named after the firm’s success at the 1948 Mille Miglia, and 34 first- and 13 second-series cars were produced.
This is chassis number 0314 M, the fourth of six Vignale-built second-series Spiders, and the 10th of the 13 built overall.
As a late-production run car, it was fitted with several improvements developed in the factory’s competition programme, including the gearbox, brakes, dampers and water radiators used in the 212 model, a rear axle from the 340 race car, and a large 117-litre competition fuel tank, as confirmed by factory build sheets.
Its first owner was Edoardo Lualdi-Gabardi, an Italian textile entrepreneur, who used it in 10 races, including the 1953 Pescara 12 Hours and the 1954 Mille Miglia. The engine was upgraded to 3.0-litres by the factory to 250MM spec, before he sold it in 1954.
1953 Ferrari 166MM Spider Series II (cont.)
After several more keepers it was found by Helmut Frevel, a German shipwreck hunter and racing enthusiast who happened to be on holiday in Italy. He modified it further for racing, before taking it with him to South Africa in 1963 to use as his daily car. In 1967 it was shipped back to Freiburg, in Germany, where it stayed for 22 years.
Peter Gläsel was its next custodian, from September 1991, and he commissioned DK Engineering to restore the car, before selling it to Walter Fink in ’98, who campaigned it in the Mille Miglia Storica the following year. He came back for the 2000 edition of the event, only to have the car stolen from outside his hotel.
It was found in 2007, but it was in a bad way – so it went back to DK Engineering to be restored. Then it was back to the Mille Miglia and the Goodwood Revival, as well as being displayed at the 2012 Cavallino Classic.
That same year it changed hands again, new owner John Weinberger instructing Ferrari Classiche to build and stamp a new 2.0-litre 166-specification engine, a 212-specification gearbox and a 340-specification rear differential, which were then fitted to the car.
17. 1959 Aston Martin DB4GT Lightweight ($4-5m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Aston Martin DB4GT is already a rare car, with only 75 built, of which just 30 are left-hand drive. This lot takes rarity to the next level: DB4GT/0168/L is one of a mere nine Lightweight cars built, and one of the five LHD examples.
It used lighter-gauge aluminium, roll-up Plexiglas windows and drilled suspension brackets. It was originally ordered by Aston Martin’s North American boss Rex Woodgate to compete at the 1961 Sebring race, but the intervention of US customs meant it never made it.
1959 Aston Martin DB4GT Lightweight (cont.)
It passed through a few American owners until it came into the ownership of Charlie Turner, a well known figure in US Aston Martin circles.
After selling the car in 1987, he bought it back two years later to set about an extensive restoration. He’d refinished the body, chassis and suspension, but passed away suddenly in 1990.
The car remained in the Turner estate until 2001, until another US marque luminary bought the car and set about restoring it. In 2007 this DB4GT was sold again, and has since competed in rallies such as the Colorado Grand.
16. 1968 Porsche 911 R ($4.5-5.5m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Porsche 911 R was the brainchild of Zuffenhausen’s early racing director Ferdinand Piëch. To be ultra-competitive in the FIA’s GT 2.0 category, he set about shedding as much weight as possible from a 1967 911 S.
Just 20 were built (in addition to four prototypes), but this wasn’t enough to satisfy the FIA that the R was a variation of the 911 S. Homologation was refused, and the cars were sold off.
Chassis 11899006R left the factory on 26 October 1967, bound for its French first owner, Fernand Schigler, an accomplished rally driver.
Just a few days later Schigler fitted a quartet of driving lamps and entered the 1967 Tour de Corse as No 96 with Gérard Couzian as his co-driver.
1968 Porsche 911 R (cont.)
Schigler also entered the Criterium des Cevennes and then five rallies in 1968, before selling the car to Michel Martinach who, it seems, damaged it in preparation for a rally.
Martinach then appears to have sold the engine and transmission to Gerard Darton Merlin as spares for two other 911 Rs he owned. The chassis was sold to Marcel Balsa of Paris, who rebuilt it and installed a 2.3-litre ST engine.
Around 1971, Balsa sold the car to Thierry Sabine, who used it for rally reconnaissance. Around 1980, Sabine, who later founded the Paris-Dakar Rally, sold 006R to Bertrand Lenoirs, who installed a 2.0 engine from a 911 T.
Eventually, after several aborted attempts at reviving it, Porsche restorer Kobus Cantraine found the car in 2014 and a year later the restoration was complete, the car reunited with its original 901/22 magnesium-cased engine.
15. 1958 Ferrari 250GT Series 1 Cabriolet ($4.5-5.5m, Gooding & Co)
This lot, consigned to Gooding & Company’s 14-15 August Pebble Beach sale, is pretty special. The Ferrari 250GT Series 1 Cabriolet was Maranello at its most exclusive – and expensive. You’d pay $14,950 for a new Cabriolet, which was $3000 more than a California Spider and $2500 more than a Tour de France Berlinetta.
Each was constructed in Pinin Farina’s workshops, often to individual specification. This one, chassis 1075 GT, was the 34th built, and took around three months to complete. It was finished in Andalusia Gold over beige Connolly leather, and this car’s individual specification has full-width bumpers, covered headlamps and twin Marchal driving lights behind the grille.
It made its debut at the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show, before being returned to Italy for a twin distributor upgrade.
1958 Ferrari 250GT Series 1 Cabriolet (cont.)
Its first owner was French, but it was soon on its way to the USA. In 1964 it was displayed at Pebble Beach and went on to have several more owners, one of which, Christopher Saunders, kept it for two decades, while a later custodian was AMC designer D Teague.
Sadly, it was severely damaged in a fire, but was bought back to life thanks to owner Tom Shaughnessy in 2006, who commissioned Motion Products Inc with the job, which involved 9000 hours of labour to bring it back to life to exact factory standards.
Completed in 2008, it has since been shown at Pebble Beach, Amelia Island and many more events.
14. 1983 Porsche 956 Group C ($4.5-6m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Porsche 956 was a dominating presence on the World Sportscar Championship scene.
It was developed quickly. Based on a bonded and riveted sheet-aluminium monocoque, the front and rear suspension units would then be affixed, allowing most of the rear suspension to be kept out of the airstream. The body was formed from carbon-reinforced Kevlar with an adjustable rear wing.
The result was a car that created immense downforce, which was useful considering the twin-turbo flat-six delivered 600bhp. It was a very successful racer, with a full podium lock-out at Le Mans in 1982, and going even better a year later by taking the top eight positions.
1983 Porsche 956 Group C (cont.)
Chassis 956-110 was bought new by John Fitzpatrick Racing, just in time for Le Mans in 1983. It ran as high as third before fuel-pump failure forced its retirement.
It would later compete in Germany and the USA, but the car is best known for getting one over the works Rothmans cars at the Brands Hatch 1000km. With Derek Warwick and Fitzpatrick himself behind the wheel, it was only the second – and last – time that the works 956s were beaten.
The rest of the season resulted in a number of podiums, and the car would return to Le Mans for 1984 in what would be its final race. With Chris Craft, Alain de Cadenet and Alan Grice sharing driving duties, despite making it up to 11th, it retired on Sunday morning.
After Le Mans it was rebuilt and sold to California, where it lived until 2003, when it came to the UK to form part of a Porsche collection. The engine has been refreshed, though it hasn’t run since. It’s also appeared in Ultimate John Fitzpatrick Group C Porsches: The Definitive History by Mark Cole.
13. 1952 Ferrari 340 America ($4.8-5.3m, Mecum)
The Ferrari 340 America was built to broaden the marque’s appeal to a new breed of American racer, whose desire for power could be satisfied with a small batch of ‘big bore’ Lampredi V12s. The 4.1-litre 340 America was born, albeit in small numbers – just 24 were built.
Consigned to Mecum’s 12-14 August Monterey sale is this car, chassis number 0202A, originally fitted with Vignale Berlinetta coachwork finished in French Racing Blue, the livery and configuration it still has.
On its debut at the 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans, 0202A finished second in class and fifth overall with André Simon and Lucien Vincent co-driving for Luigi Chinetti.
1952 Ferrari 340 America (cont.)
This Ferrari was then sold to René Marchand of Paris, who finished second with it at Circuit Bressuire two weeks later. This was followed by entries at Italy’s Circuito di Senigallia and at Montlhèry in France, where 0202A finished sixth overall with Vincent driving at the September 1952 Coupe d’Automne.
After a factory rebuild in 1953, it was sold to the USA, where it raced until the mid-1960s. It would eventually wind up with Ferrari collector and restorer Tom Shaughnessy in June 2006, who meticulously rebuilt and restored it with the Ferrari Classiche Department in Italy to exacting factory standards.
The original 4.1-litre engine was located and reunited with the car, and 0202A made its post-restoration debut at the Ferrari North America display at 2019’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
12. 1936 Delahaye Type 135 Competition Court ($5-6m, Mecum)
The Type 135 was part of Delahaye’s desire to produce sportier cars, and it would immediately prove its mettle with a record-breaking run at the Ulster Tourist Trophy, and podiums at the 1936 Mille Miglia.
The 135M, introduced in 1936, increased displacement to 3557cc for extra performance. The ultimate version was the Competition Court, a homologation special reserved for VIP customers; just 30 were built.
Each one used a roadgoing Grand Prix-specification chassis on the shorter 106in chassis. The racing-spec engine was mounted low in the chassis, with a remote oil cooler below the radiator and rear springs mounted outside. They were also fitted with a competition-spec fuel tank and a four-speed manual gearbox.
This is chassis number 47242 and Figoni et Falaschi body number 609 – unique among the six coupés built to this style by having its bonnet flanked by Marchal headlights faired into the inner front wings.
1936 Delahaye Type 135 Competition Court (cont.)
Hidden during WW2, this car only resurfaced in the early ’50s in the possession of Jean-Pierre Bernard, then sales manager for Delahaye. It passed through several French owners and spent some time in Italy, before being sold to Switzerland.
This teardrop-shaped coupé then went to the US where it was extensively restored to original standards, which involved sourcing a Competition Court-specification engine from near Brescia, where the car had resided for decades.
Since its restoration it’s been seen at many concours, including Pebble Beach in 2001, and it will return to California to cross the block in Mecum’s Monterey auction this week.
11. 1955 Jaguar D-type ($5.5-7m, RM Sotheby’s)
We return to the RM Sotheby’s 12 August sale in style with this Jaguar D-type, a model well known for its endurance-racing successes – it finished second in its first Le Mans outing in 1954 and did one better a year later.
But its mixture of powerful XK twin-cam straight-six and lightweight monocoque tub meant the D-type was a talented contender in other disciplines.
This example, chassis XKD 530, is one such car. It’s one of just 54 privateer D-types built and was sold to Curt Lincoln, a Finnish Davis Cup tennis player and racing driver.
He’d also driven C-types, and as a consequence Jaguar assisted with getting the car into Finland as a ‘used’ car to avoid import taxes – a worn steering wheel, worn pedals and a tweaked odometer did the trick.
1955 Jaguar D-type (cont.)
This D-type went on to compete in a Helsinki street race for a couple of years, but it saw more action in ice racing, believe it or not. And it was successful, with Lincoln winning twice.
It then had some modifications for the 1958 season, which lead to more victories and podium-placed finishes.
In 1959 it returned to Jaguar for an upgraded engine block, bigger carbs and reconditioned brakes. More success followed before it was sold to Olli Lyytikäinen in 1960, who continued to race the car, usually with future World Rally Championship driver Timo Mäkinen behind the wheel.
10. 1958 Ferrari 250GT LWB Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ ($5.75-6.5m, RM Sotheby’s)
We’re into our top 10 with this rare Ferrari 250GT LWB Tour De France – just 72 were built. However, number 52, chassis 1031 GT, was specified in such a way to make it unique.
Its first owner was French industrialist and racing driver Jacques Peron, who did rather more than specify Alfa Giulietta blue with a red stripe and Havana brown upholstery. He requested a 250TR-spec engine, a hinged engine cover to enable easy roadside repairs as a solo driver, a transmission tunnel-mounted handbrake for standing starts on hillclimbs, room for two spare wheels for endurance racing, an ammeter in place of a clock, and an altimeter to determine when to change carb jets.
He also wanted it ready for three weeks prior to the 1958 Tour de France so he could test it.
1958 Ferrari 250GT LWB Berlinetta ‘Tour de France’ (cont.)
Alas while Ferrari was able to deliver the car, the factory declined or ignored the requests to fit the 250TR-spec engine and tunnel-mounted handbrake; Ferrari did, however, offer to fit the altimeter – if he brought it with him upon delivery. Mr Peron was not pleased, and sent Ferrari a strongly worded letter not long after finishing fourth in the Tour de France, co-driving with Harry Schell.
Ownership swiftly passed to another Frenchman, René Cotton, in 1958. He’d enter it into a couple of races before another crack at the Tour de France in 1959, in which the car failed to finish.
After a period in Italian ownership, the car travelled to San Francisco in 1967. It would enter the ownership of David and Mary Love for nearly 40 years.
Its current owner has had it for seven years and it has undergone a sympathetic restoration – and it was shown at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
9. 1959 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Coupé ($6-8m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Ferrari 410 Superamerica was Ferrari at its most exclusive – when it finally became available in the USA, it was twice the price of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing. As a result, very few were made over three iterations.
All used a 4.0-litre Lampredi V12 that was originally designed for sports car racing. A version of it had powered the 375 Plus to victory at the 1954 Le Mans 24 Hours; in road trim it was good for 340-400bhp.
Here we have chassis 1305 SA, the fourth of 12 Series III cars built, and one of only seven with covered headlights. It’s also the only one in Nero Tropicale IVI.
1959 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Coupé (cont.)
Its first owner was an American in Switzerland, who enigmatically is only known as ‘Griffin’. It came to the USA in 1971, passing through a couple of owners before entering the stewardship of Motorkraft proprietor John Hajduk in 1976, who, being a Ferrari specialist, embarked on a restoration. It had several more owners before it came up for sale in 2017.
The new keeper entrusted the car to RM Auto Restoration of Blenheim, Canada, for a comprehensive restoration. It was then presented at the 2020 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, where it received a Best in Class Award.
And there’s more. It was also shown at the 2021 Cavallino Classic where it received a Platinum Award as well as the Robert Tallgren Memorial Elegance Cup, for the finest coachbuilt Ferrari, and the Honorary Judges’ Cup, for the finest judged Ferrari selected by the honorary judges. And now it needs a new home.
8. 1966 Ford GT40 Alan Mann ($7-9m, Gooding & Co)
The Ford GT40’s story is well known, but its success could not have been achieved had it not been for the efforts of the independent teams that drove development. In the US, Shelby American and Holman & Moody were the teams of choice, while in Europe Alan Mann Racing would act as a Ford factory team between 1964 and 1969.
Alan Mann entered Ford cars in rallies and touring-car racing, and in 1965 began to develop its own version of the GT40. The team ordered five new chassis from Abbey panels, with more than 100 changes to the GT40 tub, the most important of which included an aluminium upper-superstructure, a built-in crossover fuel system, and additional suspension pick-up points, allowing Alan Mann to fine-tune the car’s handling with adjustable castor, lower roll centres, less anti-dive up front, and less anti-squat at the rear.
Alan Mann retained two chassis (AM GT-1 and AM GT-2), while Shelby American built up the remaining three (XGT-1 to XGT-3). Sadly, despite early promise at Sebring and a Le Mans test day, Ford gave notice that the 289 engine would be replaced with the 427, making the cars obsolete.
1966 Ford GT40 Alan Mann (cont.)
AM GT-1 was sold to Holman & Moody, who built it to experimental MkIIB spec – a 427 engine, automatic transmission and a rollcage – and tested at Daytona. It was later returned to its original drivetrain spec, and sold to Firestone Tires for use as a test car. It was then briefly sold to Buck Fulp before returning to Holman & Moody.
In 1969, Oklahoma-based Douglas Champlin bought the car and had it fitted out for road use, but he wouldn’t have long to enjoy it – a teenage house-sitter took it for a joyride and crashed it heavily. It was then passed through another couple of owners, before the current custodian took charge of the car in 1982.
Two decades more passed before restoration began, and it took a further 15 years to bring it back to its Le Mans test day specification. AM GT-1 made its post-restoration debut at the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it claimed Second in Class in the Postwar Sports and Racing Class.
7. 1966 Ferrari 275GTB Competizione ($8-10m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Ferrari 275GTB Competizione came about due to Maranello’s bust up with the FIA – the authorities refused to homologate the rear-engined 250LM on the basis that it bore little relationship to a production car. Keen to compete in GT racing, Ferrari made the 275GTB a racing car.
At first, so much weight was lost that the FIA turned Ferrari down again. When eventually three cars got the green light, there was glory with a class win at Le Mans in 1965. Ten more were built for the ’66 season, and a further 12 in the spring of 1966.
This final dozen was based on the long-nose variant with the double-ended universal joint torque tube and each had a host of modifications, including twin 140-litre fuel tanks, Plexiglas for all the glass surfaces except the windscreen, and a new Tipo 213 competition engine, a dry-sump motor that was strategically placed lower in the chassis to aid weight distribution.
The car scored Le Mans class victories in 1966 and 1967 – the latter was achieved by this car, chassis 09079.
1966 Ferrari 275GTB Competizione (cont.)
This was the second-to-last car built, and to maintain the tradition of Ferrari’s sports racers of the time, it is right-hand drive.
It was sold to Scuderia Filipinetti in May 1967, before Dieter Spörry and journalist Rico Steinemann scored that aforementioned Le Mans class victory and an 11th-place overall finish.
It was then sold to occasional Filipinetti driver Jacques Rey, who entered it in the 1968 Le Mans 24 Hours, though it retired after eight hours. But it was then steered to a class win at the ’69 1000km of Spa-Francorchamps and that year’s 500km of Imola.
After its competition life it went to the USA, and passed through several owners. It was badly damaged by fire in the mid-1980s, but it was restored to exacting standards by Carrozzeria Egidio Brandoli of Montale, Italy, on behalf of its Swiss owner. Since then it’s lived in Japan, the UK and the USA, and has been restored for historic competition use.
6. 1962 Ferrari 268SP ($8-10m, RM Sotheby’s)
We hope you’re a fan of red Ferraris, because here’s another. The 268SP was a direct response to the success of Cooper and Lotus in F1. Vittorio Jano’s 2.4 V6 was dropped into two sports cars which used the Type 561 chassis based on the 156 F1 car, with eye-opening bodywork from Fantuzzi.
Though these two cars showed promise during 1961, with first place on the Targa Florio, there were also many retirements, so Ferrari developed the idea, experimenting with a brand-new V8. So-called 248SP, its 2.4-litre engine was essentially two-thirds of a 400 Superamerica V12. It was initially only used on two cars, one of which is 0798 – the car you see before you.
This is the third of six SP models built for 1962, and benefited from an enlarged 2.6-litre engine after the original 2.4 didn’t quite cut the mustard at Sebring.
1962 Ferrari 268SP (cont.)
Chassis 0798 was used for testing at Le Mans, and driven by the likes of Ricardo Rodríguez, Lorenzo Bandini, Mike Parkes, Olivier Gendebien and Willy Mairesse to hone the aerodynamics. Sadly the race itself would end on 230 laps with clutch issues.
The car was later sold to Luigi Chinetti and the NART team, who campaigned it over the next few seasons, even after selling it part-way through 1963. It would later compete with various privateers in SCCA events with mixed results, and returned to Chinetti’s stable in 1965.
It was sold to France in 1969, and changed hands again in 1996. It’s remained in the current owner’s possession ever since, and has been shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, among other events.
5. 1998 Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR ($8.5-10m, Gooding & Co)
The Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR went from concept to reality in just 128 days, and marked the firm’s return to the top level of GT racing. The chassis was provided by Lola, while the M120 V12 seen in regular roadgoing Mercedes was reworked for competition use.
The results were excellent, six out of 11 rounds of the 1997 FIA GT championship taken by the three-pointed star. With McLaren’s factory support falling away for 1998 and Porsche uncompetitive, Mercedes-Benz stormed to victory in all of 1998’s rounds, upgrading to the CLK LM after the second meeting.
1998 Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR (cont.)
In order to homologate the racing car, Mercedes-Benz had to build 25 roadgoing cars – 20 coupés and five roadsters.
These cars differ from the racers in key ways. Not only is the leather and Alcantara interior a little more comfortable, but the engine is larger at 6.9-litres, while the suspension is softer and has a higher ride height.
Going under the hammer with Gooding this week is this, the ninth car built, sold new to Hermann-Dieter Escmann in Germany 1997, who kept the car until 2005. It lived in Hong Kong for 12 years before being brought to the USA in 2017. It has been with its current keeper since 2018 and it’s covered just 1439km.
4. 1959 Ferrari 250GT LWB California ($10-12m, Gooding & Co)
The Ferrari 250GT California Spider was the vision of Ferrari’s West Coast USA man John van Neumann, who saw the car as the open-top companion to the multi-purpose 250GT Tour de France Berlinetta. Just 106 California Spiders were built between 1957 and 1962 – 50 long- and 56-short wheelbase examples, all bodied by Scaglietti.
Though marketed as a car you could race as well as cruise, very few were specified to do the former. Around 10 were supplied with tuned engines, ribbed-alloy gearboxes, limited-slip differentials, long-range fuel tanks and lightweight all-alloy bodies.
Even fewer SWB cars were built and, due to the nature of their occasional production, all competition-spec Californias are pretty much one-offs.
1959 Ferrari 250GT LWB California (cont.)
This is chassis 1235 GT, built to special order for an amateur racing driver named Ottavio Randaccio to replace his 250GT Tour De France.
Its Colombo V12 was built with Hi-Lift Tipo 130 camshafts, high-compression Borgo pistons and three Weber 36 DCL3 carbs, producing 235bhp, around 30 more than most LWB California Spiders.
It also has a limited-slip differential, an Abarth exhaust, a competition-spec fuel tank and covered headlamps, and was finished in a tricolore livery.
Randaccio used the car on several Italian circuit races and hillclimbs in the summer of 1959, and claimed some class wins, too. He sold the car that October, and a few owners later it arrived in the US, in 1995.
A few more owners later, the current owners acquired it in 2004. It’s been comprehensively restored, and more recently returned to its original livery.
3. 1962 Aston Martin DB4GT ($11-14m, RM Sotheby’s)
The Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, as we’ve already shown, was such a rare and exclusive car that Aston Martin itself built a few more decades after its first appearance. But here’s one of the original 19, and one of just six that are left-hand drive.
Chassis DB4GT/0190/L was originally sold to Commander James Murray, a US Navy attaché. Despite the extensive efforts to lighten the car, Murray asked for slighter heavier gauge aluminium for robustness, glass door windows and tail-light stacks similar to those of late DB4s.
He also designed a wide-pattern ‘egg-crate’ grille for the car, and fitted brake covers to avoid getting the Borrani wheels dirty. It’s also the only Zagato with chromed brass window frames and door pulls.
Its shakedown was a BRSCC race at Brands Hatch in May 1962, where it finished first in class and second overall with Roy Salvadori at the wheel.
1962 Aston Martin DB4GT (cont.)
The car then passed through a couple of Swedish owners, before it came back to the UK in 1972, when the engine was rebuilt and upgraded, as was the gearbox, to a five-speed ZF unit. This was soon returned to an Aston Martin four-speed by its next owner in 1976, Julian Cottrell.
Cottrell raced the car for a few years, before it was sold to Richard Forshaw of Aston Martin Dorset, who completely restored the car in the mid-1990s, boring out the engine to 4.2 litres during this process.
After his passing in 1998, Les Edgar took stewardship, before it sold to the USA in 2002.
2. 1995 McLaren F1 ($15m+, Gooding & Co)
The McLaren F1 was the culmination of exacting standards and attention to detail – but though that might not sound heart-pumpingly exciting, the driving experience of what was once the world’s fastest car paints every trip in vivid technicolour.
Its 6.1-litre BMW V12, developed by BMW Motorsport, has it all and it is a car crafted from materials just as exotic as the engine note – aluminium, carbonfibre, titanium and gold all feature.
It provided the basis for a highly successful racing car, winning endurance championships and the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1995. Despite all this, the car is exceptionally rare as buyers were hard to find – just 64 original-specification road cars were built.
1995 McLaren F1 (cont.)
This car, chassis 029, is the 25th F1 built, the last produced in 1994 and the only one finished in metallic brown. The colour was called Creighton Brown, in honour of the commercial director for McLaren Cars.
Its first owner was a Japanese collector, who largely kept it as a static museum display for 17 years, only driving it sparingly but having it serviced regularly.
It was sold to another Japanese collector, Shinji Takei, in 2012; he kept it a year before it was sold to America to form part of a large collection. It was federalised for US use, though the European-spec parts have been retained.
It currently displays 387km on the odometer – that’s just 240 miles. Read its full story here.
1. 1970 Porsche 917K ($16-18.5m, RM Sotheby’s)
The car predicted to achieve the highest price at the Monterey 2021 auctions will cross the block with RM Sotheby’s on 14 August, and this is it.
It was raced at Le Mans in 1970 by David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood and reached as high as third place, before crashing out as rain lashed the circuit, having not pitted for wet tyres.
During the race, a Porsche 908 camera car was capturing footage for Steve McQueen’s Le Mans film, which portrays chassis 917-026, this very car, as the winner of the race.
1970 Porsche 917K (cont.)
The second part of this car’s life saw it being dismantled and rebuilt around a new factory-sourced replacement chassis (917-031), and it was campaigned by JW Automotive until the end of 1971; this became known as chassis 026.
The original Hobbs/Hailwood chassis was returned to Porsche and built up into a 917 Spyder in early 1971, and fitted with a 5.0-litre engine. This became known as 917-031/026. It was then used to compete in the 1971 Interserie Championship. Its next few owners raced it until 1973, when the onslaught of turbo cars meant it struggled to keep up despite the best efforts of its drivers.
It comes to auction during Monterey Car Week 2021 following a no-expense-spared restoration. You can read the full story of this incredible car here.