The top 10 car auction sales of 2020

Unusually, there was only one Ferrari in the top 10 this year – though that did set a world record in a way that neatly captures this most unprecedented of years. The 2001 Ferrari 550 GT1 goes into the record books as the most valuable car ever sold… online. It must take guts spending the equivalent of £3.2m with a click of your mouse.

But it was Bugattis that made the most money with a Type 59, 57, 35 and brace of Type 55s filling the top five spots for most expensive cars sold at auction in 2020. Together, they represent about £30 million, and three of them were sold in London.

In the icon stakes even the Bugattis had their work cut out rivalling what was by a mile the single most spectacular auction lot of 2020: the trio of Alfa Romeo Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica concept cars, otherwise known as the BAT cars. The 1953 BAT5, 1954 BAT7 and 1955 BAT9 sold as a single lot for $14,840,000 (£11.2m) to an anonymous buyer. It was the first time the cars had been offered as a group. Strangely they were never shown off together in period.

The aerodynamic 1950s design studies, as much seminal automotive art as cars and fittingly sold by RM Sotheby’s as part of its modern art auction in New York, made an awe-inspiring sight together, even if we could only see them on screen in this online sale. RM Sotheby’s says a million people around the world tuned in to the live-streamed auction. We trust that whoever bought these spectacular cars plans to let us see them in the flesh soon.

Other records set this year include a Lamborghini Miura P400 SV sold by Gooding & Co. in London for twice what even the best Miuras generally sell for – £3.2m. Then there were the world’s most expensive Ford Mustangs. Yes, two of them, one a historic racer and the other the car from the movie Bullitt. The ‘Stangs were ninth and tenth in the year’s top 10.

Twenty twenty was the year when probably the world’s expensive display model was sold. RM Sotheby’s was tasked with the online sale of the display-purposes-only Ferrari SF1000, an engineless replica built as an exhibit for Ferrari’s 1,000 grand prix celebrations this year. It came with a guide price of €150,000 but sold on 14^th December for more than a million. In terms of beating its guide, that’s also probably a record for the year.

Also selling for above their guide prices were models of a very different kind offered by RM Sotheby’s. Its online sale of 53 museum-quality pedal-powered cars dating from 1927 proved very tempting. Children’s Chryslers, Chevys, Buicks, Lincolns, Dodges and fire trucks from a famous American model car collection were up for grabs. All attracted huge interest but one of them excelled by tripling is presale guide and selling for $9,900 (£7,500). What was it? Of course a good old Austin J40. Too valuable to race in the Revival’s Settrington Cup? We hope not.

Also close to Goodwood’s heart was the sale of personal items connected to the late Sir Stirling Moss OBE. The 50 lots, ranging from his watch to his passport, were sold by Silverstone Auctions in an online sale that netted £260,000.

Highest priced lot was Stirling’s iconic gold watch band which sold for £67,850 including the premium. Stirling had worn it for 38 years in more than 200 races – including the race at Goodwood in 1961 when a crash ended his F1 career and nearly killed him. One of his famous white helmets, a Patey crash hat which Stirling Moss had worn over 49 years, sold for £37,950. Even his passport made £5,000.

Top 10 auction lots 2020 (prices shown include premium)

1. 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, £9,535,000

Taking the crown as this year’s most expensive auction purchase and also now the world’s most valuable Bugatti is this original and unrestored Type 59. The works grand prix racecar competed with distinction (it won at Spa and was third at Monaco) in the 1930s, driven by aces of the day like Louis Chiron, René Dreyfus, Piero Taruffi and Achille Varzi.

It was already a famous car when King Leopold of Belgium bought it in 1937. Royal ownership only enhanced its credentials. Gooding & Co called the supercharged straight-eight powered car arguably the most important, original and coveted of all competition Bugattis.

The T59 was one of nine cars to sell for more than a million from an exceptional 15-car single-owner collection that made up Gooding’s London 2020 sale at Hampton Court Palace. It was the auction house’s first sale outside the US

2. 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, £7,855,000

A lighter, faster, lower version of the already exceptional Type 57, the 57S Atalante took inspiration from Bugatti grand prix cars to be the firm’s pinnacle road car – the ultimate uncompromising supercar of its era. Only 17 cars were made with Jean Bugatti’s beautiful aluminium Atalante coachwork, this car being delivered new to British racing driver and leading Bugatti light, Earl Howe.

Another star of Gooding & Co’s Hampton Court sale, it came with a guide of £7m but with commission it sold for almost a million more than that, making it the most expensive Bugatti Type 57 ever.

3. 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport, $7,100,000 (£5.3m)

In 1932 this was a 22-year-old student’s first new car. The student did happen to be Victor Rothschild, though. The future 3^rd Baron Rothschild  must have cut quite a dash in Cambridge in the beautiful roadster. Its factory coachwork was fitted to just 14 cars of which only 11 survive. In 1985 it was the most expensive car in Britain, changing hands for £400,000. It went to the US, was restored and promptly won a first-in-class at Pebble Beach concours. The third highest priced lot of 2020, the car was sold by Bonhams at its pre-lockdown Amelia Island auction in March.

4. 1928 Bugatti Type 35C Grand Prix, £3,935,000

Back at Hampton Court Palace, Gooding & Co’s unbelievable UK debut sale threw up another Bugatti megastar from the same single-owner Passion of a Lifetime collection. The earliest of the Bugattis in the top 10, this 35C was built as a works car to compete in the 1928 Targa Florio, later racing in grands prix throughout Europe. Exceptional for being so original and unrestored, as well as having had just four owners since 1932, it came with a guide price of £3m plus. It made that and more, becoming the most expensive T35 ever.

5. 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport, €4,600,000 (£4.2m)

Bonhams bagged the fifth most expensive car of 2020 with a historic works Bugatti racer built to take on the 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans with Louis Chiron and Count Guy Bouriat-Quintart as drivers. Famous names continued to be associated with this T55 when a subsequent owner had it rebodied by celebrated Parisian carrosserie Giuseppe Figoni.

One of only 29 survivors of its type, it was sold by Bonhams in Paris in February where it was the top-priced lot of all the Retromobile week sales.

6. 2001 Ferrari 550 GT1, $4,290,000 (£3.2m)

The only Ferrari to make the top 10 this year is a racecar with a record to die for: 49 starts, 15 pole positions, 14 outright race wins, and a podium finish on no fewer than 29 occasions. The last V12-engined Ferrari to win a 24-hour race overall (the 24 Hours of Spa in 2004), it is the second of 10 Ferrari 550 GT1 examples built by Prodrive.

Said to be race ready and Classiche certified, it was the star of RM Sotheby’s online Monterey auction. The final mouse-clicked winning bid of $4.29m (£3.2m) makes it the most expensive car ever to be bought online.

7. 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV Speciale, £3,207,000

Meet the world’s most expensive Miura. Gooding & Co. sold it at its Hampton Court Palace auction for double what Miuras normally go for. The metallic gold supercar is one of 150 SVs but with several trick mods from the experimental Miura Jota that were specified by the first, French, owner. This is a Miura with 385bhp dry sump V12, a ZF limited slip diff – and a staggering price tag.   

8. 1955 Aston Martin DB3S, £3,011,000

This is one three dark green DB3s of the Kangaroo Stable team set up by Australians David McKay and Tony Gaze to compete in Europe in the mid 1950s. This particular car did more than race. In 1957 it went to Australia where, fitted with a Perspex canopy, it averaged 143.19mph – on a dirt road – to set an Australian land speed record. The twin-plug 3.0-litre straight-six-powered sports car raced on until it crashed at Bathurst in 1960. Restored in the 1970s it’s now a historic racing regular. One of only 20 DB3Ss ever built for customers, it was sold in the Gooding & Co. Hampton Court sale.

9. 1968 Ford Mustang GT, $3,740,000 (£2.8m)

For a few short months at least, the world’s most expensive Mustang was this one: a rather tatty Highland Green GT Fastback with one rather large claim to fame: it was the car Steve McQueen drove in everyone’s favourite car chase in the 1968 movie Bullitt. You may remember seeing the car at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard at Goodwood in 2018.

It was sold at the Mecum collector car auction in Kissimmee in Florida in January 2020, making roughly $3,734,000 more than the last time it was sold – for $6000 in the 1970s. Famously the owner refused to sell it on, even to a pleading Steve McQueen.

10. 1965 Shelby GTR350R, $3,850,000 (£2.9m)

The Bullitt Mustang didn’t hold the Mustang $$$$ record for long: at the Mecum sale in Indianapolis, a Shelby GTR350R competition model, said to be not just the first ‘Stang ever to race but also the Mustang with the most race wins, galloped away to an even more impressive $3.8m.

All up an unusual auction 12 months in what has been a very strange year – but one that showed it will take  more than a virus to dampen our passion for collecting classic cars. 

Images courtesy of RM Sotheby's, Gooding & Co., Bonhams and Mecum auctions.