Going, going… gone: did you buy a car at auction during 2017? If you did you were not alone – thousands of cars went to new homes via the auction block during the year, at prices from a few thousand to tens of millions. As ever the best cars went for the best money, while others were subject to a welcome sense of realism. Even so records were still broken.
Here’s what caught our eye during the year, a mix of both the bizarre and the truly breathtaking…
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Move over Jaguar D-Type, the new British star car is an Aston. DBR1 chassis number one (as driven by Carroll Shelby, Jack Brabham, Roy Salvadori, and Sir Stirling Moss) was sold by RM Sotheby’s at its Monterey sale in August after a battle by two private bidders. It was the first time a DBR1 had been offered for public sale. The D-Type it beat was sold in Monterey the year before for $21.8m (about £16.4m) – $750,000 less than the Aston made.
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The estimate was £6-8000 but as the blurb at H&H’s Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in November said, “an unrepeatable opportunity for the Imp enthusiast”. Why so special? Original paint engine, upholstery… and just 82 miles from new! A record price for the model.
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It wasn’t long ago we were wondering if the wonder from Woking could hit £10m, now it has sailed past £11m. Bonhams did the deed, selling the one-owner US federalised version (one of just seven to be road legal in the US) for a mind-blowing US$15,620,000 including the premium, making it second in all the Quail Lodge auctions only to the Aston DBR1.
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Okay so it wasn’t your common or garden Escort but even so…that price is definitely a record, even for a Mk2 RS2000 Custom. And proving it wasn’t a fluke, Silverstone Auctions did it all again at the same Classic Motor Show sale at the NEC with another Escort. A Cosworth Lux with 837 miles from new, which sold for …£91,125.
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What’s the new Bugatti worth? Now we know, after the first one came up for auction at RM Sotheby’s Icons sale in New York. New ones are all sold out so this was a chance for someone to fulfil their 1,480bhp, 261mph hypercar dreams – although at $3,772,500 it cost a million or so more than a new one would have done.
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There was applause and cheering when the hammer dropped at the Bonhams Revival sale in September as the ex-Willment Racing Team Galaxie 500 of 'Gentleman Jack' Sears found a new home, for a world record price. The 7.0-litre titan of the British Saloon Car Championship more than doubled its presale estimate.
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The star billing here was always going to be Robby the Robot, a pinnacle of 1950s futurism from the sci-fi series Forbidden Planet; Robby’s ‘Jeep’ (actually a Crosley) was being thrown in. Together the robot suit (which operated with an actor inside it) and the Jeep sold for an astonishing world record price of US$5,375,000 at its TCM sale in New York in November. But then as Bonhams said: “Robby ranks among the single most iconic props in science fiction film history.”
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Well, to be fair, this is more a pile of bits belonging to an Indian Scout, though it was a Scout that raced at Brooklands in period. Surely now project of the year for the lucky (?) new owner who paid twice the estimate to buy it at the H&H National Motorcycle Museum sale.
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Race car auction record of the year goes to Gooding and Company which sold Jo Siffert’s 917K – ultimate sports racer of its day – at its Pebble Beach sale (helping the auction gross an incredible $91m). This 917 didn’t even race at Le Mans – though it was used, perhaps by Steve McQueen, in the eponymous movie. The Porsche pin-up, in Gulf livery, sold for US$14,080,000.
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Everyone knows 246 GT Dinos have shot up, but you would be able to get a dozen of them for what Artcurial sold this Dino for at its Retromobile sale in Paris early in 2017. With commission it went for €4,390,400 – and it doesn’t actually have a working engine. It’s Pininfarina’s first mid-engined concept car for Ferrari, so the forefather of a whole generation of mid-engined berlinettas, from original Dino to today’s 488 GTB. A real museum piece.
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Bonhams was charged with selling the extraordinary Bothwell collection of pre-Great War racing cars in the US in November, and there was no doubting the star – the unique and hugely influential Peugeot which sold for US$7.26m, a record for a Peugeot.
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A private collector snapped up Michael Schumacher’s 2001 steed, the car that took him to nine GP wins that year and his fourth World Drivers’ Championship. At US$7,504,000 the car sailed past its estimate to set a record for a modern-era F1 car at auction, more than doubling the previous mark. The sale was also notable for being the first car to be sold by RM in… a Sotheby’s contemporary art auction.
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Just the thing for the school run. In a war zone maybe. The mighty M5 is a half-track personnel carrier last used in anger in the liberation of Europe after the Second World War. Its restoration has taken 27 years! And it certainly won someone over, for H&H sold it for £45,000 over its estimate at its Duxford sale.
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The US President’s brief foray into automotive special editions resulted in just two limos being made, one of which came up for sale at the Bonhams Members’ Meeting sale at Goodwood in March. One buyer trumped everyone with a winning bid five times the car’s guide price. And it wasn’t Donald Trump…
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Single-cam Ferrari 275 coupes don’t come much better than this competition evolution of the V12 berlinetta, one of just 12 made and a car with plenty of class/overall wins in Italian domestic racing. The Pebble Beach award winner sold for $14,520,000, another star lot in Gooding and Co’s 2017 Pebble Beach sale.
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More than a million euros for a Merc G Wagen? Crazy, but then it was all for charity. This G Wagen was the 99th and last special AMG Landaulet version of the enduring 4x4, complete with S-Class massaging seats and 630bhp. Almost doubling its presale estimate in the Bonhams Zoute sale in Belgium, all proceeds went to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.
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The best, and rarest, Porsches continued to make big money in 2017, none more so than the hottest 911 of 20 years ago: the GT1 Strassenversion. One of just 20 street versions of the GT1 Le Mans winner, the $5,665,000 sale car was said to be in original condition and have covered just 8000km. The twin turbo 544bhp machine was the top-priced lot at Gooding and Co’s Amelia Island sale in the US in March.
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It’s been a good year for E-Types in general, and two in particular. The first – sold by Bonhams at Scottsdale in January – was a ’63 Lightweight that won the Australian GT championship in period. At US$7,370,000 it became the most valuable E-Type and most valuable post-1960 Jaguar ever to sell at auction. But it held its records only until Bonhams’ Quail Lodge auction in August, when the ex-Team Cunningham Lightweight, Jag’s entry in the ’63 Le Mans, was sold…for a round US$8m (today about £6m).
Typical, you wait ages for a Lightweight then two come along at once…
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