What were the biggest auction results from Monterey 2017?

Most expensive Porsche ever

That would be the 1970 917 K – the actual Jo Siffert-owned car that was the Porsche star of the film Le Mans. Gooding & Co sold it at its Pebble Beach auction for US$14.08m (including premium) — making it the most valuable Porsche ever sold at auction. The previous record was for a 1982 Porsche 956 which sold for $10.1m in 2015.

Most expensive Ferrari 275 ever

The totally gorgeous 275 GTB/C, one of just a dozen competition versions of the V12 Berlinetta, set a new world record for the model when it was sold by Gooding & Co for US$14.52m

Other Gooding & Co record highs were achieved for a 1956 Maserati A6G/54 that sold for US$4.4m, a 1958 BMW 507 Series II that garnered US$2.75m, and a 1926 Mercedes 24/100/140 Phaeton that went for nearly double its estimate with a sale price of $726,000.

Most expensive McLaren F1 ever

Bonhams billed this sale at its Quail Lodge auction as a “once in a lifetime opportunity to buy what for many is the ultimate road car” and the words certainly rang true with one collector who paid out US$15,620,000 for it including the premium, which translates to £12,132,509. The F1 is number 44 of the 64 road cars built and the first to cross the pond and be made US street legal.

Other Bonhams world record prices:

• 1957 multiple award-winning BMW 503 cabriolet, sold for US$583,000.
• 1904 Premier Model F rear-entrance tonneau, sold for a world record for the make, at US$341,000.
• 1955 Porsche 356 Pre-A 1500 Continental coupe, with coachwork by Reutter sold for US$288,200, a world record for a Continental Coupe.
• 1992 Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R sold for a record for the model of US$86,900
• 1961 Porsche Junior L108 tractor set a Porsche tractor record by selling at US$77,000
• The ex-Cunningham Jaguar Lightweight E-Type Le Mans sold after the auction for a world record $8m.

Most expensive British car ever

By now the world knows there is a new British champion of the auction rooms. The ex-Moss/Salvadori/Shelby Aston Martin DBR1 chassis number one has displaced the Jaguar D-type as most expensive Brit car ever sold at auction. RM Sotheby’s had the honour of selling this wonderful machine, and it went for $22,550,000 including the premium. That’s three-quarters of a million ahead of the Jag when it was sold by RM last year.

Most expensive non-Zagato Aston Martin ever

The DBR1 wasn’t the end of the Aston story at RM’s Monterey sale, with the 1959 Aston Martin DB4GT prototype selling for $6,765,000, a record for an Aston without a Zagato body. Another Aston record for the model type was the US$616,000 achieved by a 2006 DBR9. 

Other world record highs by model type achieved by RM include:

• 1955 Ferrari 121 LM Spider by Scaglietti. Sold for: $5,720,000.
• 1959 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Series III Coupe by Pinin Farina. Sold for: $5,335,000.
• 1954 Ferrari 500/735 Mondial Spider Pinin Farina. Sold for: $3,850,000.
• 2014 Pagani Huayra Tempesta. Sold for: $2,420,000.
• 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder. Sold for: $1,842,500.
• 1951 Porsche 356 1500 Coupe by Reutter. Sold for: $1,017,500 (world record for a Pre-A).