With six auctions over a long four-day weekend, the Monterey weekend has in recent years become the benchmark and focal point for classic car sales. Last year’s combined auctions shocked many pundits when over $48 million worth of cars traded hands. However, if you had predicted that this year’s sales would nearly double that number, you would have been laughed off the peninsula.
And yet, that is precisely what happened. When the final gavel fell on Sunday night the total sales over the preceding three days totaled a mind-numbing $80 million, with roughly 370 cars changing hands. Some of the highlights of this year’s sales orgy include:
Christie’s
First sale of the weekend was Christie’s at the Monterey Jet Center. This sale brought in $9,514,413 with 72% of the lots selling. Significant sales included a 1937 Talbot Lago T150C SS Teardrop for $3,535,000 and a 1965 Ferrari 1512 Grand Prix car for $1,115,000.
Kruse
The newest of the six auctions (their second year) was Kruse’s sale at the Concorso Italiano on Friday. This sale is struggling to find its niche amongst the others and as a result raised only $1,638,630 with just 27% of the lots selling. Interestingly, $1,080,000 of this total was brought in by the sale of a single Ferrari Enzo.
Bonhams & Butterfields
Bonhams & Butterfields’ sale on Saturday evening on the grounds of The Quail Motorsports gathering fetched a total of $4,276,001 with 69% of the lots selling. High watermarks for this sale was a 1952 Porsche Type 540 sport roadster for $705,500 and a 1964 289 Shelby Cobra for $247,000. Other racecars included a 1974 March 741 Grand Prix car for $82,800 and the woeful remains of Archie Scott Brown’s Lister F2 car for a remarkable $15,000. Somewhat surprisingly the headlining Alfa Romeo TZ2 and the ex-Greenwood “Spirit of 76” Corvette were unable to make their respective reserves.
RM Auctions
Friday evening saw the launch of the two-day juggernaut that has become RM’s Monterey sale. In total, the RM sale raised a whopping $30,738,100 with an impressive 90% of the lots being recorded as sold. While a wide variety of vehicles were sold, racecar highlights included the 1964 Daytona-winning GT40 for $2,502,500 and a 1932 Alfa Romeo Tipo B P3 for $2,100,000.
Russo & Steele
One of the surprising success stories of the past couple of years has been Russo & Steele’s Saturday night sale at the downtown Marriot Hotel. This sale is unique in that all lots are sold at no reserve, therefore their sell-through rate is technically the best at 100%. However, the organizers do point out that owner’s have the option of buying their car back for a 5% premium of the highest bid attained. With this in mind, this year’s sale raised an impressive $10,665,600 with the star racecars being a Shelby Cobra Daytona “Super Coupe” for $1,457,500; a 1963 factory 289 Cobra comp for $1,292,500; and a rare 1966 Shelby GT350R for $473,000.
Gooding & Company
Closing out the weekend was Gooding & Company’s Sunday night sale at the Pebble Beach equestrian grounds. In just its second year, the Gooding sale has quickly established itself as one of the weekend’s major players with 82% of its lots being sold in just one night for an impressive total of $22,062,950. High points of this year’s sale included a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTS/4 NART Spyder for $3,960,000 (the highest amount attained for any single car of the weekend); a 1957 Jaguar XKSS for $1,925,000 and a 1955 Jaguar D-type for $1,815,000.
