Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Gooding & Company
Prices Soar At Scottsdale Classic Car Auctions
January 21, 2013Little doubt remained about the extraordinary vitality of the vintage car market after the results at the multiple auctions that took place this past weekend in and around Scottsdale, Arizona. Gooding & Co. led the final tallies with a total of $52.5m, paced by the sale of a 1958 Ferrari 250GT LWB California Spider for $8.25m. With six of the weekend top 10 sales, Gooding’s result was up 31% over last year’s sale, a pattern of growth that almost all the Scottsdale events mirrored.
Read more...Arizona Sales Launch Vintage Car Auction Season
January 07, 2013In January, the place to be for vintage car collectors is Arizona, where a series of auctions happens every year in and around Phoenix. Both Gooding and RM will be hosting sales the weekend of January 18-19, when a 1957 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder, offered at Gooding and estimated at $5.5m-$7.5m, is likely to set the weekend’s pace. That is, unless it’s eclipsed by another ultra-rare Ferrari that RM is selling. It’s a 1960 250 GT SWB Berlinetta ‘Competizione,’ which has been exhibited at Pebble Beach, the Quail, and Italy’s Villa d’Este. RM is circumspect about its anticipated value, a tipoff about the sky-high price they’re expecting.
Read more...Gooding $113.7m Pebble Beach Total A Record
August 21, 2012It was a stellar weekend for Gooding & Co. at Pebble Beach. With a $113.7m total for its two-day auction, the official auctioneer of the Concours d’Elegance achieved the highest automotive auction result ever. Fully 24 of the 123 lots offered sold for over $1m; in fact, the average price paid for a car was a remarkable $1,033,966. The $11,770,000 achieved by a 1926 Mercedes 540 K may have been shy of the $16m some had predicted, but it was still a double-world record for a Mercedes and a pre-war car at auction.
Read more...’68 Ford Sets Record, ’36 Mercedes Falls Short At Pebble Beach
August 20, 2012Records fell at the high-value vintage car auctions around the Pebble Beach Concours over the weekend, but they weren’t the ones that had been expected. A 1968 Ford GT, used by Steve McQueen in the making of “Le Mans,” became the most expensive American car ever sold at auction when the gavel came down at $11m, including buyer’s premium. A magnificent 1936 Mercedes 540K Special Roadster that had been anticipated to be the weekend’s star fell short, however, selling for “just” $11.7m, including premiums.
Read more...Records Expected As Pebble Beach Concours Weekend Begins
August 17, 2012Every August for the past 62 years, some of the rarest, most beautiful, and expensive vintage cars ever preserved have rolled into Monterey, California for what’s recognized as the single most prestigious antique automobile event in the world, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which kicks off today. The competition itself begins on Sunday, but there will events all through the weekend, with much of the attention focusing on the high-value car auctions happening around town. The likely star? A 1936 Mercedes 540K Special Roadster, which auctioneer David Gooding believes may break the $16m Pebble Beach auction record.
Read more...Clark Gable’s Duesenberg At Pebble Beach
August 03, 2012The celebrity cars continue to roll towards Pebble Beach. The latest to emerge at the Gooding auction on August 18-19 is Clark Gable’s 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe. One of only 10 JN’s built, and specially modified for Gable with a raked windshield and other upgrades, it’s the car in which he and his wife, actress Carole Lombard, drove up the West Coast to Vancouver. The Special Award winner at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the automobile was also featured in the 1938 film “Merrily We Live.” The JN comes to the sale without public estimate.
Read more...George Clooney’s Tesla, Jay Leno’s Fiat At Pebble Beach
July 30, 2012When Tesla introduced its high-performance electric “Signature 100” roadster in 2008, George Clooney was the eighth person to buy the car. This summer he’s selling it for charity at Gooding’s Pebble Beach auction. At the time he purchased car 0008, it sold for around $100,000. Four years later, it’s estimated to bring as much as $125,000 at the August 19th event. Proceeds will benefit the Satellite Sentinel Project, which is dedicated to preventing a return of civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan.
Read more...Ultra-Rare Ferraris From Wolf Collection At Pebble Beach
July 19, 2012Sherman M. Wolf was a pioneer in pocket pagers, who assembled an extraordinary collection of vintage cars during his lifetime. A born tinkerer, he also collected antique clocks and radios, but he was a particular devotee of rare Ferraris, which—unlike most collectors—he maintained himself. Next month at Pebble Beach, Gooding & Co. will offer four of his cars, led by a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione, which alone may fetch as much as $9m.
Read more...Prize Winning Maserati & Rare Bugatti At Pebble Beach
May 24, 2012Although the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance won’t be happening until August, the lineup for Gooding and Company’s marquis auction at the event is falling into place. Two highlights at the sale will be a 1955 Maserati A6G/54 Frua Berlinetta from the collection of Jay Kay, lead singer of the popular band Jamiroquai (est. $1.5-$2m), and a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Stelvio once owned by Prince Louis Napoleon (est, $1.3m-$1.6m).
Read more...Most Valuable Porsche Ever Sold At Auction
March 12, 2012It was a big weekend on Amelia Island for Porsche and Gooding & Co. No fewer than 11 world auction records were set at the March 9th event, which realized $36,057,800. The top seller, as expected, was the 1,200HP 1973 Porsche 917/30 Carrera Can-Am Spyder car that Gooding billed as “the most powerful road racing car ever built.” It sold above estimates for $4.4m, a double world auction record for a Porsche and for a 917.
Read more...Most Powerful Road Racer Ever Built
February 29, 2012A lot of distinguished vintage cars will come under the gavel at Gooding’s Amelia Island auction on March 9th, but none is likely to be more valuable than a 1973 Porsche 917/30 Can-Am Spyder. Billed as “the most powerful road-racing car ever built,” the thoroughly restored 1,200 HP Porsche participated in such races as the Rennsport Reunion and the Monterey Historics. One of only six examples produced, it carries an estimate of $3.25m-$4m.
Read more...Ferrari Sets New Auction Record
August 22, 2011If the economy’s in disarray, there was little sign of it at the major vintage car auctions this past weekend in and around the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. At Gooding & Co.’s marquis event, a 1957 red Ferrari Testa Rossa prototype became, at $16.4m, the most expensive car ever sold at auction. Other records fell as well, as some $80m changed hands at Gooding’s alone. “The stock market almost helped us,” said RM Auctions’ Max Girardo. “It makes classic cars even more desirable” because they’re perceived to be safer assets.
Read more...A New Duesenberg Record At Pebble Beach?
August 08, 2011For a good chunk of the last century, Duesenberg was the crème de la creme of American automotive brands. The cars were hand-made, fast, and very, very pricey; only about 400 were ever produced. Captain George Whittell Junior bought his Model J in 1931, paying $17,000 at a time when a Ford Model A cost $400. Since then, Duesenberg specialist Chris Charlton has immaculately restored the car, returning it to Whittell’s exact specifications. Few will be surprised if it surpasses the current $4.46m record price for a Duesenberg when it appears at Gooding’s Pebble Beach auction on August 20-21.
Read more...Will Ferrari Set Auction Record?
July 25, 2011Between 1957 and 1961, Ferrari produced just 34 Testa Rossa’s. Two years ago, one sold at an RM auction in Maranello, Italy for $12.4m. The 1957 example that David Gooding will offer in Pebble Beach next month, however, is unique: No.0666 is the very first prototype. Restored to the highest standard, it won first in class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. When it reaches the block at this year’s event, Gooding is anticipating it may become the most expensive car ever sold at auction.
Read more...First Bentley On The Block
June 20, 2011You have seen fabulously priced Bentley cars before, but Gooding &Co., says the 1921 Bentley it’s bringing to this summer’s Pebble Beach auction is the very first one the English automaker ever delivered to a customer.
Read more...
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