On Wednesday, the Sultan and I were sedately driving up the quaintly called Eagle On The Hill stage of the Adelaide Rally 2023. We were just checking things out – as we are now required to do to ensure we get a podium and so a trophy, along with our complimentary (along with the $4000 entry fee) cap, vehicle signage, finishers' medallion and lunch in the real event that started on Friday from Victoria Park.
The most interesting features of this stage are the views of the City of Churches, where you can't drink the water, the well-constructed bicycle track that runs by the road where, we hope, even more temporary Australians than those who ride motorbikes aren't out and about dressed in their $1000 Mathilde Audax bib shorts and Lorenne zip-up jersey cycling tops – made by Cafe du Cycliste, a French-designed brand not afraid to span the entire spectrum between minimalist monochrome jerseys and eye-catching prints that look ripped straight from a Parisian nightclub.
Anyway, the Sultan turned to me (he was reading the Bernie Webb-supplied pace notes, not driving) and said: "You know I dropped out at $61m, don't you?"
Well, I knew that Michael (McMichael aka the Sultan of Stepney) had, some years ago, dropped out of the contemporary art caper where he rivalled Damian Hirst in the dead animal genre.
"No, you idiot. I meant I dropped out at $61m on Monday night on the 1962 Fezzer 330 LM/250 GTO that went for close to $80m."
It turns out that Mick had schlepped over to Sotheby's seventh-floor saleroom on the corner of 72nd St and York Ave. "They locked a select group of bidders like me in the auction room. There were a few Russians on the Al Capone and off we went. Jim Jaeger's (co-founder of Escort radar) Fezzer that he owned for 40 years was gone in 20 minutes."
Now much has been made of the $80m price for a classic car, comparing it to art prices and the price of road tolls in Australia. Mick asked you to consider a few things. The highest price paid at auction until now was for a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Series II Berlinetta ($75m) in 2018. A few of us thought that even in 2018 dollars this should have sold for $100m. More importantly the auction market has gone mad. On the same night, a laundry sink by Bob Goder went for $5.3m. A series of painted squares titled the Hondura Lottery Co sold for $30m, or about $10m over estimate. Jean-Michel Basquiat's Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two), which is a very scary acrylic and oilstick on canvas, brought $64m. Of course, the most valuable work of art sold at auction this year was Pablo Picasso's Femme a la Montre, which went for a lazy $215m.
Talking of Feezers, our friends at DIRT (Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Transport) have recalled the 2023 Ferrari SF 90 ($1m drive away not much more to pay) because engine oil could leak into the engine bay and accumulate in the presence of ignition source, resulting in a vehicle fire. And in a story we've all heard before, DIRT is also recalling Mazda CX-60s because the fail-safe driving mode may activate unintentionally resulting in a loss of motive power.