1936 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Supercharged SpecialYou know we’re hitting classic car auction season. That’s the time of the year where I get to go to exotic locations to be sucked up to by the auction people, sit in million-dollar cars, drink expensive drinks and eat even more expensive hors d’oeuvre, hobnob with billionaires and famous people while you are stuck at work reading about it.
That’s fair.
So, next month there’s the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and a host of other activities aimed directly at those who wear a Rolex, drive a Roller or Ferrari, arrive in a private jet, buy the leather handbag (no, not the very tanned older billionaire on her arm) from Osprey, wear the Bulgari necklace that’s so expensive they will only tell you the price if you can afford to ask, skol the Louis Roederer and read The Wall Street Journal (which is how they can afford all this stuff).
The Concours is held on the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links and Americans, not normally known for donning a suit and frock, don a suit and frock, sip the French and look longingly on what is probably a billion dollars’ worth of the best metal in the world while bringing to life a Gatsby party celebrating the last excesses of the republic before it sinks slowly into the shadow of the Middle Kingdom.
I would bring your seniors card if you are going to join me. General hoi poloi tickets start at $1000 but we are taking the $4000 chairman’s hospitality package and the seniors card will get you a decent discount.
Look, this is super value. You are entitled to the gourmet luncheon buffet and all-day hosted beverage service. Our party have requested the Coopers beverages and the sparkling star wine for the ladies. (Don’t bother writing in, I get it.)
While there are six auctions on the Monterey Peninsula over the weekend, Dave Gooding has the official one and he’s celebrating by selling the 1970 Porsche 917K owned by Porsche factory driver Jo Siffert, who leased the car to Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions for use in the making of the film only extreme car lovers could watch and then only with the help of medicinal cookies, the 1971 plotless but beautiful Le Mans.
Mecum have a 2014 LaFerrari with just 900km on the clock. Mecum sold a black one here last year for a bit over $6m. What’s so special about the LaFerrari except for the fact it has magnetorheological damping with twin solenoids (no, I don’t know either) and there were only 499 made at the time? Because it combines a V12 proper engine with an electric motor and it produces over 700kW and goes from 0 to 100km/h in 2.4 seconds.
RM Sotheby’s are gifting punters a 1935 Aston Martin Ulster CMC 615. Old British racing voyeurs call this the “most raced car in England” and it saw time at Le Mans, the RAC Tourist Trophy, and Mille Miglia.
Owned forever by Aston pre-war expert Derrick Edwards and Pink Floyds’ Nick Mason, Derrick reckons he picked up 650 trophies in 40 years of racing. I think Bonhams sold another Ulster CMC 615 two years ago for double estimate at $6m.
OK, a short couple of breaks here: Sports Car Markets’ Paul Hardiman is saying the classic Aston market has dropped 15 per cent this year. He bases this on recent DB5 sales. “I’ve viewed the DB5 as a barometer of the state of health of the overall classic car market. It’s the automotive equivalent of the Mars bar. In the early 2010s, they were steady around $723,000. The James Bond car selling for $6m appeared to be the catalyst for a climb to almost twice (but) that turned out to be a brief peak before the general market cooling after 2015, and now prices in the UK have broadly dropped back to the $700,000 to $1m range.” And RM Sotheby’s PR queen, Amy Christie, has returned to Australia for family reasons. If you are a big player in the auto market and want one of the best spinners in our industry, give Amy a call.
Don’t forget the Bonhams’ Chantilly sale on September 10 (the day after my birthday but who cares?) where you can hang out in the Chateau de Chantilly and drive home in the 1957 Mercedes 300 SLS Evocation alloy competition roadster for a lazy $5m.
And, of course, for buyers with real taste there’s the Mossgreen Clem Smith auction at Adelaide’s Malala Motorsport Park on Sunday, August 20. There’s a viewing after the Masters of Malala event on the Saturday at 4pm with the Weekend Australian’s cast of characters and cars. The chairman’s hospitality package includes a copy of last month’s paper and The Australian pens that don’t work.
In a few weeks time, H&H Classics are auctioning a stunning red and black 1929 Bugatti Type 44 Vanvooren Saloon which survived WW2 in France, where it was used for target practice by German troops. Appropriately enough the sale is at Duxford Imperial War Museum. Also at the sale, the newest old Jaguar E Type in the world. A one-owner since new, very original, red 1969 E-Type Jaguar 4.2 2+2 with under 3000km. Just $300,000.
Yes, that’s not a car in today’s photo. It’s the executive jet of its time, Sir Torquil Norman’s 1934 De Havilland DH84 Dragon cabin biplane. Bonhams have it up for grabs at the Goodwood Revival on my birthday. $400,000 fly away, no more to pay.
This is a shortened version of the original article – read the rest at The Australian
