You don't want to know about the Ferrari 550 GT1 Prodrive (the second of 10 Ferrari 550 GT1 examples built by Prodrive competed in 49 races, taking 15 pole positions, 14 outright race wins including The 24 Hours of Spa in 2004) that RM Sotheby's sold for $6m at Monterey online. Or the low-mileage, highly optioned 2014 Pagani Huayra, the 56th of only 100, powered by a 544KW, 6-litre twin-turbocharged V-12 hand-assembled by Mercedes-AMG engine, that went for $2.5 big ones.
No, you want to know about tractors.
Mary and Shane, the authors and owners of the floggerblogger.com website, tell me that an internal combustion tractor built in 1912 by the first Australian tractor makers, A.H McDonald, sold in the US at auction in June this year for $390k and may be returning home.
"The tractor was sold at auction on June 13 by Aumann Auctions of Illinois. The buyer was not identified but confirmed by the auctioneers to be Australian, which would be good news for those who campaigned for its return, including pleas for intervention by the Australian government," Mary and Shane say. This 1912 tractor has a two-cylinder vertical gasoline/kerosene engine with a 6.25-inch bore rated at 14kw. It has three forward speeds and a reverse speed.
Fast forward 108 years to look at the benefits of modern technology. The 2020 John Deere 96209R comes standard with the e18 PowerShift Transmission, the HydraCushion Suspension and the CommandView III cab. But how would you feel if you had just paid $6m for the Feezer with a lousy 440kw when for about 10 per cent of that price you could have the 96209R with 500kw? Does the Feezer have the HydraCushion Suspension and CommandView? No.
Each month, contained in the ample bosom of this great newspaper and online presence, is a sensational free magazine, AgJournal, aimed at our rural and regional readers. It's full of must-read stories like Ben Cordes, the man with his finger of the pulse (he grows legumes) and a super map of all the farms owned by nasty foreigners like Yanks, Poms, Canuks and Various.
Talking of BMWs, this group's very own Charles Miranda broke the world exclusive story of how the BMW chosen to ferry our politicians has been retired, unloved by Australians except it seems in our state and federal government's Finance Department.