This year’s Amelia Island auctions numbered three, as RM Sotheby’s took its sale to Miami. The four auctions together grossed over $186M. Gooding & Company had the highest gross and the top individual sale, a single-family-owned 1903 Mercedes-Simplex selling for $12.1 million. Next-highest were three super-rare Ferraris in the $4M neighborhood, with a 1930 Duesenberg close behind. Some interesting “pairs” or rare cars turned up across the auctions, too.
January kicked off collector-car auction season with a big bang and big dollars. Following Mecum’s $275M haul in Kissimmee, Florida mid-month, the traditional Arizona auctions added about $245M more to the tally, with $200M of that from Barrett-Jackson’s no-reserve sale in Scottsdale. Bonhams, though, had the highest-priced auction sale in Arizona, with $5.175M buying a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ (as in 300+ mph test-track capability) for a car with just Bugatti’s test and delivery miles.
By all accounts, the auctions at The Amelia — now under the ownership of Hagerty — were a grand success, with the sales from RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Gooding & Company totaling nearly $126M. Notably, a 1937 Talbot Lago set a world record price for the marque and for French cars at $13,425,000
The Bugatti Chiron you own, or are waiting for, or wish you had ordered one, will be the last of its kind. The last cars will be delivered in early 2022.
At “The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering” in Monterey, Calif. in August, Bugatti unveiled its ultimate model (so far), the Divo, which costs $6m. It is named for Albert Divo, who won the Targa Florio twice in the late 1920s driving a Bugatti Type 35.
The aptly named “ICONS” sale by RM Sotheby’s in New York on December 6 brought $45.5 million for 27 cars sold, 11 that broke the million-dollar mark, stood high above the rest.
