Before the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance got underway on Friday, the most expensive car ever sold at a public auction was Formula One legend Fangio's 1954 Mercedes, which fetched an incredible $29.65 million (€22.7 million) at a Bonhams sale year and, of the top 10 cars of all time, seven of the most expensive to have fallen under the hammer were Ferraris.
However, as the car show comes to an end and the results of three classic car auctions are totted up, records have fallen and with the exception of the aforementioned Mercedes, the top 10 is now an all-Ferrari affair.
The biggest sale of the weekend and, for the time being at least, the biggest sale in history, was the $38.11 million (€28.52 million) paid for a less than mint condition 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, but a number of ‘mini' records were also set.
A beautiful 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold for $15.18 million (€11.34 million), making it the most ever paid for that particular car and putting it into the top 10 in seventh place, while an incredibly rare Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale (only three were ever made) raised a staggering $26.4 million (€19.8 million) when it went under the hammer for the first time in history on Sunday night as the star lot of RM Auction's Monterey sale.
The two-day event achieved total sales of $143.4 million (a record for the event) and 35 cars that were up for grabs fetched over $1 million each.
Likewise, the Goodings and Co sale, which is the official auction of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, pulled in $106 million.
However, despite an apparently insatiable appetite for classic and rare Ferraris among the car-collecting community, its star lot -- a one of a kind 1966 Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti that had been tipped to break all existing records -- failed to hit its reserve even though bidding on the night passed the $22 million mark.
The only question that remains is how long will these new cars remain in the top 10? The next major classic car auction of the season gets underway in London on September 8 and it will feature a host of Ferraris.
Source: Relaxnews