CAFÉ RACER 76

RM Sotheby’s enjoys World-Record results at $172m Monterey auction

RM kicked off the multi-million-dollar auction proceedings in Monterey on Thursday, with some strong results (and a few World Records) in the Pinnacle Portfolio sale…

‘RON 54’ returns home

Ultimately, the headline results were the $17.6m paid for the Ferrari 250 LM, and the $13.75m for the ‘LM-spec’ McLaren F1 – the latter all the more desirable with its ‘Brilliant Orange’ metallic paintwork illuminated by the saleroom lights (it looked a little flat in the press shots). The 250 LM is supposedly heading back ‘home’ to England, where it will wear its familiar ‘RON 54’ UK registration plates, as it did when it was raced and driven home in period by its first owner, Ronald Fry.

SWB slightly short of reserve

Bidding on the open-headlamp LWB California Spider and the 250 SWB Competizione failed to reach the respective reserves (perhaps RM will wait a while before trying to sell another yellow comp-spec SWB?), but the internal disappointment will no doubt have been cured by World-Record prices for a Ferrari Enzo and F40 LM – the former garnering a whopping $6.05m thanks to its Papal provenance and last-example-built status, and the latter achieving $3.3m against a $2m - 2.5m estimate that we previously suggested might be a little conservative. Other lots that sailed past their high estimates included the $462,000 Jaguar XJ220, the $550,000 Porsche 993 RS 3.8, the $412,500 Dino 246 GTS, and the $495,000 McMerc SLR.

That Friday feeling

Friday’s sale saw RM clinch another World Record, this time with the $13.2m paid for the ex-Works/Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar C-type Lightweight (now the most expensive Jaguar ever sold at auction). Other strong results included $2.06m for Ghia’s stunning jet-age Jaguar, the XK120 Supersonic, almost $700,000 for the 2013 Aston Martin Centennial DB9 Spyder, and $242,000 for the ‘matching pair’ of Fiat 600s. The characterfully patinated Ferrari 275S/340 America Barchetta made $7.97m.

Saturday success

The conclusion of the three-part sale on Saturday saw the Ferrari 250 GT ‘Tour de France’ sell for a staggering $13.2m – a new World Record for the model, and almost treble the price of a similar example (albeit without the inspiratory TdF win under its bonnet-belts) at RM’s London auction less than a year ago. The impressive sum, along with the $8.5m private post-auction sale of the aforementioned Cal’ Spider, brought RM’s 2015 Monterey sale total up to $172.7m – doing things the ‘the RM way’ has paid off once again...

Please note, all results are inclusive of buyer’s premium, and do not account for all post-auction sales.

Wheels & Waves 2015 by PIPEBURN

Words and images by Christian Gallagher.

I’ve wanted to go to Wheels and Waves since I first heard of it. I’ve spent half of my life around bikes but never really got into any of the scenes in the north of England – sportsbikes, full-dress Harleys, classics or streetfighters. The new custom scene hasn’t taken root here yet, so for a shed monkey like me with a preference for hands-on over wallet-out, this seemed the place to go. Aboard my rebuilt W650 tracker, I rode the 1600-mile round trip from Leeds to Biarritz with my camera gear on my back, accompanied by a mate on his much-admired Honda 400/4 café racer. Here’s the highlights.

In Biarritz there’s ostentatious wealth – personal bodyguards, limousines, neo-Gothic architecture – packed into steep, twisting streets that make navigation confusing. On this weekend, however, I need only follow the unforgiving bark of old bikes running open pipes as they echo between the close-set buildings, up and out of town toward the south and the Cité de l’Océan: the noisy, atmospheric, bike-clogged epicentre of this whole thing.

“Siga las motos, abajo, abajo”, a Spanish guy motions me up the road to a left turn from his 1940s Harley. So I take the left and follow the bikes – down, down to the beach, and there it is: the mini-Glastonbury of motorbikes. Arrival is breathtaking. Every single bike is worth checking out and they’re everywhere. They fill every pavement, verge and road around the site, as well as the main drag – lined with military tents housing specials builders, beers, burgers and bike paraphernalia.

You never forget your first

It’d be easy to consider the people here poseurs – given how cool everything is – but a closer look gives a different impression. There are dirty, well-ridden bikes featuring all kinds of homemade ingenuity (one cylindrical stainless steel headlamp casing looks suspiciously like the tin I keep teabags in) and scruffy boiler suits seem the long distance riding gear of choice. Most of these people built their bikes and rode them here. To undertake a long trip on bikes like these you’ve got to mean business and the elation felt on making it is noticeable in everyone I talk to. They’re too friendly to act cool. You can walk right up to your favourite specials builders – they’re all here – and talk design, bikes, life, whatever.

I stop at Matt Black Custom Designs, who are based near Marbella where I used to work, and get chatting to Toby, the boss: “Next time you’re down there come and see us – we can go for a ride.” By the end of the first day I’ve got a pocketful of business cards and a dozen such invitations.

This isn’t another variety of the weekend dress-up I see at home: these people are real, full-time bikers of all ages. There are faces in the crowd that have clearly seen a life of bikes, which at Wheels and Waves is exactly the point.

Rust never sleeps

Less hipster, more Hegré

See more of Christian’s work here. via PIPEBURN

Friday fancies (and not just Ferraris) at Bonhams’ 2015 Quail Lodge sale

Following up on last year’s consignment of a Ferrari 250 GTO to its Quail Lodge sale can’t have been easy – but Bonhams has made a good job of it, taking on several other collector-grade Ferraris, alongside a host of other ultra-desirable rarities…

Leading the 111-car lotlist for Bonhams’ all-day Friday auction at Quail Lodge this year is an alloy-bodied ‘Interim’ Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione, whose TdF underpinnings were graced with an elongated version of the coachwork worn by SWBs – with a debatable level of success. Regardless of whether you believe the stretch ruins what many consider to be the perfect proportionality (we actually rather like it), the car’s competition history is unquestionable. In itsCompetizione specification, it clinched third place at the 1959 Tour de France. Other notable Ferraris include a recently restored 212 Inter Cabriolet by Vignale – which finished Best-in-Class at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours, only losing out to the eventual Best-in-Show-winning 375MM – and a GTS/4 Spider, made even rarer than most drop-top Daytonas by its European specification. Only 25 were made in this guise.

Non-Maranello millionaires

It’s not only a handful of Ferraris from the lotlist that are set to fetch seven-figure sums: there’s a1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic (estimate: $1.8m - $2.4m) that was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours when it was just four years old; a Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America (estimate: $1.8m - $2.4m); and a Siata 208S. Others whose estimates bracket the magical million-dollar mark include a Bugatti Type 29/30 – claimed to be one of two remaining, effectively making it the oldest surviving 8-cylinder two-seater sports Bugatti – along with one of the four C4R Continuations blessed by the Cunningham family, and Lamborghini Miura P400. There’s also a sub-5,000-mile Porsche 959 Komfort up for $1m - $1.3m, but the car is only likely to appeal to U.S-residing enthusiasts: the five-year ‘Federalisation’ project undertaken by Canepa Designs saw it lose its pioneering adjustable-height suspension system, and some of its originality (and character?) in the process.

More air miles than road miles?

The relatively untravelled 959 is joined by several other contemporaries, whose odometer readings are perhaps a little closer to the sweet spot of ‘low, but not too low’. These include a trio of collectable BMWs – a 10,700-mile E30 M3, an 11,200-mile M1, and a 13,000-mile Z8 – as well as a9,250-mile Mercedes 560SL from 1987, and a 1979 Ferrari 308 GTB showing a shade over 23,000 miles. Notable ‘millennials’ include the one-off 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish bodied by Zagato, and a Ferrari 575M Superamerica (both showing around 13,000 miles if you were wondering). However, it’s a much earlier rarity that’s our collective favourite from the catalogue: the 1949 Veritas Scorpion Cabriolet, which was based on BMW 328 underpinnings, but updated with post-War mechanicals and stunning coachwork by Spohn. We’re not alone, either; it was entered in the 1992 Pebble Beach Concours, where it placed third in class.

Last but by no means least, there’s the 1948 2-litre Aston Martin that we rediscovered in 2013, ahead of its appearance at Villa d’Este later that year. It was the very car that clinched the win for the Works team at the 1948 24 Hours of Spa and, despite David Brown’s intentions of creating a production run in its honour, it ultimately remained a one-off.

Photos: Bonhams