More than $116 million made in collector wheel deals at Monterey auctions

 
The Pebble Beach weekend on the Monterey Peninsula last week is considered the country’s most prestigious showing of fine automobiles and, as such, attracts high rollers in the field of collector cars. There are five major auction houses with sales that take place during the weekend, from the more attainable Russo & Steele muscle car auction to the high-end Gooding & Co. auction, held at the famed Concours d’Elegance itself. Collector car market editor for Kelley Blue Book’s Collector Car guide, Phil Skinner, attended the auctions last week and reported back that, even in a down economy, collector cars are trading strong.

“The auctions associated with the Monterey week offered some of the finest automobiles available anywhere and willing collectors were stepping up to the plate, willing to pay top dollar for top quality as evidenced by the high number of multi-million dollar sales," Skinner said.

The Russo & Steele Auction offered 120 vehicles, sold 53 cars and had total sales plus commission of $3,941,245. The RM Monterey Sports Car Auction offered 189 units and sold 160 vehicles for total sales plus commission of $29,323,965. RM Auctions' entire Nick Alexander’s Woodie Collection featured 51 units and sold for $7,021,308. The Mecum Auction had 222 lots, sold 98 units and made total sales of $13,067,355. Bonham’s Auctions House offered 102 lots, sold 59 units and made $13,193,083, and Gooding & Co.'s 159 lots offered made a whopping $50,759,350 from a total of 128 vehicles sold.

Pictured below are some of the prize vehicles that won top dollar as the hammer hit the auction table.

Pebble Beach Best in Show: 1937 Horch 853 Vol & Ruhrbeck Sport Cabriolet, and lots of chrome

The least suspenseful Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in memory concluded on Sunday afternoon with Bob Lee's dazzling 1937 Horch 853 Voll & Ruhrbeck Sport Cabriolet being named Best in Show, as virtually everyone in attendance predicted. The glorious Horch, shining like a Victorian tea service, had all the elements of a Pebble Beach winner: terrific provenance, immaculate restorationand good old-fashioned ostentation, also known as grandeur. The 853 -- a short wheelbase car by Horch's standards -- is a very big car with a 5-liter straight eight engine under the bonnet. Lee commissioned a five-year restoration project to raise the heroic waves of silver and chrome, fettled by Berlin coachbuilders Voll & Ruhrbeck, to a gleam that was probably not even technically possible in the 1930s. The ongoing debate at Pebble Beach about over-restoration will have to wait for another year.

August Horch worked for Karl Benz before striking out on his own. Because of a legal dispute, he left his namesake company in 1910 to form Audi -- which is latin cognate of 'to hear," similar to "horch" in German. Audi and Horch were united in 1932 under the Auto Union marque with DKW and Wanderer, thus the four rings of Auto Union.

Horch Pebble Beach The win was all but a foregone conclusion because there was simply nothing that could touch the car on the field. Nonetheless, Lee said, he had been nervous. "At Pebble Beach, you never know until you know."

-- Dan Neil

Photo credit: Dan Neil

Bentley debuts all-new Mulsanne on the Concours stage

In an unusual move at the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance this afternoon, Bentley Motors unveiled its Mulsanne, the nameplate’s all-new flagship grand tourer.

Unusual for a few reasons; one being the economy, but we posit that Bentley thinks a top-of-the-range, hand-built, English-made and, may we say, quite beautiful, super sedan will sell like Pimm’s Cups at the Claridge’s Bar on a balmy August evening.

It’s also unusual for a new car to be shown on the main stage, which is usually reserved for the Concours D’Elegance winner. But with a car this gorgeous, we’re not complaining.

The new Mulsanne was inspired by its precursor, company founder W.O. Bentley’s stunning 1930 Bentley 8-litre model.  An elegant and massive Bentley if there ever was one, the 8-liter was the sedan for the Masters of the Universe of the Depression era and we can see those who still have their druthers driving the new Mulsanne down Wilshire Boulevard.

Speed and money: Monterey Historic Automobile Races

One of the highlights of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance weekend -- and, in fact, one of the highlights in all of motor sports -- are the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races. It’s the reason that most people schlep through Ferrari-laden traffic jams on the peninsula this time of year. Well, that and the Quail event.

Few events offer the kind of opportunity to see classic competition-prepped race cars compete like the Monterey races do. Started in 1974, the races bring cars and drivers from around the world to show off on the storied tarmac of Laguna Seca Raceway. It’s an amateur event, so anyone with a classic racer can join in with the likes of industry giant Vic Edelbrock Jr., Timo Glock, Mario Andretti and Stirling Moss around the famed "Corkscrew" turns on the track.

Though the rules vary from race to race, one regulation reigns above all. Because so many of the cars on the racetrack are rare or unique, anyone who causes damage to another vehicle is immediately pulled out of competition and banned from future events. Most races last about 10 laps and are broken up according to displacement and time period.

The ugly ducklings at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering

The hottest ticket on the Peninsula every year is The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, a day-long schmooze fest on the The Quail Lodge golf links with awesome collector cars, good food and adult beverages. Obviously, the event is dedicated to the most beautiful, pristinely restored and inspiring motorcars . . . and yet a few ghastly, tragic and homely four-wheelers get in anyway. Below is a quick take on the ugly ducklings of The Quail. Look for our video on Sunday.

1966 Cheetah -- Owned by Californian Mark Boen, who was tragically born without a sense of taste, the Cheetah was designed to go after Shelby's Cobras. Designed and built by Bill Thomas Race Cars, these cars would have "rewritten the record books," Boen says, if they had been built in enough numbers to be homologated.

The car's stupendously weird configuration, which puts the driver's butt on the rear axle, was intended to give the car better weight distribution. It also gives it the profile of a toothbrush. In any event, the car was fast and evil-handling, says Boen, who quested after this copy for 30 years. When asked why, he could only shrug.

2010 Porsche Panamera at Laguna Seca

If you've been following our tweets, you know that we are in the Monterey-Carmel area of California covering all the classic, vintage and new car goodness there is to offer at the 2009 Pebble Beach weekend.

Thursday, I had a chance to spend a few hours with the new 2010 Porsche Panamera and while a longer post is still to come, we made a rough video of what it's like to be holding a camera while a professional race car driver, Hurley Heywood, take us on a hot lap. The grainy nature and general jerkiness of the video is a directly analogous to how it feels to be sitting shotgun and barreling through the corners in the new Porsche Panamera four door. As they say, hold onto your hats and glasses.  The video on this post gives you a much better look at the Panamera and the entire setup Porsche created for the automotive press at the Laguna Seca track in Monterey. 

-- Jon Alain Guzik

Jon Alain Guzik is editor-in-chief at DriverSide.com

YouTube video by Porsche

From Pebble Beach: All new Jag flagship a cat with 'sparkle'

My eyes rolled like slot machine cherries when Mike O'Driscoll, managing director of Jaguar Cars, announced that the new XJ sedan was nothing less than the Jaguar "icon reimagined." "Icon" is often used and frequently abused in PR fluffery, and, besides, Jag can claim only one icon and that's the E-Type. I settled in for a long night of skepticism at the Pebble Beach Beach Club, where the car was unveiled at a gala Thursday night.

 And then the silk came off the the next-generation XJ and I thought, well, hang on. This car is pretty nice. A big, cool, streamlined sedan with terrific shoulders and a low greenhouse with blacked out roof supports, the XJ -- an all-aluminum bodied car built in Castle Bromwich, England -- has proportions and symmetries similar to the Audi A8 but it hits the eyes as broader and lower. The car revels in chromic details inside and out. There's grace and there's sin here. Yeah, this is a nice car.

Fisker Karma to debut at Monterey

Fisker Automotive plans to show that its Karma plug-in hybrid is ready to run -- at least for two laps around the racetrack at Monterey.

The Irvine automaker said the prototype would make a two-lap progress around the Mazda Laguna Seca course during the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races on Aug. 15. The course is a little over two miles in length.

It will be the public driving debut for the Karma, which was unveiled 19 months ago as a concept car. Fisker claims a 50-mile battery-only range for the Karma. A 2-liter gasoline engine powers a generator that extends the battery’s range by an additional 250 miles.

The Karma has a top speed of 125 miles per hour and can go from zero to 60 in about six seconds, according to Fisker.

The company has said the luxury sedan will list for just under $88,000. Fancier versions will cost up to $104,000.

The races are part of Monterey Week, a weeklong series of auctions, tours, classic racing and private showings on the Monterey Peninsula. For more information on the races, go to their website.  

-- Martin Zimmerman, Joni Gray

Photo: Fisker Karma. Credit: Fisker Automotive

Grand Bentley and Aston Martin One-77 launch at Pebble Beach

 

Although your mind may be on other things, namely politics and the still-faltering economy, some people are thinking of summertime vacation and expensive cars. We like to combine the two.

The week of Aug. 9-16 is looking to be a busy one for lovers of expensive new and vintage automobiles. Hot on the heels of Porsche’s announcement of showing its new four-door Panamera at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, comes the news that Bentley will be showing its expensive new Grand Bentley, the replacement for the aging Arnage. The teaser photo the company provided is not enough to judge the design of the car, but by the looks of it, it will be a decidedly different Bentley.

Porsche Panamera at Pebble Beach

Really, who doesn’t love a Porsche?

If we had our druthers, it would be the only name plate in our personal livery. Porsche’s range of cars – the Boxster, Cayman, Cayenne and the ne plus ultra of the stable, the 911, have provided automotive awesomeness for generations and inspired many a film producer, lawyer and dentist to ecstatic heights.

But, alas, as the song goes, you take the good, you take the bad, and, it’s a fact of life, that Porsche has had its fair share of derision of late.

When the Boxster was first released, some skeptics claimed it was the reincarnation of the 914; it went on to become a bestseller. Same went for the Cayman, which critics complained was dumbing down the 911 range. It too went on to stellar sales.

And the Cayenne, perhaps the most vilified Porsche ever released, even more so than the 928. 

Best. Selling. Porsche.

That said, may we introduced the new Porsche, the Panamera, a four-door Gran Turismo model, that will make its North American public debut during Monterey’s Classic Car Week.