PEBBLE BEACH, CA — August 18, 2013 — One journalist described it as the Super Bowl of the collector car world. Certainly the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance makes it like no other car show in the world. The world’s grandest car event was held here on the 18th hole at the Pebble Beach Golf Course. It is the culmination of a week-long festival of events and collector car auctions like you have never seen before in your life. We’ll attempt to give you a little taste of what this event was like.
Something unusual is happening here in the Monterey penninsula of California this weekend. Prices at the Mecum Auction, RM Auction, Gooding & Company and Bonhams Auction have been pretty encouraging for the collector car hobby. A record sale saw a 1967 Ferrari 275 NART Spider sell for $25 million (see story below.) The RM Auction where this sale took place records the sale as $27.5 million with their sales commission included.
Estimates are that over 1,100 cars were sold this weekend at the many collector car auctions held in conjunction with the Concours. It was estimated that 110 cars were sold for more than $1 million each.
Has the recession in collector car prices run its course? Will we see higher prices in the collector car hobby going forward? These are questions only time can answer but read some of the links below to see why we are asking these questions now.
Excitement runs high here in the Monterey, California area as we cover many of the events that surround the 63rd Annual Pebble Beach Concours D’ Elegance. Cars On Line’s partner website, eClassic Autos.com, is at the event and will provide us with photos during Concours Week here at the Pebble Beach Concours.
Touring events were scheduled throughout the week and there are excellent museum quality displays of the cars of yesteryear. On Sunday we caught some of the grandeur of the the Concours D’ Elegance. This is the one that all others compare themselves to. The Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance is the most respected Concours in the world.
Click here to view some of the photos by our friends at cClassicAutos.com as recorded on their Facebook page.
The 1908 Mercedes-Benz race car of Prinz Heinrich positioned on the 18th hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Course with a beautiful view of Monterey Bay.
One of the rarest cars to be sold here at the RM Auction was a 1967 Ferrari 275 NART Spider when it crossed the block at $25 million. This sale set a record for Ferrari sports cars. There were only ten of these NART cars built by Ferrari. One was owned by the late actor Steve McQueen, but he crashed the car and it was lost. McQueen tried to buy this one but the owner declined. The family donated all the proceeds of the sale to charity.
A 1969 Boss 429 Mustang was sold last night for $550,000. They say that is a record for Boss 429’s. True, this one is special. It has the rare original Jade paint and has only 902 miles on the odometer, said to be original. But this is a sale we may long remember.
A 1997 McLaren F1 exotic sports car crossed the auction stage at the Gooding & Company Auction. The opening bid on this prestigious super car started at $5 million. The winning bid was for $7.7 million. It was one of the featured sales at the auction on Saturday.
A 1962 Shelby Cobra (a real Cobra by the way) sold for $1.88 million at the Bonhams Auction.
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