SALES SLUMP AT MONTEREY AUCTIONS

SALES SLUMPED by 34 per cent at this year’s Monterey Classic Car auctions with global economic uncertainty, caused by trade wars between China and the USA and the Brexit debacle weighing on bidders.

While sales were AUD$361.5 million, they were down from AUD$545 million the previous year and the lowest total since 2011 that achieved AUD$290 million.

The highest price achieved was AUD$29.2 million for a McLaren F1 ‘LM Spec’ one of two in existence and sold by RM Sotheby’s.

Gooding & Company sold the next most expensive vehicle, a 1958 Ferrari California LWB Spider for AUD$14.6 million with another Ferrari, a 1962 250 GT SWB coupe that fetched a cool AUD$12 million at the RM Sotheby’s event.

The Ferrari marque achieved the highest prices with three of the six auction houses and filled six of the top 10 highest prices overall.

Billed as ‘The Most Famous Car In The World’ the 1965 Aston Martin DB5 used in the James Bond movie Goldfinger, complete with some of the gadgets achieved AUD$9.42 million.

Other notable sales included a prototype 1965 Ford GT40 Roadster for AUD$11.28 million, one of Niki Lauda’s 1975 Ferrari F1 cars AUD$8.85 million, another Ferrari, a rare FXX achieving AUD$5.2 million.

Porsches and Aston Martin’s were also prevalent with a 1960 Porsche 718 RS Werks race car bringing in AUD$7.5 million, a 1993 911 RS 3.8, a tidy AUD$2.52 million and a 1967 911 Rallye S, a staggering AUD1.34 million.

A couple of other Aston Martin DB5’s scored big results, a Shooting Brake fetched AUD$2.59 while a 1965 convertible sold for AUD$1.95 million. At the other end of the spectrum a 2010 V8 Vantage GT4 was a relative bargain at $119,000.