Market Intelligence
The Alfa 8C 2300 stalls, the Ferrari sprints and the hearse survives
Despite a drop in sales compared to 2019, the Bonhams auction was not a bad result, according to an analysis. The most expensive car sold was a 1951 Ferrari 212 Inter Cabriolet for $1,930,000, which had earned a silver medal at Pebble Beach in 2014. However, the most important result was Lee Iacocca’s Dodge Viper RT/10, which sold for $285,500, thanks to the "Iacocca factor." The auction also saw some good deals, such as a Rolls Royce Silver Spur Landaulette from 1987, which sold for just $17,920, and a 1939 Packard Super Eight hearse, which sold for £58,240.
If you take a look at the results of the Bonhams auction, you could hardly be blamed for thinking the results weren’t exactly positive: sales totalled $8.1 million, roughly half those registered in 2019 (but we will explain why) and, despite 68% of the cars being offered without reserve, just 80.5% of the cars exchanged hands. Those with a reserve price couldn’t better 36%. Finally, of the 87 cars sold, just 28 (about a third) were sold at a price – including commissions – that was equal to or above their minimum estimate.
All told, this was not a good result, but that’s not the case and here’s why.
If the 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Cabriolet of Figoni (when he was still “single”) had sold for $8.4 million – the highest offer it received – the $8.1 million result of 2019 would have doubled. Allow me a momentary small digression because many potential buyers turned up their noses, hoping for a more competitive version or a Corto version, and yet a few years ago a much more “modest” 6C 1750 once again bodied by Figoni outscored the competition at Villa d’Este and had many of the competitors at Pebble Beach shaking at the knees. With an 8-cylinder engine and derived from a rarer model, God only knows what could happen on the shores of Lake Como. Let’s face it, the $11-13 million estimate was without question very high considering what you can get with that amount today and personally I think the maximum offer was a fair one, however I also understand that certain cars materialize just once in a lifetime.
