Bonhams in Miami: The Right Strategies Steer Away the Threat of a Feared Hurricane

During the Miami GP weekend, the dark clouds weren’t only the ones that forced Formula 1 teams into hasty tire changes during the downpour—they also loomed over the Bonhams auction.

On May 4, the British auction house gave it another try: it was hard to do worse than 2024, but the change in strategy paid off. They offered cars likely to appeal to F1 spectators — fewer million-dollar hypercars and more modern supercars around $100,000, better suited to vacation-ready Miami. With a pleasant side effect. The number of cars offered without reserve jumped from 1 to 18. And while these represented just 4.55% of the 22 cars in 2024, this year they were nearly half of the 38 on offer.

The results came quickly: cars sold leapt from 11 to 26, and even the sell-through rate soared from 50% to a far more respectable 68.42%, much more in line with the expectations attached to the Bonhams name. In terms of value, the “less is more” strategy paid off. Against an estimated total of $23,485,000, the final tally jumped to $10,816,600, up from $7,184,800 in 2024 (+51%) even though the estimate was only slightly higher than the $22,305,000 from the previous year (+5.3%). The average price clearly dropped from $653,164 to $416,023 — but that was exactly the intended effect. In the end, just like in the Grand Prix, the storm never came, and this year the auction found the good weather that last year had been missing.