The marketplace

Records tumbled during August’s Monterey Car Week, the biggest being when RM Sotheby’s established a new best for the most expensive car sold at auction with a 1964-spec Ferrari 250GTO that hit $48,405,000. It eclipsed the previous benchmark (set by another GTO in 2014) by $10m.

The $158m sale also included Aston Martin DP215, which in 1963 became the first car to top 300kph at Le Mans. That sold for $21,455,000, while one of the GT40S that took a clean sweep there in ’66 made $9.8m and a 1957 Porsche 550A Spyder went for $4.9m. Modern supercars included a ’98 Mercedes CLK GTR – one of 25 – that set a new high-water mark for the model at $4.52m.

A 1935 Duesenberg SSJ was Gooding & Co’s star Monterey lot and at $22m it became the most valuable pre-war car to sell at auction. One of the most anticipated entries was Admiral Robert Phillips’ 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial, which he’d owned for 58 years. It achieved a record-breaking $5m. Other gems included a 1959 Porsche 718 RSK that sold for an unprecedented $3,740,000.

At Quail Lodge, Bonhams raised $37.7m, with European sports cars dominant. A new record was set by a ’53 Siata 208S that hit $1,655,000, plus the sole-surviving 1928 Bentley 6½ Litre tourer by Barker sold to a US collector for $1,655,000.

Duesenberg was also on top at Mecum, with a 1933 Model J making $3.85m; a glassfibre replica of a Ferrari 250 California that starred in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off made an astonishing $407,000.

Fisherman’s Wharf in downtown Monterey hosted Russo & Steele’s three-day sale, where the highest price ($1.54m) went to a 2017 Ford GT. But the focus was on affordable classics, including an as-found ’62 Alfa Giulietta Spider rescued from the Arizona desert ($50k).

This Ferrari 250GTO, chassis 3413, is now the most expensive car ever sold at auction

At Bonhams’ Quail Lodge sale, this 1953 Siata 208S, the 18th of 33 Mottobodied Spiders built, was sold for $1,655,000