Monterey Peninsula, Wednesday 15th of August 2012
After the Concours on the Avenue yesterday and before the
Pebble Beach Tour tomorrow today was the day to visit all the
auction previews. In the next 4 days no less than 5 different
auction companies will have their major auction with hundreds of
cars going over the block.
With a very active market and high prices many high quality cars
are coming on the market and with all the major collectors being
present there are more cars in the million dollar range than ever
before. Especially Gooding & Company has a very high quality lot
list this year and if they succeed in selling most of their cars they
will likely set up a new auction record for an overall auction result.
First in the morning we went to Mecum, the specialist in muscle
cars also signed a collection of Porsche including a 917/10 that
was presented in a glass cage in the auction room. In recent
years the value of rare racing Porsches went constantly up and
especially since the sale of the Pendel collection by Gooding in
Amelia the type 934, 935, the cars of the Group C era and
particularly the 917 are well sought after. Beside the Porsche
Mecum has their usual variety of American Classics and Muscle
cars out on the field.
After Mecum we went over to Russo&Steele who added a few
Ferrari to their lot list including a rare 400 Superamerica. Other
cars of particular interest are a Ferrari 250 GT SII Cabriolet and a
tiny Stanguellini by Bertone that won the Concorso Italiano last
year.
Just over the road RM Auction had their usual spot at the Portola
Hotel. Next to the door the visitors were welcomed by a trio of
modern supercars including a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, a
Porsche GT1 and Carrera GT. In the lobby of the hotel the Ferrari
250 TdF, a Ford GT40, the bright orange Aston Martin DB3S and
the Ferrari 410 Sport Berlinetta were presented. The ballroom
featured a quartet of Shelby cars with three Cobras and a
Mustang in front of a huge wallpaper honouring the life of the
lately passed away Carroll Shelby. Center stage of the preview
was the Horch Special Roadster that won Pebble Beach in 2004,
the car was presented in front of a wallpaper of the waterfront at
the 18 hole of the famous golf course that will host the concours
on Sunday.
After RM we went to their major opponent during the Monterey
week: Gooding&Company. As already mentioned before Gooding
has set up a fantastic lot list with more potential million dollar
cars than ever before. Highlight is the Mercedes-Benz 540 K
Special Roadster that is expected to top last year's result at RM
for a similar example due to its history. Other cars of particular
interest are the Duesenberg of Clark Gable, a duo of Bentley (a
very original Blower Bentley and a rare factory team car) and
several Ferrari. No less than 2 California Spider will be at the
auction, one from the collection of the late Sherman Wolf that
also features the beautiful two-tone livered 340 MM and a 500
TRC.
Unfortunately the time was very limited so just a quick look
around was possible today as the next fixed date is the annual
group shot at the race track of Laguna Seca for the featured
marque. This year the feature is the work of Carroll Shelby and so
no less than 46 of the most important Cobras were set up under
the bridge between turn 3 and 4. Even more impressive was the
fact that even during this photo shoot several Cobras were
standing in the paddocks so the actual number of these racers
during the weekend might be even double the amount seen in the
group shot.
After a quick look through the paddocks the day ended with the
McCall Jet Center Party at the Monterey airport. During the party
the guests could enjoy different food and wine and look at the
latest private jets and supercars. This is also the finishing point of
the Quail Rally we visited on Tuesday morning.
Tomorrow early in the morning we will have the first opportunity to
look at some of the entrants of this year's concours at the Pebble
Beach Tour down to Big Sur and to the centre of Carmel. After
that we will visit the fifth auction preview at Bonhams.
Text & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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