Brooks Auction
Gstaad/Switzerland,
December 19, 1998
-
- "Solo
Ferrari" in a fantastic setting
- Two eye-catchers
- The Sale
- Verdict
For the
first time after the heyday of the early
1990’s, a renowned auction house took the
risk of hosting a sale dedicated to Ferrari
automobiles and memorabilia exclusively: Brooks
auctioneers of London had chosen the famous
Palace Hotel in the even more famous Swiss town
of Gstaad as the location for the sale to take
place on Saturday, December 19. The fantastic
hotel – partly or maybe even entirely owned
by Bernie Ecclestone – is located on top of
a hill in the center of Gstaad, providing a great
view of both the town and the impressive
surrounding mountains. Covered adequately with
snow, this picturesque scene did for sure provide
a more than nice setting to the sale which
brought the attendants into some sort of
"buyer’s mood".
Loads of
memorabilia, scale models and Ferrari-related art
had been entered in the sale, and 29 lots were
Ferrari automobiles. On display only, not to be
offered in the auction, were two particularly
interesting Ferrari: Fabrizio Violati’s Dino
196 SP Spider Fantuzzi s/n 0806 and Jack
Sears’ 250 GTO ’62 s/n 3729GT had been
brought to Gstaad not only as outstanding
eye-catchers, but also to attract potential
buyers since these cars are really available on
the market. If someone would really have been
interested in one of these extremely expensive
machines, a deal could have been arranged apart
from the official sale. It is unknown to me
whether this happened or not.
  
However, the
29 cars were on display in the hotel’s
underground car-park, while the actual sale took
place in a nicely decorated room (or hall) in the
Palace’s ground level. The auction was
– of course – performed by Robert
Brooks himself, assisted among others by Simon
Kidston (managing director of Brooks’ Geneva
branch) and François Degand, Brook’s
representative for the Côte d’Azur and
well-known for piloting his 365 GTB/4 Daytona
Competizione in the Ferrari Shell Historical
Challenge.
  
Virtually every
piece of memorabilia was sold – and very
often at incredibly high prices. For example, an
acrylic on board mural of a 250 GTO ’62 with
an estimate set to about 600,- or 800,-SFr,
eventually fetched more than 4.100,-SFr from an
American buyer! I am quite sure that Brooks’
choice of Gstaad as the site and December 19
(only a few days prior to Christmas!) as the date
of the sale proved as well thought out,
especially when looking at the results of the
memorabilia sale...
Anyway, some cars
in the sale deserve some commenting, first of
them being a 275 GTB/2 Shortnose s/n 07473.
Unfortunately, this car was fitted with a cream
leather interior, which does really not suit the
yellow car too well. But this 275 GTB (according
to my knowledge entered in the sale by a German)
proved as a real bargain, selling at just
229.000,-SFr.
One of the
sale’s highlights was Federico
Dubbini’s 250 MM Berlinetta Pinin Farina s/n
0310MM, ex-Pierre Noblet. The extremely original
car is fitted with a later 250 GT-engine
(interestingly, restamped as "0310"...)
and had been on the market for two or three
years. At Gstaad, it finally sold at
949.500,-SFr.
Another Ferrari of
particular interest was the 250 GT Cabriolet
Series I, s/n 0735GT, which eventually sold at
482.000,-SFr. In my eyes, the price is relatively
high since this wonderful car was in need of - at
least – some detailing. Furthermore, it was
equipped with wrong (too wide) Borrani wire
wheels and had been converted to RHD (which does
normally not help to sell a car on the
world’s market). Its color is subject to
everyone’s personal taste, although I
personally think that red is definitely not the
right color for this beautiful machine. An
important advantage in selling one of these rare
Ferrari convertibles is that there is normally
none on the market in Europe.
Interestingly, the
black 275 GTB/4 s/n 09921 of renowned collector
Wolfgang von Schmieder failed to sell at
400.000,-SFr (excl. premium); at 480.000,- to
500.000,-SFr, the estimate for this car had been
fixed too high. At least the reason for this high
level is obvious: The car’s ground up
restoration did reportedly cost 267.000,-SFr...
Another
interesting car that remained unsold was the
French-owned 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider, s/n 15535.
No bidder was willing to pay more than
450.000,-SFr, which is – in my eyes –
slightly below the European market value.
F40 LMs are really
hard to sell, so one did not feel surprised when
s/n 88522 (entered by Axel Urban’s ProTrade
GmbH) failed to sell at a bid of 560.000,-SFr at
the first trial. But apparently seller, buyer and
Brooks managed to agree on the deal in the
aftersale, the price totaling at 619.500,-SFr
including premium.
Another bargain
was the German-owned F93 A Formula One s/n 147;
well, this car does not have any racing history
at all, but since there have turned up some
occasions to drive this kind of machinery in
Ferrari events in Europe, it cannot be wrong to
pay 234.500,-SFr for it.
The 275 GTB/4
Spyder Conversion of Swiss Ferrarista Peter
Heuberger was another "DNS" at a bid of
430.000,-SFr. For some reason unknown to me,
seller, auctioneer and consultant could once
again not resist to describe the car as a
"NART" spyder in the headline to the
car’s description in the catalogue. The same
catalogue correctly mentions that the conversion
was in fact performed by Straman of Costa Mesa in
California; except the beautiful shape, this car
has no relation to the ten original 275 GTB/S4
NART Spyders manufactured by Scaglietti.
Unfortunately, many of the numerous conversions
in existence are often described as "NART
Spyders", only adding by this incorrect
descriptions to the confusion among people and
journalists who are not too much into the topic.
As a result of this incorrect statement, the
renowned German classic car magazine "Motor
Klassik" announced in their preview to the
Gstaad sale that "...the lots will include a
275 GTB/4 S NART Spyder" ("Motor
Klassik" 1/1999, p.6).
However, another
very interesting car on offer was the old 166
Inter Coupé Touring (s/n 029S). This nicely
restored Ferrari – built back in 1949 –
failed to sell at 340.000,-SFr.
Another bargain
was the red 275 GTS s/n 07861 entered by the same
German owner as the yellow 275 GTB/2: It sold at
168.500,-SFr only. Just for the record: The
catalogue erroneously stated that this 275 GTS
had been sold new in Sweden. In fact, s/n 07861
was sold new in Germany and made its way to
Sweden in 1975, prior to returning to Germany in
the late 1980’s.
The second
highlight of the auction was Fabrizio
Violati’s very original 250 LM, s/n 6233.
The fiberglass-bodied example with American
racing pedigree apparently failed to sell in the
first attempt at a bid of 2.600.000,-SFr.
Interestingly, the official results list the 250
LM as "sold" at 2.420.000,-SFr, so
something must have happened in the aftersale
obviously.
  
Lot 176 was a 250
GTE-based 250 GTO ’62 Replica,
professionally made in the UK for an insane money
of about 400.000,-£ in the early 1990’s. I
personally felt pretty surprised about the fact
that someone made an offer of about 520.000,-SFr
for this replica in the sale, but I was even more
puzzled when I noticed that the vendor rejected
the offer! Although I am well aware of the fact
that the making of this really nicely done
replica did cost a fortune, it is also obvious
that there is no real use for these cars: They
are (normally) not allowed to take part in
historic racing, and if the owner turns up at a
Ferrari meeting, he or she has to answer many
questions by "No, it’s only a
replica."
The second 275 GTB
entered in the sale by Wolfgang von Schmieder, a
GTB/2 with serial number 07269, failed to sell,
too, at an offer of 200.000,-SFr only. Although
this car is in a nice condition, it has some sort
of problem since it was once converted from
Shortnose to Longnose specifications. Maybe this
was the reason for which it remained unsold at
Gstaad.
A rare 365 GTS
fetched 311.500,-SFr; although only 20 examples
were made, these nice cars are relatively hard to
sell. The price for this example – s/n
12163, the first 365 GTS produced - was probably
correct, especially since it might need some
attention in detailing. Apparently, s/n 12163 had
spent some time in storage.
The last car to be
sold in the Brooks auction was Jean-Robert
Grellet’s F50. Being a very early example
(#037 of 349 made) held in "Argento
Nürburgring metallizzato" (silver metallic)
and having covered about 20.000 kms, it failed to
sell in the auction at a bid of 550.000,-SFr. In
the aftersale, a French buyer eventually agreed
to pay a total of 608.500,-SFr for the car.
I personally
would like to congratulate Brooks on this sale; I
think it definitely needs a good portion of
optimism and enthusiasm to perform a
"Ferrari-only" auction. Apparently, it
was worth the risk in the end. The sale mirrored
the situation of the European Ferrari market
quite well: Rare, old and expensive examples are
easier to sell than more common ones. Buyers are
mainly going for outstanding examples and cars
eligible for events like Mille Miglia, Tour Auto
and Historical Challenge. Today, it is very, very
hard to sell Ferrari automobiles like 330 GT, 365
GT, 365 GTC/4, 365 GTB/4 Daytona or even a 400 or
400i. Selling a 512 BB is almost impossible. For
this reason, one should thank Brooks for the
risky decision to include some of these
hard-to-sell cars in the auction to provide a
wider variety of the marque in this sale.
Fortunately, Brooks even managed to find new
homes for a 365 GTC/4 and a 400 Automatic.
Maybe this will
encourage Brooks Auctioneers to perform a second
"Ferrari-only" auction in the future.
Andreas Birner
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