Auction Recap: Gooding & Company Pebble Beach 2016

In Monterey this year, Gooding & Company’s top two sales were alloy-bodied Ferrari racecars. The 1959 250 GT LWB California Spider fitted with specially ordered competition equipment from new brought $18,150,000 and was the Week’s third highest sale. The 250 GT SWB Competizione, meanwhile, hammered not sold at $12.9 million, but was rather quickly sold post-block for $13.5 million.

In addition to auctioning some of the Car Week’s most valuable cars this year, Gooding also featured some of the most downright interesting, including several truly one-of-a-kind automobiles and highly significant racing cars. Total sales for the weekend added up to $129.8 million, making it the highest-grossing sale of the week and $6 million ahead of the usual leader RM Sotheby’s. Sell-through rate was an impressive 83 percent and the average price was $1.13 million.

Another racing car – a 1979 Porsche 935 – sold for $4,840,000. While that’s certainly a lot of money, this is the 935 that finished second at Le Mans with Paul Newman co-driving and won both the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring overall in addition to dozens of other top-level endurance racing finishes. Given the car’s incredible success, the price paid seems like a good value. A 1957 Maserati A6G/54, one of just 10 Frua-bodied Spiders built back when Maserati was still a fairly small-scale manufacturer, also surprised with enthusiastic bidding and eventually reached hammered sold at $3.3 million.

Gooding successfully sold almost all of their biggest cars, but some of the more significant no-sales included a 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra at a high bid of $1 million, a 1984 Porsche 911 SC/RS rally car at a high bid of $1.1 million and a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB at a high bid of $9.3 million. One of the sale’s stars – a superb 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Roadster – also hammered not sold at $9 million, but was soon sold post-block for $10.4 million. As this was such a high-profile sale, there was little in the way of bargains and nothing was cheap, but there was one massive price drop that couldn’t be ignored. Gooding’s 1967 Toyota 2000GT sold for $533,500 in Monterey this year, a far cry from the $1,045,000 that this exact same car commanded at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale two years ago.

There were also a number of other rarely-seen cars at this auction. A 1972 Nissan Skyline GT-R “Hakosuka” sold for $187,000, an Allemano-bodied 1961 Maserati 5000 GT sold for $1,677,500, a 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom II with coachwork by Figoni et Falaschi sold for $1.76 million, a one-of-three Bertone-bodied Aston Martin DB2/4 Spider sold for $3,080,000 and a fully restored 1985 Lancia Delta S4, one of just 200 of these turbo and supercharged hatchbacks built for Group B homologation, sold for $440,000.

Overall top 10:

1. 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione sold for $18,150,000
2. 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione sold for $13,500,000
3. 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza sold for $11,990,000
4. 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Roadster sold for $10,400,000
5. 1950 Ferrari 166 MM Berlinetta sold for $5,445,000
6. 1979 Porsche 935 sold for $4,840,000
7. 1957 Maserati A6G/54 Spider sold for $3,300,000
8. 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 sold for $3,245,000
9. 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 Spider sold for $3,080,000
10. 1968 Ferrari 330 GTS sold for $2,502,500

Gooding & Company’s next collector car auction will be in Scottsdale on January 20-21, 2017.