These Could Be the 10 Most Expensive Cars at the 2024 Monterey Auctions

There’s always serious spending at the Monterey auctions. The average sale price in 2022 was nearly half a million, and in 2023 it was nearly $600K. At the top of the results lists are some of the most expensive cars sold anywhere all year.

This year, conservative estimates suggest that the top 10 cars alone will bring at least $109M at this year’s sales.

Four cars expected to sell above $15M, and even the lowest-priced in that list is aiming for more than $6M. As is often the case at this event, Ferrari makes up the bulk of the top spots with six Maranello motorcars in the top 10, although there are at least a couple of less predictable high-performers. Every single car here is from Europe.

Let’s have a closer look at where the big bucks are set to be spent.

1995 Ferrari 333 SP Evoluzione

It’s a little ironic that the lowest car on a top 10 list is one that’s used to being at the front of the field. The 1995 Ferrari 333 SP Evoluzione in Gooding & Company’s sale has a low estimate of $6M offered, which might be less than the prize money the car earned in a stellar racing career. One of nine cars built by Dallara with a 4.0-liter Ferrari V-12 running under Scandia colors, it took pole at the 12 Hours of Sebring on debut, finishing fourth, then won in Halifax. Multiple podiums and top 10 finishes followed. It set the fastest time in testing for Le Mans in 1996 and scored three IMSA victories.

A year later it was back at La Sarthe to finish sixth overall and second in class, making it the most successful 333 SP in the French endurance race. At the wheel over the years were such drivers as Michele Alboreto, Stefan Johansson and Gianpiero Moretti, whose Moretti Racing MOMO livery is still on the car.

1938 Talbot-Lago T150 C Lago Spéciale Teardrop Coupé by Figoni et Falaschi

In ninth position, the 1938 Talbot-Lago T150 C Lago Spéciale Teardrop Coupé by Figoni et Falaschi will drive across the block at the Broad Arrow auction with a low estimate of $6.5M. You can discover more detail on this Art Deco masterpiece here, but the key things to know are that its original owner bought it to replace a Bugatti Type 50, it’s the only Figoni Teardrop Coupé to be built on the T150 C Lago Spéciale chassis, and it has pace as well as grace, winning its class in the 1948 Belgian Grand Prix, Les 24 Heures de Spa. A true all-rounder that may see the hammer price reach $8.5M.

2002 Ferrari F2001b

Had you been in the grandstands in Melbourne, Australia for the first race of the 2002 Formula 1 season you would have seen Michael Schumacher take the checkered flag in this very Ferrari F2001b, offered at the RM Sotheby’s auction with an estimate of $8M – $10M. With that victory and a third place in Malaysia the car played a significant part in Schumacher’s dominant ’02 season, which brought him his fifth Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship. Powered by a Giles Simon-designed 3-liter Tipo 050 V-10, chassis number 215 is one of 30 Schumacher race-winning F1 cars believed to be in existence, while only 12 of those come from a World Championship year.

1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion

At Le Mans in 1997, the brightly colored Roock Racing Motorsport Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion would have been impossible to miss, but it ultimately failed to finish. Tt’s still extremely desirable, though, as illustrated by its $8.5M – $10.5M estimate at the Broad Arrow Monterey Jet Center sale. That might be because, under the Rohr Racing team colors, which it still wears, the car was considerably more successful at places other than Le Mans, winning the 1997 IMSA GTS-1 class championship and taking four victories along the way. Loosely-based on the 993-era 911, the GT1 was a homologation special built specifically for such glory and this example is one of only nine cars constructed for customer teams. It has been through the hands of several race outfits and private collectors since its heyday, and is now eligible for classic racing events such as those held at Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona and the Rennsport Reunion. A 911 GT1 hasn’t been sold at auction since 2017.

1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Spider by Scaglietti

A star of the California racing scene, the 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC offered at the RM Sotheby’s sale was bought and driven by John von Neumann from new. Over its years lapping tracks across North America it achieved no less than 21 top three finishes and 10 victories. During his ownership, von Neumann also swapped the car’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder for a more powerful 3-liter V-12.

The 625 TRC passed through a number of different owners including a lawyer, a doctor and a professional ice skater, who all took the Ferrari to the track. It was the good doctor who managed to discover the car’s original engine, which is now being sold alongside it. “A winner in period and proven vintage racer, the 625 TRC offers a mouth-watering range of possibilities for the new custodian,” says RM Sotheby’s who also predict that the price could go for $9.0M – $11M.

1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante

While there’s no such thing as a bargain Bugatti, the 1937 Type 57SC Atalante offered at the Gooding & Co. auction looks like a decent value at $9M – $11M—at least compared to the $13.4M paid for the one-off Chiron-based La Voiture Noire, which paid homage to it in 2021. Just 42 Type 57S Bugattis were made between 1936 and 1938, only 17 of which featured Atalante bodywork designed by Jean Bugatti. This car was one of the last, displayed at the Salon de l’Automobile in Paris 1in 1937 and then put on show at Earl’s Court in London where it was sold to its first keeper—an Irish Bugattiste.

It was later fitted with a supercharger and it was reported in the August 1942 edition of Motor Sport magazine that, “The Type 57SC is a very remarkable motor-car indeed and one with which it is hard to find fault.” By the 1950s the car had arrived Stateside, and was subsequently shipped back to Molsheim for a restoration. It has resided in the U.S. ever since, apart from a spell with a collector in the Channel Islands, off the British coast. In 2023 the car won First in Class at the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider by Scaglietti

With one-off spider coachwork by Sergio Scaglietti, its original engine, a race win with Carroll Shelby at the wheel, and an appearance at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Ferrari 410 Sport Spider offered at the RM Sotheby’s sale has a serious resume and an estimate “in excess of $15,000,000”.

A factory development car sold to construction tycoon and team owner Tony Parravano, who commissioned this special bodywork, it won overall at the 1956 Palm Springs Road Races with Shelby at the wheel. When Parravano fled the U.S. to escape the tax man in 1957, the Ferrari went with him and remained stored in a warehouse in Mexico for several years. After his mysterious disappearance, his estate sold it and several of his other cars, and the 410 had a renewed racing career south of the border. It went back to the U.S. under the ownership of a collector later in the 1960s, and it was restored in the 2010s before hitting the lawn at Pebble Beach in 2018.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider

The 33^rd example of 56 SWB (short wheelbase) California Spiders and one of only 37 built with Scaglietti’s enclosed headlights, Gooding & Co.’s Cal Spider has a $15M – $17M estimate. It was delivered to its first owner in Switzerland, then purchased by an American medical student living in France and England before bringing it home with him to the U.S.A. There, he traded it in for a Jaguar E-Type, which in hindsight was not a great move. The car returned to Switzerland in the late 1970s, and even competed in historic races. Subsequent owners were based in the U.S., Italy, the U.K. and then again in America where it has had a new interior installed recently. It’s certainly well-travelled, and well-cared for, although Gooding & Co. suggests that it “would look sensational restored in its former dark blue metallic livery with a matching hardtop and red leather upholstery.” Will that prevent it reaching the predicted high point of $17M?

1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider

Another California Spider, this one from 1960 and offered at the RM Sotheby’s sale, has a slightly higher $16M – $18M estimate. Connoisseurs agree that the short wheelbase (SWB) version is the most special Cal Spider, while this one is actually the very first car made for exhibition at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show. It’s fitted with the competition-standard Tipo 168 short-block V-12 and was originally delivered to British racer John Gordon Bennet in Geneva. It soon crossed the pond to find a new owner in New York. After a spell with a new keeper in Wyoming the Ferrari spent 25 years in California, during which time it was exhibited at the Petersen Museum as part of a 50 Years of Ferrari exhibition in 1997. It is “an example that transcends generations, and is likely to remain the most collectable of its peers for future generations,” says RM Sotheby’s.

1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider by Touring

The possible top spot of the week is Gooding & Co.’s Alfa 8C 2900B with an estimate of $16M – $20M. Widely held up as the finest sports car built before World War II, this particular example of the twin-supercharged inline eight-cylinder Alfa has quite the backstory. Its early life was in Egypt and it then spent decades criss-crossing the Atlantic between owners in Europe and the U.S.A. It won Best of Show at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in 1996, but its most dramatic moment came in 2022. While on its way to a restoration shop the car, trailer and truck that was hauling them were stolen from a parking lot in South Carolina. After months of sleuthing by the local sheriff and the insurance company the Alfa was uncovered again. When the FBI finally released it, the car was sent for a repair and restoration which has just been completed.