Auction Recap: Bonhams Amelia Island 2024

Bonhams has held an annual Amelia Island auction at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club since 2015. Typically, it has the most diverse Amelia offerings in terms of era, genre, price, and condition. This year continued the theme, but while this has never been a giant sale, 2024’s event was noticeably smaller in terms of car count and results.

Although this sale lists a full range of classics up to modern exotics like this year’s Porsche Carrera GT and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren offerings, the Bonhams Amelia highlights are typically prewar (and sometimes pre-WWI and pre-WWII). 2024 saw a Packard and a Cadillac, both powered by V-12s, but the top lot and the best car of the bunch was a 1904 Gordon Bennett Napier racing car. Though most of it is a reconstruction, it is built around the original, glorious 15-liter engine. The Napier and other interesting cars from Bonhams Amelia Island 2024 are outlined in detail below.

Lot 80: 2007 Honda NSX-R GT by Spoon

Sold for $368,000 (Estimate: $240,000-$280,000)

Chassis no. NA28000095. Competition car, original as-raced, #3- condition

Blue and yellow over black

Equipment: 2977-cc V-6/440hp, six-speed manual, Volk Racing wheels, carbon fiber wing, slotted brake rotors, Plexiglas windows.

Condition: Purchased directly from Honda Racing in 2007 and built for circuit racing to celebrate Spoon Sports’ 20th Anniversary. Third in class finish at the 2008 Macau GP. Race car condition with flaws in the paint as well as quickly applied decals and tape in places. There is a lot of body-colored tape on the driver’s door. Scratches in the windows. Nothing special condition-wise and its race history is nothing to write home about, but it’s still a badass build of a badass car by one of Japan’s most famous tuners and racing outfits.

Bottom line: Spoon isn’t as well known here as it is in its home country, but JDM and particularly Honda fans are very familiar. Late in the day at a Bonhams auction that was heavy on prewar and other traditional classics felt like an odd placement for a JDM favorite like this, but bidders nevertheless showed up for it. The result is well over estimate and a record price for an NA2-generation NSX.

Lot 26: 1961 Morgan Plus 4 Super Sports

Sold for $100,800 (estimate: $100,000-$125,000)

Chassis no. 5020; Engine no. TS82252. Older restoration, #2- condition.

Black with black top over red leather.

Equipment: 1991-cc I-4/135hp with dual Webers, four-speed, burgundy wire wheels, Continental tires, Girling front disc brakes, badge bar, rear-mounted spare, banjo steering wheel, wind wings.

Condition: Represented as the 15th of 104 built. Sold new in New York City. Restored by specialists in the 2000s. Good paint that’s slightly showing its age and use. Lovely interior with very light wear on the driver’s side. Clean underneath. An ultimate spec Classic Morgan that should get Morgan people excited, should there be any in the bidder seats. Also, surely faster than it looks.

Bottom line: The Plus 4 Super Sports was a factory-tuned model with a warmed over engine fed by dual Webers, clothed in aluminum body panels for a nearly 200-pound drop in weight, and stopped by Girling front disc brakes. After building 100 for homologation purposes, Morgan scored class wins at both Sebring, Spa, and Le Mans. The result for this one is appropriate for the model, but considering its status as a homologation special for a winning racer, it’s also remarkable value for money.

Lot 7: 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40

Sold for $72,800 (estimate: $100,000-$140,000)

Chassis no. FJ40271607; Engine no. 2F249051. Recent restoration, #2+ condition.

Olive with beige top over saddle vinyl

Equipment: 4230-cc [ENGINE TYPE]/135hp, 5-speed, All Terrain T/A tires, added air conditioning, fog lights.

Condition: Restored by The FJ Company. Very good paint. Perfect top. Fresh wheels and chassis. Beautiful interior. Better than new.

Bottom Line: Deservedly, it brought top dollar for a soft top FJ. The freshness and quality of the restoration on this Land Cruiser stood out among the scruffier offerings at Bonhams Amelia and was appropriately rewarded for it.

Lot 6: 1978 Porsche 928

Sold for $35,840 (estimate: $40,000 – $50,000)

Chassis no. 9288201012. Visually maintained, largely original, #3 condition

Oak Green Metallic over tan, Pasha interior

Equipment: 4474-cc V-8/219hp, five-speed, phone dial wheels, Yokohama tires, Halogen headlights, Pasha interior, power windows, Sony cassette.

Condition: Sold new in Canada and showing 177,544 km (110,321 miles). Supposedly has had refurbishment work recently including a repaint in the original color, a replacement five-speed, engine service, refinished wheels, and refurbished seat bolsters. Well kept paint. Clean wheels and newer tires. Mild cracking in the dash top and pillar trim. The interior is original, showing wear and mild discoloration. Certainly no show car, but Oak Green over Pasha should get Porsche nerds very excited.

Bottom line: Or, perhaps not. Barrett-Jackson sold this car two years ago for $38,500—driver money at the time, and it wasn’t rewarded in Amelia even at a more Porsche-centric sale. The buyer here paid market price for a driver-quality 928 but the bonus is that it’s more distinctive than most.

Lot 85: 1915 Saxon Model A

Sold for $10,080 (estimate: $15,000-$25,000)

Engine no. 7884. Older restoration, #2- condition.

Green with black fenders and black top over black.

Equipment: 85-cid, 12-hp L-head four, three-speed transmission, two-wheel mechanical drum brakes.

Condition: Fully restored to reasonably high quality quite a few years ago. The paint, wheels, and interior display general age but no major issues or causes for concern. It has been sitting as a display for a few years, but this is a reasonably simple car. Reportedly the fuel system needs reconditioning, but it may not need much else.

Bottom line: Based in Detroit, Saxon was a successful volume seller of basic little cars like this in the early- to mid-1910s, but it was a short-lived marque. This is probably one of the best ones remaining, and other than some basic sorting, it looks ready to go. And at barely 10 grand, it’s such a fun little neighborhood runabout for so little money.

Lot 75P: 1904 Gordon Bennett Napier L48

Sold for $742,000 (estimate: $900,000-$1,100,000)

Engine no. 1320A. Reconstructed, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 15L/240hp six-cylinder, two-speed transmission, painted wire wheels, rear brakes.

Condition: Re-creation built in the 1980s around the incredible original 15L engine. One of the first cars to go 100 mph and one of the first fitted with a six-cylinder engine. At Daytona Beach in 1905, it set the Flying One Mile World Record of 104.65mph (or, 106.64mph), making it the first car to record 100 mph on American soil and the first British car to crack the 100-mph barrier. Shows some blemishes and scars from use, and some uneven paint finish, but all appears appropriate. It’s an impressive car even if it isn’t all original, and it’s the star lot of this auction.

Bottom line: And it was, unsurprisingly, the most expensive lot of the auction by well over $300K, despite falling well short of its presale estimate.