The 10 Biggest Auction Sales of 2024
Tens of thousands of classic cars, trucks and motorcycles sell at auction every year, and 2024 was no different. While more collector vehicles sold through online auctions this year than any year previously, the truly expensive stuff still held out for the live events like Monterey, Amelia Island, and Rétromobile.
Below are the 10 most expensive mouth-watering, wallet-draining cars sold at auction worldwide over the past year.
1969 Ford GT40 Lightweight
Sold by Mecum for $7,865,000
Even with some high-dollar sales for exceptional cars, the top of the market didn’t look particularly bright at 2024’s Monterey auctions. There was, however, a Ford GT40 that brought a surprisingly big price.
Built in 1969 with chassis number P1080 and to Mk I spec, it left the factory as one of 10 “lightweights” with aluminum panels, Stage II ventilated brakes and anti-surge foam in the fuel tanks as well as a Gurney Weslake small-block engine. It sold to a privateer team in Angola and raced successfully there before a brief stint in Portugal and then a 20-year restoration in Switzerland. What the GT40 lacks in top-tier race history it makes up for in the originality of its body, engine, and gearbox. It is now the third most expensive GT40 sold at auction, behind the Gulf Mirage car used to film the movie Le Mans (sold for $11M in 2012) and the car that finished third at the Le Mans race in 1966 (sold for $9,795,000 in 2018).
1979 Ferrari 312 T4
Sold by RM Sotheby’s for €7,655,000 ($8,245,201)
The 312 T44 was Ferrari’s first full “ground effect” car. It brought home Scuderia Ferrari’s last World Drivers’ Championship while Enzo was still alive, and was the last 12-cylinder Ferrari to win the World Constructors’ Championship. The guy who drove it to those titles is the only person from Africa as well as the only Jewish person to win F1’s highest honors. Until selling at auction this year he was also the only person to own the car other than Ferrari themselves, and he was reportedly the only person to ever pilot it.
The car was the high point of Jody Scheckter’s career as well as the highlight of his collection of race cars that crossed the auction block in Monaco back in May. In addition to all the history, it’s also completely original, even down to the seatbelts. Few F1 cars tick so many boxes, and it’s not a combination you can repeat or replicate no matter how deep your pockets are.
1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Aluminum Gullwing Coupe
Sold by RM Sotheby’s for $9,355,000
There are just 29 300SLs fitted with alloy bodywork, a higher-spec “NSL” engine, sports suspension, 4.11:1 rear axle, Rudge centerlock wheels, and Plexiglas rear and side windows. Naturally, these alloy Gullwings almost never come up for sale, though two sold for $5.01M and $6.825M in 2022. The one sold this year eclipsed both of them, as well as the model’s condition #1 (“concours”) value in the Hagerty Price Guide, despite being in shabby, neglected condition with missing bits and being sold at what was literally billed a “junkyard” auction.
1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione
Sold by RM Sotheby’s for €10,158,125 ($11,003,281)
The 250 GT SWB (short wheelbase) was a very successful race car even by Ferrari’s high standards, with class and overall wins at tracks all over the world. The model debuted at the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring, and this car ran there. It was part of the Ferrari assault on the Florida endurance classic, and it finished seventh overall while two others finished in fourth and sixth. It also raced at the Bahamas Speed Week and in various SCCA races in period. The history, along with its recent restoration (receipts for which reportedly total $1M) helped push it to an eight-figure price in Paris.
2014 Pagani Zonda LM Roadster
Sold by RM Sotheby’s for $11,086,250
It’s hard to make it as an exotic upstart supercar maker, and many have failed at it. But Pagani’s stable of highly customized low-production exotics has just kept on going. The 1999 Zonda was the company’s debut production model, and this special one from 2014 is one of just two 760 LMs built. The other one is a coupe, making this the only drop-dop. Pagani reportedly developed 60 bespoke parts and panels for it, and its odometer showed just 9604 km (5968 miles) at the time of the sale. Its price at the RM Sotheby’s sale in Abu Dhabi is the new record for a Pagani sold at auction.
1903 Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP Roi des Belges
Sold by Gooding & Co. for $12,105,000
It has peeling paint in boring colors. The upholstery is weathered. Its coachwork isn’t particularly pretty. It has one-third the horsepower of a new Honda Civic. Yet it was the most expensive car at this year’s Amelia Island auctions by nearly a factor of three, and broke the record for the most expensive pre-1930 automobile ever sold at auction. That’s because of its rich, long history. It’s one of the oldest cars in the world called a Mercedes. It was one of the fastest, most exclusive cars money could buy 121 years ago. It’s one of five surviving examples of its type. It retains its original chassis, body, and engine. Before this year, it had been owned by the same family since the reign of Edward VII.
1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider
Sold by RM Sotheby’s for $12,985,000
This beauty started off as a factory development car before selling to construction tycoon/race team owner Tony Parravano. He commissioned the special bodywork it wears today, and his driver Carroll Shelby won at the 1956 Palm Springs Road Races with it. When Parravano fled the U.S. to escape the tax man, he took the Ferrari with him and it raced more south of the border. Restored in the 2010s, it had enough history and good looks to push it to an eight-figure sale price, though the presale estimate of “in excess of $15,000,000” wound up being a few million too high.
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider
Sold by Gooding & Co. for $14,030,000
Powered by a glorious twin-supercharged, twin-cam straight-eight and wearing one of just five Lungo (“long”) Spider bodies by Carrozzeria Touring known to exist, this Alfa spent its early life in Egypt and spent decades criss-crossing the Atlantic between owners in Europe and the U.S.
Arguably the most dramatic chapter in its life, though, came in 2022 when it was on its way to a restoration shop and the car, trailer and truck that was hauling them were stolen from a parking lot in South Carolina. It was thankfully recovered late last year, and although it was likely insured for much more than its auction price, it was still the second-most expensive sale of Monterey Car Week this year.
1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider (closed headlight)
Sold by RM Sotheby’s for $17,055,000
The very first 250 GT SWB California Spider built and the one Ferrari showed off at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show, this car also has the desirable combination of more attractive covered headlights, a competition-spec engine, and a factory hardtop. Topping $17M made it the most expensive car at the 2024 Monterey auctions, but at the time it was only the seventh-most expensive Cal Spider sold publicly.
1963 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider (closed headlight)
Sold by Mecum for $17,875,000
Mecum’s annual January auction in Kissimmee, Florida is the world’s biggest collector car auction, and it got even bigger in 2024 with over 4000 vehicles on offer. For the third year in a row, total sales topped $200M. High-dollar classic Ferraris also featured prominently in this typically American muscle-heavy sale, and while there were two big no-sales (a $26.4M high bid for a 1964 275 GTB/LM Competizione Speciale and a $23.5M high bid for a 275 GTS/4 NART Spider), a California Spider hammered sold for a final price of $17,875,000, a figure that started 2024’s auctions with a bang and would not be topped. Interestingly enough, while the Grigio car in the number 2 spot above was the first SWB Cal Spider built, this red car was the last one.
