Top 30 auction sales of 2020

This year’s hits under the hammer

The auction market adapted quickly to the new normal in 2020, and there has been barely any let up at the very top of the market for the very best cars.

These, then, are the highest-priced cars that found new homes this year, some in traditional sales, some online-only. It’s quite a thought, a collector sitting at home clicking their bids up into the millions.

Remarkably, or perhaps naturally, Ferrari and Bugatti combine for half the list – five of the top six come from Molsheim, in fact. And that there are as many Mustangs on the list as there are Lamborghini Miuras says more about the special Yank pony cars than it does about arguably the original supercar…

Prices are converted to £, using the exchange rate at the time of writing.

30. 1963 Ferrari 250GT/L (£1,605,856/€1,782,500)

Beaten to top spot in the post-lockdown Bonhams Zoute Sale in October, this Berlinetta just pipped a Ferrari F50 on to the list by a few thousand.

The rare Pininfarina-bodied Lusso did take the mantle of the year’s highest-price 250GT at auction, though, and is the most paid for a Lusso in five years. That said, it’s not often a Lusso ventures under the hammer…

29. 1914 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Torpédo Phaeton (£1,653,750/$2,205,000)

California-based Gooding & Co enjoyed a very strong year, comprising a third of this list.

Its first entry comes from its pre-COVID-19-lockdown Amelia Island event in March, with an impressive $2.2m for this multiple concours-class-winning Rolls-Royce. It would have been beaten by a 1958 Ferrari 250GT LWB California Spider, but its bidding stopped short of its reserve at $8m.

28. 1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder (£1,674,375/$2,232,500)

Another that took headlines because pricier cars fell short was this ex-Bob Holbert Porsche 718 RSK, sold by Bonhams at Quail Lodge in August.

It was on only its third owner, where it had remained since 1974, having won its class (and scored fourth overall) in the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring.

27. 1964 Porsche 904 GTS (£1,727,477/€1,917,500)

But the 718 wasn’t the best of the racing Porsches, that honour went to this road-racing 904 GTS in the RM Sotheby’s Paris sale around Rétromobile.

No Porsche cost more this year, in fact. A veteran of the Tour de France, with a podium finish at Albi also, it came with a six-cylinder Type 906 engine as well as its original four-cam four-pot that had been freshly restored, but not yet installed.

The best of both worlds, for this lucky buyer.

26. 1985 Ferrari 288GTO (£1,732,500/$2,310,000)

Buying habits changed this year, for obvious reasons, and this Ferrari 288GTO was purchased in the RM Sotheby’s Online Only – Driving into Summer sale.

Its price would have been an online record, had it not been for another Ferrari later in this list, too.

The car itself is special, with only three owners since new combining for just 23,555km. Barely run in, it came with good options such as power windows and air-con straight out of Maranello.

25. 2003 Ferrari Enzo (£1,765,500/$2,354,000)

This has been in some ways the year of the Enzo. Three make this list, more than any other model, starting with this $2.3m example sold in Gooding & Co’s Geared Online sale in August.

It bettered an F50 and an F40 to second spot that week, thanks in no small part to it being a one-owner 7000-miler that had benefited from a recent engine-out service.

Classiche certification helped, too.

24. 2018 Pagani Huayra Roadster (£1,777,500/$2,370,000)

The easiest way for a modern car to be a modern classic is for it to be worth more ‘used’ than it was new. And this scrapes over the line, two years since it rolled out of Pagani.

Only one Huayra has ever sold for more than this one, which RM Sotheby’s found a new home for in its Arizona sale in January.

It’s factory fresh, showing a mere 200 miles, and is number 42 of just 100.

23. 1958 BMW 507 (£1,798,423/€1,996,250)

When a BMW 507 appears in an auction catalogue you know six figures will be exceeded.

This, from RM Sotheby’s Paris sale in February, was no different.

Not that it added much to the monetary value, but a young William Young saw a 507 in Jackson and decades later he bought one, sight unseen, from a dealer in Switzerland. Incredibly, it was the same car.

Refurbished, still with its original engine, it fell just short of the top five 507s of all time.

22. 1932 Hispano-Suiza J12 Dual Cowl (£1,818,750/$2,425,000)

Not the oldest car on the list, but not far off it, this Hispano-Suiza was once part of the Briggs Cunningham collection, no less. 

That heritage helped it smash through its $1.5-2m estimate with Gooding & Co at Scottsdale in January to land the title of most valuable from the marque ever at auction.

It was also part of the Miles Collier collection, the founder of the Revs Institute, and still has the engine with which it left the factory.

A genuine piece of automotive history.

21. 1959 BMW 507 (£1,864,865/€2,070,000)

Little separated this Bonhams-sold 507 from the one at RM Sotheby’s, but it does have royal provenance. Only three have ever cost more.

Before its long-term, 30-year previous owner, it was first sold to Prince Constantine II of Greece with the registration ‘36’. Which is still with the car.

Since 1989 it has been restored, with much of it done by model specialist Brummer in Germany. It has since, pleasingly, travelled 55,000km, but it barely shows. Some of that was done on the Mille Miglia, which it has entered four times.

20. 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV (£1,912,500)

Quite the machine to start the top 20 cars sold in 2020 at auction.

Silverstone Auctions mixed with the major international players thanks to this very original Lamborghini Miura SV, sold online in July in what would have been its Silverstone Classic event.

The near £2m came with a reserved copy of SA Kidston’s Miura tome, numbered 717 to match the chassis.

19. 2003 Ferrari Enzo (£1,980,000/$2,640,000)

When the digital hammer dropped on RM Sotheby’s Online Only – Driving into Summer sale back in May, no car had ever been sold for more online than this Ferrari Enzo.

Owners were perhaps still adjusting to buying via video walk-arounds, but great cars remain great cars wherever they are, which this Prancing Horse proved.

A little inside its lower estimate, the Enzo had covered only 1250 miles with just two owners – the first of whom kept the car until 2018.

18. 2003 Ferrari Enzo (£2,086,875/$2,782,500)

As if to underline the fact that buyers were soon willing to pay what they would in a physical auction room, the best Enzo of the year was £100,000 more in a traditional setting.

A lot of money, sure, but consider that it’s a £2m car and you’re looking at a 5% difference.

Like the car it beat, this example sold in RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island sale in March was ultra-low mileage at 1700 and with as good a maintenance record as you could hope for.

17. 1952 Ferrari 225S (£2,107,500/$2,810,000)

The only entry in this countdown from the RM Sotheby’s Elkhart Collection event, a no-reserve bankruptcy sale of hundreds of incredible cars, this Ferrari 225S was the standout of standouts.

It is also the earliest Prancing Horse on our list, having been a class runner-up on the 1952 Mille Miglia and rounding out the top 10 overall. It was also on the grid for that year’s Monaco Grand Prix, when the famous race was run for sports cars.

One of a believed 21 built, it was a rare opportunity well taken.

16. 1965 Ferrari 275GTB/6C (£2,254,775/€2,502,800)

Having not long ago set the world abuzz with record sales, it’s perhaps a surprise that this Ferrari 275GTB/C is Artcurial’s sole entry into our top 30.

It came at the official Rétromobile sale in February.

The six-carb model landed square in the middle of its pre-sale estimate of €2-3m, having been with the same owner since 2000. In period, the 275 was raced by privateer Siegfred Zwimpfer and later owner Pierre Sudan.

15. 1966 Ferrari 275GTB/6C Long Nose (£2,310,000/$3,080,000)

Further proof that online prices are no longer in the shadow of in-person bidding…

Another six-carb 275GTB, this time with Gooding & Co in its August Geared Online event. It was top lot in all of Gooding’s new online sales series and fell comfortably within its estimate range, too.

A late-model torque-tube variant, its history file stretches as far back as 1969 – three years from its production. And it has a competition fuel filler, plus other factory tweaks that make it unique.

The price ended the Enzo’s reign as the online record-holder, albeit briefly…

14. 1995 Ferrari F50 (£2,416,875/$3,222,500)

Top Ferrari road car (spoiler alert) for 2020 goes to this stunning F50.

Prior to Gooding & Co’s Scottsdale sale in January, it’d had just two owners – the first a Ferrari fanatic who in six years drove 4000 miles and the second the winning bidder at the same sale in 2011. He that day paid $814,000…

Barely used between times, it went under the hammer showing just 5200 miles.

13. 1907 Renault Type AI 35/45HP Vanderbilt Racer (£2,499,375/$3,332,500)

If you went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum before about 2017 you’ve probably seen this Renault survivor, because it was there for 60 years.

The Brickyard’s then-owner Tony Hulman bought the car from Bill Spear, a racer in Briggs Cunningham’s squad.

The car had been found in 1946, is likely to have won the Brighton 24 Hours in 1907 and was competing as recently as the last decade – perhaps the only of the five surviving Vanderbilt Renaults still in such service.

A fitting holder of the crown of the world’s most expensive Renault ever at auction. By a mere $2.5m…

12. 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (£2,702,703/$3,000,000)

When this Stingray crossed the block with Barrett-Jackson at Scottsdale, the new mid-engined Corvette wasn’t yet available.

That the proceeds went to Detroit Children’s Fund goes a long way to explain NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick’s $3m.

As it was pointed out at the time, it’s a solid 38 times the list price now.

11. 1968 Ford Mustang GT ‘Bullitt’ (£2,805,000/$3,740,000)

Imagine paying nearly $4m for a Mustang and ending 2020 with the second most expensive example of the year.

During Mecum’s huge Kissimmee week in January the much-anticipated sale of the Bullitt Mustang GT finally happened.

Having been hidden away for decades, not even Steve McQueen could persuade the owner to part with it. Slowly and carefully preserved, it made its public reappearance in 2018 alongside Ford’s latest-generation homage and two years later took centre stage again.

10. 1965 Shelby GT350R Prototype (£2,887,500/$3,850,000)

Only for the car honed and fettled by Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby to shuffle them off the top step.

This, also sold by Mecum but later in the year at Indy July, is the prototype R, and therefore the first Shelby Mustang to win a race. And lists Bob Bondurant and Jerry Titus among its other pilots.

More importantly, though, it was the mule that made the legend.

Rescued from a yard, it later entered the Shelby American Museum for 14 years until 2010, when John Atzbach bought the car and returned it to its 1965 spec.

That the sale came hot on the coat-tails of the box-office smash Le Mans ’66 undoubtedly helped set that new benchmark.

9. 1955 Aston Martin DB3S (£3,011,000)

It’s quite incredible that five of the top 30 of this year came from the same sale, yet here we are at number nine and we’re only encountering the first.

The sale was Gooding & Co’s blockbuster first European event, scheduled for a standalone setting at London’s Somerset House in April, only for COVID-19 to put a pin in it. Moved across town, to Hampton Court Palace in September, as part of the Concours of Elegance, and it was packed with record breakers.

This ex-Kangaroo Stable DB3S set no world records – that honour probably remains with the 1955 Earls Court show car sold by Gooding in 2014 – but it did come with its original engine and was restored in the 1970s following a Bathurst shunt that ended its career in 1960.

8. 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV Speciale (£3,207,000)

This most certainly did set a new record – and by some margin.

No Lamborghini Miura has ever cost more at auction than this striking gold P400 SV Speciale that soared £1m above its guide price.

With a dry sump and a ZF limited-slip differential, it’s a rare and special example. Hence the name.

It was a well-used car, or a car used well, rather, having been enjoyed on high-speed jaunts such as the Tour Auto.

7. 2001 Ferrari 550 GT1 (£3,217,500/$4,290,000)

And another record-setter, but this time from RM Sotheby’s.

The 275GTB/C sold by Gooding lasted just a week as the world’s most expensive car ever sold at an online auction.

This Prodrive-developed Ferrari 550 GT1 raised the bar in the Shift/Monterey sale that had been scheduled for California.

A number of ultra-expensive cars entered virtual Monterey week but failed to sell except this, the 2004 Spa 24 Hours winner and the last Prancing Horse to win a major 24-hour event outright. It also wrapped up the GT1 championship, too.

6. 1928 Bugatti Type 35C Grand Prix (£3,935,000)

Now, about those five Bugattis we mentioned. 

First, from that Gooding sale in London, is the very original and patinated Type 35C that contested the 1928 Targa Florio and won the first Coupe de Bourgogne.

Its record? For a Grand Prix Bug, adding just shy of £1m to it.

World renowned expert Ivan Dutton has fettled the internals while ensuring the body remained apparently untouched.

5. 1931 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport (£4,144,144/€4,600,000)

Regular readers may well recognise this two-tone beauty. Mick Walsh told its touching story and took the car to Goodwood for the Duke of Richmond to realise a long-held dream to drive it.

Bodied by Figoni, hidden away during WW2, and restored to perfection by marque expert Geoffrey Stuart St John, its life has been one well lived.

Not least for its entry into the 1932 24 Hours of Le Mans with local Count Guy Bouriat Quintart and Louis Chiron, but the potential winners retired with a punctured fuel tank.

4. 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Super Sport Roadster (£5,325,000/$7,100,000)

A month later that £4.1m looked a bit of a snip, because this ex-Rothschild family Super Sport hit five at Amelia Island with the same auctioneer.

Wearing Jean Bugatti-designed factory coachwork, the car was delivered new to Victor Rothschild while he was at university in Cambridge. Truly a different world…

Since it has claimed top honours at Pebble Beach, been driven on the Mille Miglia, and spent 35 years in what the auction house labelled ‘the loving ownership’ of Dean Edmonds.

A non-sale for a Ferrari 250GT LWB meant the Bugatti left Amelia Island week as the top lot, too.

3. 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante (£7,855,000)

Which takes us back to that overcast late-summer day in west London, but still with Bugatti.

And, naturally, another record breaker with Gooding. The Type 57S Atalante’s £7.8m was a full £2.3m more than the incumbent record, set back in 2013 by Gooding.

The first keeper of the low-slung sweeping icon was none other than Earl Howe, and today’s owner rides around in much the same car as Howe did 83 years ago.

But perhaps better than ever, because it has been under the studious eye of Ivan Dutton.

2. 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports (£9,535,000)

But top that September day, and best of all the Bugattis that have ever been entered into an auction, was this fabled Type 59.

Before being owned by King Leopold, it was a works car driven by René Dreyfus and Jean-Pierre Wimille among others, and even visited the podium at Monaco and the top step at Spa before being reworked for sports-car racing.

And in 2020 it hit the headlines again, after four careful owners that have cherished and carried this unique piece of history. A true vision into the past.

1. Alfa Romeo BAT 5-7-9d (£11,130,000/$14,840,000)

But the Alfa Romeo BAT concept cars sailed some way clear of all the cars sold at auction in 2020, when they went under the hammer as part of Sotheby’s art sale in New York, back in October.

Just shy of $15m was enough to secure the trio, supposedly together on offer for the first time, capping what was something of a world tour as part of various displays.

Designed by Franco Scaglione, they set the world aflame at successive Turin Auto Shows: 1953 (BAT 5), 1954 (BAT 7) and 1955 (BAT 9d).

‘The BATs are best understood as variations on a singular theme,’ said Sotheby’s literature, ‘a complete work in three parts. Like a Francis Bacon triptych, examining one car in the context of the other two reveals new aspects of their forms, as well as the captivating details incorporated into the hand-shaped bodywork of each.’

Quite. And $15m well spent?