Million-dollar Mercedes leads legendary supercar auction
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RM Auctions will be holding its 16th annual Fort Lauderdale classic car sale in Florida on April 6/7. Around 350 cars will be present, along with a great deal of memorabilia, but the most exciting lot is a 1962 Mercedes 300 SL Roadster which has been owned by a Michigan collector for the last four decades.
The 300 SL was the road-going version of a Mercedes sports racing car. When it first went on sale in 1954, its speed, its fuel injection system and its gullwing doors were little short of sensational.
Three years later it was replaced by the roadster version. This didn’t have gullwing doors, but it did have many improvements which made it more refined and easier to drive.
We’ll take a closer look at the auction car in the next slide, and then turn our attention to more of the fine cars looking for new owners at Fort Lauderdale.
1962 Mercedes 300 SL Roadster
The car was built in May 1962 to the order of Sophus Kruse, whose Hamburg-based property company still exists. By the late 1970s it had found its way to Ohio, where it was bought by the current owner from a Ford dealer.
Since then it has been well maintained but never fully restored. Although it has been repainted at least twice (most recently in its original factory colour), the light yellow upholstery is the same as was fitted in 1962, as is the engine.
Estimate: $1,200,000-1,500,000 (approx. £863,600-1,080,000)
1931 Cadillac V-12 Phaeton
The Cadillac V-12 was built between 1931 and 1937, though more than half its sales were achieved in the first year before even the super-rich became affected by the Great Depression.
This remains the only Cadillac so far to have been put into production with a V12 engine, which was based on a slightly earlier V16.
Cadillac never built bodies for these cars – that was always done by independent coachbuilders. This one is described as being ‘in the style of’ Fleetwood, a company formed in Pennsylvania in 1909 and later integrated into General Motors.
Estimate: $160,000-200,000 (approx. £115,000-144,000)
1932 Packard Twin Six
Packard’s initial response to the Great Depression of the 1930s was to build even more expensive cars than it had before, rather than cheaper ones. That policy soon changed, but before it did the company introduced its Twin Six model in 1932, renaming it the Packard Twelve a year later.
Many Packard bodies were designed by Raymond Dietrich. The auction car is described as being ‘in the style of Dietrich’ because its body was actually built in the 1980s. A minor restoration took place in 2006.
Estimate: $375,000-425,000 (approx. £268,000-305,000)
1937 Cord 812
Known in 1936 as the 810 and in 1937 as the 812, the latest Cord model was sensational for its time, with its futuristic front end, pop-up headlights and lack of running boards.
This example has recently been given some cosmetic work and a service. It is said to be entirely made of original Cord components, though the engine left the factory under the bonnet of a different 812.
Estimate: $120,000-140,000 (approx. £86,400-100,700)
1949 Bentley B Special Speed 8
This car is not quite what it seems. It looks like a racing Bentley of the 1930s, but it was in fact built by the renowned Welsh company Racing Green Engineering in 2011.
It is based on a 1949 Bentley MkVI chassis and uses many Bentley and Rolls-Royce components including a 6.5-litre engine. The bodywork is new, but is similar in design and construction to that of the Bentleys which competed so successfully in the early days of the Le Mans 24 Hour race.
Estimate: $325,000-375,000 (approx. £234,000-270,000)
1953 Buick Skylark
Buick created six generations of Skylark over nearly half a century. The first was one of three luxury convertibles launched in 1953 by General Motors, the others being variants of the Oldsmobile 98 (known in this form as the Fiesta) and the Cadillac Series 62.
This example has been restored by the Florida-based Harbor Auto Restoration company and has won many awards in concours events.
Estimate: $220,000-250,000 (approx. £158,000-180,000)
1953 Chevrolet Corvette
Corvettes were usually produced in large numbers, but in the first year, 1953, only 300 were built, all of them with Polo White paintwork on their fibreglass bodies.
This car is number 147 in that series. It was restored by early Corvette expert Jack Kershlis, who died in 2016. In 2004 it was awarded Bloomington Gold Certification (given only to Corvettes which are as close as possible to factory-fresh condition) and remains in excellent fettle today.
Estimate: $240,000-265,000 (approx. £173,000-191,000)
1956 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
All second-generation Cadillac Eldorados were convertibles in 1954 and 1955. In the following year, the last of production before a major restyle, a coupe version was introduced. This was called the Seville, while the convertible was named Biarritz.
The one shown here is fresh from a full, body-off restoration.
Estimate: $160,000-200,000 (approx. £115,000-144,000)
1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible
American manufacturers tended to alter their cars very rapidly – sometimes annually – during this period. The 1957 Bel Air was the last with single headlights on each side, but it was also the first with a 4.6-litre engine rather than a 4.3. The 4.6, alarmingly named the Super Turbo Fire V8, had the exciting new development of fuel injection.
’57 Bel Airs had two automatic transmission options, but this one is fitted with the standard three-speed manual.
Estimate: $120,000-150,000 (approx. £86,400-108,000)
1958 Chrysler New Yorker
Chrysler used the New Yorker badge to identify flagship models every year from 1940 to 1996. The 1958 car was similar to the 1957 one apart from some minor styling changes and a 20bhp increase in power to 345bhp from its 6.4-litre V8 engine.
New Yorkers of this period tended to have solid roofs. In 1958 only 666 convertibles were made, making this a very rare example.
Estimate: $120,000-140,000 (approx. £86,400-100,700)
1958 Jaguar XK150
The XK150 was the last in a series of Jaguar sports cars which began with the XK120. This one was completely restored in 2013 by Jaguar expert Lloyd Gillespie and still has its original engine, chassis and body, though the gearbox has been changed.
A multiple award winner, the car is believed to have had $250,000 spent on it to bring it to its current condition.
Estimate: $150,000-200,000 (approx. £107,400-143,000)
1959 Alfa Romeo 2000 Spider
Produced only between 1958 and 1962, the Alfa Romeo 2000 was available as a large and staid saloon, a more attractive coupe or, as here, a very pretty Spider convertible.
The Spider bodies were designed and built by Milan-based coachbuilder Touring. They were the most popular of the three styles, accounting for only slightly less than half the total production.
The auction car was delivered to the US when new and has been fully restored.
Estimate: $165,000-195,000 (approx. £118,800-140,000)
1959 Autobianchi Bianchia Trasformabile
Autobianchi put a small car based on the Fiat 500 on the market in 1957, the same year that the 500 went on sale, and was still selling it in 1970.
It was available with a wide choice of body styles. The Trasformabile (Italian for ‘transformable’) had a folding fabric roof, but unlike the Cabriolet it had solid pillars, so the side view was much the same whether the roof was up or down.
The Fort Lauderdale car was built in 1959 and is in immaculate condition, with an attractive two-tone red and white interior.
Estimate: $20,000-30,000 (approx. £14,400-21,600)
1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud
Series III Silver Clouds were the first fitted with the twin headlights later seen on the Silver Shadow.
Rolls-Royce only ever built the car as a saloon, but coachbuilders had different ideas. This example was converted into a drophead coupe by Peter Wilford.
Estimate: $200,000-250,000 (approx. £143,000-179,000)
1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale
This was the last in a series of Alfa Romeos mostly known as Giulietta Sprint Speciale. The equivalent of the name change in English is from ‘little Julia’ to ‘Julia’, a reference to the fact that this version had a 1.6- rather than 1.3-litre engine.
The model on sale at Fort Lauderdale is a late example which has been fully restored.
Estimate: $100,000-120,000 (approx. £72,000-86,400)
1967 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray
Of the seven generations of Corvette produced so far, the second, known as Sting Ray, is perhaps still the most iconic.
This was the first Corvette available with a solid roof, but the auction car, fully restored with Marina Blue paintwork and a black interior, is one of the more popular convertibles.
Estimate: $120,000-130,000 (approx. £86,400-93,600)
2006 Ford GT
The first of two 21st-century Ford GTs was a tribute to the Le Mans-winning GT40 race cars of the early 1960s, and were very similar in looks and basic concept.
This one has recently been serviced, though it hasn’t exactly had a hard life. According to the mileometer, it has covered just 10.8 miles in over a decade, and still has its delivery seat covers.
Estimate: $300,000-350,000 (approx. £215,000-250,000)
2008 Ferrari F430 Art Car
At the Art Basel Miami Beach event in 2015, three Ferrari F430 Challenge race cars were painted and then sold off, partly to raise funds for the Miami Children’s Health Foundation and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The artists were Retna, Edouard Duval-Carrie and London-based Ben Levy. The auction car is the one painted by Levy, who covered it in words including Hope, Love, Cash, Boom, Rich and Money.
Estimate: $120,000-160,000 (approx. £86,400-114,700)