Thousands congregated this past weekend on the grounds of the beautiful Del Monte Golf Course at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa to preview an amazingly diverse group of quality collector vehicles gathered for sale at Mecum’s 4th Annual Daytime Auction, held Thursday, Aug. 16-18, 2012. Each day of auction saw a standing-room-only audience as Mecum lead the way in Monterey with sales figures by volume sending a total of 364 vehicles to new homes around the world.
Throughout the three-day event, Mecum sold an unprecedented total of 30 Porsches, which contributed more than $10 Million to the weekend totals. The 1972 Can-Am Champion L&M Porsche 917/10 Spyder driven by George Follmer hammered sold at $5,500,000 on Saturday afternoon, leading all sales for the auction. This car occupies a special position in racing history as the one that earned Porsche its first Can-Am Championship, once again demonstrating the German automaker's formidable engineering capabilities and its pioneering developments in turbocharging.
Another top sellers included a 1908 Simplex Speedcar, the oldest known to exist, for $1,900,000. The engine, an enormous 610 CI 4-cylinder T-head, is reported to be finished correctly in every way, including its Simplex carburetor, centrifugal water pump, rare Bosch magneto and outside exhaust system. This remarkable car from the early Brass Era sports a 40 gallon fuel tank and 13-gallon oil reservoir gave the Simplex long-distance capability and a special 5-inch radiator core insures more-than-adequate cooling.
A 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder with only 21,185 miles changed hands for $1,050,000. The Daytona was the zenith of Ferrari’s line of great front-engined Grand Touring cars, especially the highly desirable Spyder version, of which just 122 were produced by Ferrari coachbuilder Scaglietti.
Other top sellers at Mecum Monterey Auction 2012 include:
- 1974 Porsche 911 RSR IROC at $875,000
- 1987 Porsche 962 at $825,000
- 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing at $675,000
- 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 Roadster CSX2428 at $600,000
- 1968 Chevrolet Corvette L88 Convertible at $575,000
- 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster at $575,000
- 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Lightweight at $470,000
Once final figures including Bid Goes On, and post-auction sales are tallied, Mecum expects total sales to exceed $34 million, an exceptional increase of more than 65% over last year’s figures. As of this posting, the cumulative total was $30.7 million for 318 of the 544 cars brought to the block. That equates to a 57% sell-through rate for an average sale price of $96,500. These numbers are a nice increase over their 2011 results - $22.6 million for 444 cars, a 60% sell-through rate for an average sale price of $50,900.
After the auction, Dana Mecum, President and CEO commented, “It’s great to see such incredible growth for a young sale like our daytime auction in Monterey which is only in its 4th year, and I’m happy that our team was able to produce great results for our customers.”
Complete auction results are available to Mecum InfoNet members, which is free to join at www.Mecum.com. Mecum InfoNet members can log in to see car-by-car results by visiting the Results Page.
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