Bulls pump up Pebble Beach car auctions to $469m record

An obscure pre-war roadster took top honours at the 2022  Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. 

The 1932 Duesenberg J Figoni Sports Torpedo owned by Lee Anderson beat 40 of the world’s most expensive and beautiful cars to win the Best of Show Sunday on the lawn of the Pebble Beach Golf Links near Carmel, California. It was the first time an American car had won since 2013. 

“It marries American might with European style,” Sandra Button, chair of the annual concours, said in a statement about the car, which had undergone a complete restoration after the chassis and body had been separated for years prior. “The story of its resurrection is one of pure passion.” 

This year’s front-runners parked on the 18th fairway of the storied golf course consisted primarily of ultra-rare pre-war and immediately post-war vehicles with long and complicated names, like a 1937 Talbot-Lago T150C-SS Figoni & Falaschi Teardrop Coupe, a 1930 Duesenberg J Graber Cabriolet, and a 1951 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Stabilimenti Farina Cabriolet.

Adorned with intricate hood ornaments in the shape of such things like large birds, women, and even divers, the heavy, large coaches evoke images of glorious pasts where mysterious saloons would sweep along the road in what must have seemed like otherworldly style, speed, and grace. Such vehicles were owned by only the richest and most powerful people of the day, like Indian maharaja and Hollywood stars. 

The champion Duesenberg, for instance, had been ordered new in Paris by one Antonio Chopitea, a Peruvian sugar baron. The two-tone blue stunner with intricate French coachwork inside its cabin had then been shipped to the US, according to Hemmings, and subsequently dismantled in the 1960s. Its body and chassis were separated and sold to different owners before being reunited decades later in the three-year, prize-winning restoration undertaken by the current owners. 

Held annually since 1950, the concours is the climax of Monterey Car Week, a five-day-long Super Bowl of sorts for car-lovers. Early events included speciality car shows highlighting offerings from the likes of Porsche and Ferrari, vintage car races, and dozens of new-car debuts. So many, in fact, that many automotive executives are calling Monterey Car Week the “new auto show”.

But the biggest draw for many comers were the auctions, which realised record sales this year.

Totals after the final auction on Sunday hit $456.1m (roughly R7.8bn), beating by 15.6% the previous high of $394.48m (roughly R6.7bn) set in 2015 in Monterey, according to data from automotive insurance provider, Hagerty. “The week put an exclamation point on what has been an unprecedented year for the collector car market and allayed concerns that economic volatility will cool buyers’ enthusiasm,” Hagerty analyst John Wiley said in an email.

Often auction houses will report that their totals creep higher as the week progresses, since many cars that went unsold at public auction are then sold privately in the days directly after. By Monday morning, after-sales had increased the week’s haul to $469m (roughly R8bn), up 18.9% over 2015’s record, Wiley said.

“Though that's worth considering that the record sales total comes amid a time of high inflation,” Wiley said, noting that in today’s dollars 2015 sales figure amounts to $490m (roughly R8.3bn. “Though classic cars are appreciating fast, the dollar is depreciating ever faster.”

Still, an unprecedented number of million-dollar cars — 113 in total — sold. The average sale price of all cars was $583,211 (roughly R9.9m), up from a $446,042 (roughly R7.6m) average last year, while multimillion-dollar hammer prices made up roughly three-quarters of total sales.  

The astounding number of high-value cars came as no surprise to industry insiders and market experts, who had predicted that recent stock market volatilities, the war in Ukraine, and exchange rate between US dollar and euros would not affect the world’s biggest spenders. 

“There is no sign of a (potential) recession in sight,” said Juan Diego Calle, the CEO of Classics.com, in an email. “It was huge sales and vibrant crowds.”

RM Sotheby’s saw the top-seller for the weekend, a 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport that went for $22m (roughly R374.2m). It also sold several significant pre-war cars like a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Sindelfingen Roadster that took $9.9m (roughly R168.4m) and the 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Transformable Torpedo that realised $9.245m (roughly R157.2m). Top sales for the family-operated house reached $221.7m (roughly R3.8bn) with a 90% sell-through rate, up considerably over 2021’s $147m (roughly R2.5bn) total with the same sell-through rate. This year, the average price of a car sold at RM Sotheby’s was more than $1.3m (roughly R22.1m).

Not everyone saw such gangbuster results. 

Gooding & Co., the official auction house of the concours, realised more than $105m (roughly R1.8bn) in sales and an 82% sell-through rate, down from $106m (roughly R1.81bn) and 87% in 2021. Its top sellers included the 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante that sold for $10.34m (roughly R175.9m), the 1990 Ferrari F40 that sold for $3.965m (roughly R67.5m), and the 1994 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport that sold for $3.167m (roughly R53.9m).

Mecum sold $50.8m (roughly R864.2m) worth of cars at a 64% sell-through rate, down from $53.8m (roughly R915.2m) and 77% sell-through in 2021. Its top lot was a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT ‘Tour de France’ Alloy Coupe that garnered $2.86m (roughly R48.7m), but its average sale price was a far-lower $174,016 (roughly R3m). 

Elsewhere, Bonhams saw $27.8m (roughly R472.9m) in cumulative sales over the week, with an 88% sell-through rate. That was down as well from 2021’s $35.9m (roughly R610.6m) in sales with the same sell-through.

All told, Gooding & Co. and RM Sotheby’s posted all of the top 10 sales between them, leaving Bonhams, Mecum, and Hagerty-owned Broad Arrow to fight for the scraps. Six of the top 10 sellers were Ferraris, which still set the blue-chip standard for collectible cars in the modern era. Their values have risen reliably for decades.

“RM Sotheby’s stole the show,” said Classics.com’s Calle, though predicted that “BroadArrow will be a force to be reckoned with”.

“Though pre-war cars were hot,” he went on, “cars from the ’80s and ’90s continued to show the most appreciation and interest. They are part of a generational shift and new buyer profile.”