Ferrari sets $35 million auction record

0 0 August 29, 2025 Edit this post

by Bill Buys

RECORDS were broken at the recent Gooding Christie’s Pebble Beach auction, where a 1961 Ferrari went under the hammer for $35.6 million Australian dolars.

This year’s results saw a 19 per cent increase in sales compared to last year’s figures, thanks to the higher volume of blue-chip offerings, with sales of more than $US 128 million (AU $200 million).

Gooding Christie’s sold 153 lots in the two-day auction where 27 lots sold for more than US $1 million, and the average price per lot sold was $847,262, ($1.3m).

There were many glam cars including a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Competizione which went for a brain-numbing $25,305,000, (AU $35.6m).

It became the most valuable car to ever be auctioned by Gooding Christie’, topping the previous best price for that model by nearly $7 million ($11m).

But a car with probably the best history of the lot was one built 63 years before that lovely Ferrari.

It was a Panhard-Levassor M4E 'Course'/Racing Type Paris-Amsterdam 'Americaine' Four-Seater, built in 1898, which sold for $1,380,000, ($2.15m) effectively setting a new world record at auction for the French marque.

It was a ‘works-prepared’ factory racing car and understood to be the world’s earliest surviving intact racing car.

The M4E was one of the first cars to amalgamate each of Panhard’s innovations. It was one of the first racers with a steering wheel, pneumatic tyres instead of the preceding solid items, a front mounted radiator and aluminium gearbox castings.

Its 2143cc side-valve inline four-cylinder engine produced 8 horse power and was fed by a Panhard-Levassor Krebbs carburetter,

Transmission was by a four-speed manual with forward/reverse selector and it had rear mechanical drum and transmission brakes.

Front and rear axles were suspended on semi-elliptical leaf springs.

All of 127 years ago, this Panhard-Levassor lined up to compete at the latest of the arduous tests for the incubatory motor industry: the city-to-city races.

This particular race – from Paris to Amsterdam and back – was the most ambitious.

The event was held over seven days, split into categories of racing, touring, and motorcycles, and the vehicles were to make a series of daily journeys or races.

The Panhard-Levassor journeyed from Paris to the Chateau d’Ardennes (294km), then onto Nimegue (251km), arriving in Amsterdam (112km) on July 9, where the fleet of racers rested for three days.

For the return, they traversed to Liège (270km), through Luxembourg to Verdun (260km) and arrived back in Paris on Bastille Day (243km).

For the touring cars, a less arduous 11-day route was planned.

In eight years, Panhard et Levassor had grown from building a handful of cars a year to supplying passenger and commercial vehicles, but its most innovative edge was in racing.

After four years of experience in racing and tours, the company carefully honed a format which would become the industry standard – the Système Panhard.

The cars entered at the Paris-Amsterdam were refined in a number of key respects.

Firstly, they were immediately distinguishable from any that preceded them, for they debuted a steering wheel in place of tiller steering, which was present even months earlier at the Paris-Dieppe.

It was a logical innovation due to the ever-increasing performance of Panhard’s racing cars and the need to manage corners at greater speeds.

The steering wheel may not sound like groundbreaking technology today, but it was and it is a watershed moment in racing technology.

Steering and roadholding were also improved by the use of Michelin pneumatic tires.

The Panhard racers were all powered by the latest M4E-Phènix engines, their nominal 8 hp providing at least 40 mph (65km/h) performance on the road.

Running gear and coachwork were lightened, with the normally bronze castings for crankcase and gearbox replaced by aluminium.

They dominated the city-to-city races entirely.

The winning drive of the Paris-Amsterdam was by Fernand Charron who covered the 1432km in 33.4 hours, or an average of 43km/h over the course of six driving days.

In fact, first and three more top six places were taken by Panhard M4Es.

The company had entered six or seven ‘works’ cars in the event.

The Automotor and Horseless Vehicle Journal summarised: “It will be seen that the speeds attained were really very high, the highest being more than twice that allowed by the British law.”

In March 1899, despite not having sold any four-cylinder racing cars in 1897 or 1898, Panhard et Levassor sold five cars with consecutive engine numbers: 1451, 1452, 1453, 1454, and 1455, as well as engine number 1516.

These were the cars campaigned the previous year.

Of that batch, the one sold at Pebble Beach was the sole survivor.

Later that summer, another Paris-Amsterdam-specification car (1617) was acquired by none other than Charles Rolls, who took it to the UK and, undoubtedly impressed by the marque’s performance and superior engineering, quickly became a Panhard et Levassor agent before founding his eponymous company.

That car is still resides in a British institution today.

Number 1451 was later owned by the Laveissière family of Paris, who were sponsors of the 1896 Paris-Marseille-Paris race, and by a M Maye and many years later it went to Mike Timms, a UK collector of early motorcars.

He was building a stable of London to Brighton cars in the 1990s, and bought 1451 for his collection in 1995.

Mr Timms then embarked on a thorough restoration of 1451.

Thereafter, the car ran successfully on the centennial London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 1996.

It quickly overtook the more pedestrian early machinery and was first across the line 25 minutes ahead of the next finisher.

It won in 1997 and ’98 as well.

Later in Timms’ 30-year ownership, a “Course”-type body was built for 1451, moving the rear-seat portion of the body forward to serve as the main seating.

In that guise, 1451 was displayed around the UK and Europe.

While undeniably sporting in this form, the majority of early touring events were sociable affairs, and 1451 was later returned to its original and current form as an Americaine four-person seater.

This 19th century Course Type Paris-Amsterdam racer is both incredibly important and a testament to Panhard’s foresight in making cars practical by design.

Chassis 1451 remains eminently usable today, further enhanced by the addition of a modern starter motor.

Back to the big auction: The Pebble Beach First-in-Class winning 1929 Bentley Speed Six Drophead Coupe, with body by Saoutchik achieved $2,150,000 ($3.35m).

Ferrari represented a significant portion of the catalogue, accounting for six out of the top 10 lots.

The record-setting California Spider Competizione was joined by two additional California Spiders: a beautiful 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold for $7,550,000 ($10.4m) and the 1957 250 GT LWB California Spider Prototipo, the first California Spider built, went for a similar amount.

More auction records for important models of the Prancing Horse name included the 365 GTB/4 model with the ex-Le Mans 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione Series III, which achieved $8,145,000 (about $12.6m).

Additionally, the Touring-bodied 1950 Ferrari 166 MM/195 S Berlinetta Le Mans delivered new to Briggs Cunningham was sold immediately post auction for an undisclosed figure.

Gooding Christie’s also offered a strong roster of modern supercars, featuring icons such as the 1990 Ferrari F40, which sold for $3,800,000, (about $6m) and the 1994 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport which realised $2,755,000 ($3.5m).

Blue-chip selections from the 1950s and 1960s era bode well and included a 1952 Jaguar C-Type, which sold for a remarkable $3,635,000 ($5.66m) and the 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT, for $3,195,000 ($5m).

All three offerings from Mercedes-Benz’s classic 300 SL line also sold on the block for strong figures: a late-production 1963 300 SL Roadster went for $2,150,000, ($3.4m) the unrestored 1956 300 SL Gullwing for $1,572,500, ($2.5m) and the 1957 300 SL Roadster achieved a similar amount.

There were also cars from notable collections, including those of famed Hollywood director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

The top lot of the Francis Ford Coppola Collection was the 1948 Tucker 48, which sold for $1,545,000, ($2.4m) and came with a magnum of Inglenook Rubicon wine, as well as an invitation to the Coppola family's historic Inglenook estate in Rutherford, California for a private tour and wine tasting.