A Ferrari 275 was Amelia Island’s top lot for the second year in a row, as a 1965 GTB sold for $2,205,000 at RM Sotheby’s on 8-9 March. A total of $80.1m changed hands across the weekend in Florida, more than $500,000 down on last year despite the addition of Russo and Steele’s sale alongside those of RM Sotheby’s, Gooding & Company and Bonhams.
Seven of the top 10 lots were sold at RM Sotheby’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel auction, including the second most lucrative: a 1900-mile Cobra 427 that fetched $1.79m. Yet the much-vaunted competition Cobra and a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Tourer by Corsica both missed their reserves. The latter would have comfortably taken top lot, stopping at $5.7m in the bidding against an estimate of $6-7.5m. Meanwhile, a 1933 Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix car went for a mere $758,500 versus its $1.25-1.6m estimate.
A Packard 734 Speedster Runabout led the way at Gooding & Co, which filled the three remaining slots in the top 10; the 734 sold just inside its estimate at $1,765,000.
The Porsche 918 Weissach that went under Gooding & Co’s hammer for $1,490,000 was the week’s most expensive of its type, $300,000 shy of its lower estimate. At Bonhams, an ex-Jacky Ickx Brabham BT26 crept $5000 into its guide at $1,105,000, but the 1930 Cadillac Series 452 V-16 Roadster was its priciest sale by hitting $1,187,500. Russo and Steele’s top lot was a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing that’s had one owner for more than four decades. It sold for $990,000, more than $300,000 under its lower estimate.
