Discover the 10 vintage cars that hit the counters in the auction rooms in 2021. Of course, this ranking includes Italian and English sports cars from the 1950s and 1960s, but the record for the year is held by a McLaren F1.
Pandemic, health restrictions, travel restrictions, business interruptions … these constraints, which have punctuated the life of the world with heavy economic consequences in this year 2021, would seem almost anecdotal in the most affluent circles. This is evidenced by certain price records reached at car auctions that have taken place over the past twelve months. Hagerty, an insurance and market analysis firm specializing in exceptional cars, has drawn up the list of the ten most expensive cars of the year. They all have in common that they are sporty, rare, and in perfect condition. For once, it is not a Ferrari which is at the top of the ranking. But six cars adorned with the prancing horse are included.
TO READ. The 10 most expensive cars sold at auction in 2020
6 m for the “cheapest” of the top 10
In tied tenth position are a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT TdF Coupé and a 1955 Jaguar Type D Roadster, each auctioned for $ 6 million (5.3 million euros) by RM Sotheby’s. The Italian, a rare light blue crossed by a dark red stripe, had as its first owner the French pilot Jacques Péron. The latter requested a unique configuration from Ferrari, including an engine with specifications of 250 TR. But the manufacturer, in a hurry to finish the car so that Péron could enter him on the Tour de France, did not fulfill his client’s wishes. Never mind, Péron finished fourth in the race. The Jaguar, for its part, is decked out in an equally atypical red and can count on three consecutive Type D wins at Le Mans to ensure its value.
The F1 McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25A, at the wheel of which Lewis Hamilton won the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, was sold for $ 6,480,100 (€ 5.7 million) by RM Sotheby’s on the occasion of the last British Grand Prix . The British champion’s first F1 to be offered for sale, the single-seater also saw its driver battling with Michael Schumacher at the Chinese Grand Prix the same year. The two men are to date the only seven-time world champions in the discipline.
Exceptional Ferraris exchanged
It was in France that was sold by RM Sotheby’s on November 19 on the Castellet circuit with other lots from the Guikas collection, an extremely rare Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione Pinin Farina. This 1955 prototype was produced in only three copies in this configuration. It was restored by Ferrari in 1977 following an accident twelve years earlier, then its engine was rebuilt by a specialist in the brand in 1995. The car changed hands for € 6,192,500.
Ferrari still, a 275 GTB “Long Nose” from 1966 which took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times and won a category victory at Le Mans but also at Spa-Francorchamps and Imola was sold for $ 7,705,000 (6.8 M €). And a 1962 268 SP Spider with Fantuzzi body, the only one remaining and the only one engaged by the factory, asked for the same price. Both were sold at auctions organized by RM Sotheby’s during the last Monterey Car Week.
Matra panics the counters
A true piece of French motorsport history, the Matra MS 670 auctioned by Artcurial as part of the Retromobile 2021 show, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1972 at the hands of Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill then restored in the 2000s, found a taker for € 6,907,200.
Aston Martin does not discount
On the third step of the podium is one of the 19 original Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, victorious in its class at Brands Hatch in 1962 and sold for $ 9,520,000 (€ 8.4m) in the same auction as the last ones. two Ferraris mentioned. Ferrari 250 California LWB Spider Competizione breaks $ 10 million mark with glass lights from 1959, of which only ten copies were produced. The car was sold for $ 10,840,000 (€ 9.6 million) in Monterey by Gooding & Co.
A record for a McLaren F1
At the same Gooding & Co. sale in Monterey, a McLaren F1 created a surprise. Estimated at “more than” 15 million dollars, a value which already reflected a rating skyrocketing in recent years, the coupe became the most expensive McLaren in auction history and the most expensive car in sales of 2021 by trading for $ 20,465,000 (€ 18.1 million). This 1995 copy, one of the 106 McLaren F1s produced, sports a unique finish combining a metallic brown bodywork and upholstery combining shades of light and dark brown. Its first purchaser was in Japan. The car had only 390 km on the odometer at the time of sale.
