The pre-war car took top honors at the event.
The Duesenberg J Figoni Sports Torpedo owned by Lee Anderson was the winner of the Best of Show on the lawn of the Pebble Beach Golf Links. The American car had won before.
The chairman of the annual concours said in a statement that the car was American and European in style. The story of its resurrection is passionate.
Pre-war and immediately post-war vehicles with long and complicated names, like a 1937 Talbot-Lago T150C-SS Figoni & Falaschi, were some of the vehicles parked on the 18th fairway.
Adorned with intricate hood ornaments in the shape of large birds, women, and even divers, the heavy, large coaches evoke images of glorious pasts where mysterious saloons would sweep along the road. The cars were owned by the richest and most powerful people of the day.
Duesenberg was ordered new in Paris by Antonio Chopitea, a Peruvian sugar baron, and then shipped to the US.
The concours is the culmination of Monterey Car Week, a five-day long Super Bowl of sorts for car-lovers. Specialty car shows, vintage car races, and dozens of new-car debuts were highlights of early events. Monterey Car Week is being called the new auto show.
The auctions were the biggest draw for many people.
According to data from automotive insurance provider, Hagerty, totals after the final auction hit a new high of $456.1 million, beating the previous high of $394.47 million set in 2015. The week put an exclamation point on what has been an unprecedented year for the collector car market.
Since many cars that went unsold at public auctions are then sold privately in the days after, the totals of the auction houses tend to go up as the week goes on. By the morning of August 22, after-sales had increased the week's haul to $469 million, up 18.9% over last year.
Although that worth considering that the record sales total comes amidst a time of high inflation. The dollar is depreciating more and more.
Still, an unprecedented number of million-dollar cars—113 in total—sold. The average sale price of all cars was $583,211, up from a $446,042 average last year, while multimillion-dollar hammer prices made up roughly three-quarters of total sales.Industry insiders and market experts had predicted that recent stock market volatilities, the war in Ukraine, and exchange rate between US dollar and euro would not affect the world's biggest spenders.
Juan Diego Calle, the CEO of Classics.com, said in an email that there was no sign of a recession.
The top-selling car over the weekend was a 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport that sold for $22 million. The 1923 Hispano-Suiza H6C transformable torpedo sold for $9.245 million, and the 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Sindelfingen Roadster sold for $9.9 million. The family-operated house had top sales of $221.7 million with a 90% sell-through rate, up considerably over the previous year. The average price of a car sold at the auction house was more than one million dollars.
Some people didn't see such results.
The official auction house of the concours, Gooding & Co., realized more than 105 million dollars in sales and an 80% sell-through rate, down from $106 million and 87% in the previous year. The 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante that sold for $10.34 million was the top seller.
A total of $50.8 million worth of cars were sold by Mecum, which was down from the previous year. The average sale price of the top lot was less than $174,000.
Bonhams had $27.8 million in cumulative sales over the week. The $32 million in sales was down from the previous year.
All of the top 10 sales were posted by Gooding & Co., and all of them left Bonhams, Mecum, and Broad Arrow to fight for scraps. The blue chip standard for collectible cars in the modern era was set by six of the top 10 sellers. Their values have gone up over time.
Calle of Classics.com predicted that BroadArrow would be a force to be reckoned with.
Cars from the ’80s and ’90s continued to show the most appreciation and interest. They are part of a change.
August 20, 2023 is when the 72nd pebble beach concours d'Elegance will take place. You can get tickets here.
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