A look back at ‘Amelia 2023’

Upon surveying his packed concours d’elegance show field at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Fla., McKeel Hagerty, chairman of The Amelia concours and CEO of insurer Hagerty, said, “I think we’ve finally broken through to what you see in Monterey (at Pebble Beach). Four related auction events, Cars & Community, The Hangar.” He said the auctions during concours week set four different records for marques represented at the sales.

At its sale held during The Amelia, Gooding & Company sold a Ferrari 250 GT California Spider, stunning in turquoise and one of only 37 with covered headlamps, for just over $18 million. It became the most valuable car sold all week, and also priciest car ever sold at auction at Amelia Island. Two Ferrari Dinos also set records, with one selling for $967,600. Also, two AMG Mercedes-Benz Hammers smashed previous top sales, with a coupe selling for $885,000. And an Acura Integra Type-R climbed to $151,200.

Overall, auction sales were record-setting, reaching $178 million altogether. Sell-through was 84 percent at the auctions, down slightly from the previous year.

With results such as those, Hagerty said the market is still strong, but is off moderately since Pebble Beach; he’s seeing higher prices paid for more modern sports and supercars. And pinches in the financial markets, he said, have led some big-ticket buyers to have to “move money around” before making a multi-million-dollar purchase.

“It’s a changing dynamic of how cars are bought,” he said.

Hagerty now runs three concours events; in addition to The Amelia, there’s another in Greenwich, Conn., and a third in Detroit, and Hagerty said no other acquisitions are currently in the works.

In addition, Hagerty has entered the live auction arena, and this year, its Broad Arrow Auctions sale was the official auction of The Amelia.

Will online auctions overtake live auctions? Hagerty said that, within a year, he expects online sales overall will surpass results from live auction events. Transportation costs have made getting cars to in-person events a challenge, he said, but there is still plenty of life in the traditional approach. In 2022, online sales were $1.5 billion, and live auctions totaled $1.8 billion, Hagerty said.

The concours field of The Amelia was full of spectacular cars in interesting classes: Porsche 959s; Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts; Le Mans winners (including both Jaguar C- and D-Types); historic ’50s customs (including a wild George Barris 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air that was once briefly owned by a murderer on the lam); “Fiberglass Dreams” (including rare examples from Siebler and Devin); and a slew of race categories that included Corvettes at Le Mans (including the Cunningham car that came in eighth overall in 1960). One never expects to see one of these cars, let alone rows of them.

Individual cars impressed. An unusual 1954 Siata 208 CS with disappearing headlamps was one of 11. It was essentially wrecked in 2017 when a Toyota operated by a cellphone-distracted driver hit it in Stratford, Conn., but now it’s better than new.

A huge 1921 Hispano-Suiza H6B Tourer by Chevret was proudly unrestored. A 1936 Derby Bentley 4-1/4-liter had unusual rear-sliding doors. Ever heard of Bucciali? On the field was a 1931 Bucciali TAV3. Like Bugatti, Bucciali was a car made by Italians in France. Built until 1933, Buccialis sported front-wheel drive and a very early automatic transmission. A 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom Riviera town car featured fetching basket-weave decoration on its back section. Drivers sat on leather, passengers on cloth — a once-common town car feature still seen on some modern Rolls-Royce models such as the Platino, which features bamboo-derived fabrics.

Also present was Amelia Earhart’s supercharged 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton, which was delivered to her in 1936, a year before her disappearance. Her Cord was built late that year, equipped with a no-brainer accessory — a compass. The car looks gorgeous now.

From 1956 came GM design chief Bill Mitchell’s Buick Century X with 225 innovations, including eight-way swivel seats and power headrests (Old Cars, May 1, 2019). It was amazing, but not quite as crazy as Peter Mullin’s 1935 Voisin C25 Aerodyne, a unique car from almost every angle. Details of this Paris show car included chrome straps between the fenders and grille, and an almost garish black, white and grey art deco interior. The design was quirky but right, and among the more conservative of the Voisins. It was unmistakably French, and deservedly earned The Amelia’s Best of Show Concours d’Elegance.

A display of Volkswagen Transporters included work vans, a version with tank-type treads, a Jerry Garcia art tribute and the Woodstock Bus — famously photographed there, and now fully restored and a documentary subject. The historic models framed the ID. Buzz, VW’s 2024 electric retro version of the original Microbus.

General Motors had an impressive stand featuring electric models both in production — the Hummer, the Lyriq, the Celestiq — and in concept — the Wildcat EV and two E-Ray Corvettes. The Wildcat was considerably more fanciful while the E-Rays looked ready for the showroom.

The auction sheds were full this year, both with cars and bidders as the crowds returned. At Gooding & Company, the California Spider was the unquestioned star — and on a pedestal to prove it. A passerby asked what set it apart from much cheaper Ferraris (a ’64 500 Superfast that sold for just over $2 million and a ’67 275 GTB/4 sold for $3.5 million across the way). The aggressive good looks, unique color, period auto show exhibition, awards won, convertible top and one-of-37 explained it.

Gooding’s 1949 Alfa-Rome 6C 2500 Super Sport Cabriolet, bodied by Pininfarina, sold for $434,000. It was gorgeous — and typical of the period. Auto plants in Italy, Germany and France were in ruins after the war, and engineering had come to a standstill, so prewar chassis were clothed in modern bodywork. Somehow it worked. Glimpsed in downtown Fernandina Beach and on the show field was another 6C 2500-powered special with much rarer Riva Merate coachwork. The racy Alfa, with echoes of Pegaso, had onlookers scratching their heads. The car had won concours awards in 1950.

Some of the entrants would appeal to bidders with big checkbooks. A short-wheelbase 1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 with fraying cloth upholstery had a note affixed saying it needed “hydraulic work for windows, rear seat and trunk.” Such work doesn’t come cheap, but the sale price was “just” $78,400.

Fascinating at Bonhams was a brace of derelict, out-of-the-barn Jaguar XKs and an E-Type that were part of the Thomas C. Hendricks Collection. One of these was a rare XK-120 factory lightweight raced by Phil Hill and others in period. It was in tatters, with that long-neglected look. But a factory lightweight is very valuable, decrepit or not, and thus a $400,000 to $600,000 valuation.

A big attraction at RM Sotheby’s, which is leaving The Amelia after this year, was a spectacular 2010 Pagani Zonda R Evolution racer, which sold for $5,340,000. A 1931 Duesenberg Model J Murphy convertible coupe reached $4,295,000. Someone paid $3,965,000 for a 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO coupe there, and another paid $2.590,000 for a 1953 Maserati A6GCS.53 Spyder.

But for pure astonishment, there was a 1934 Tatra T77, with its massive tail fin, rounded bodywork (in 1934!) and rear-mounted V-8. It was beautifully restored, and offered at $500,000 to $700,000.

At the RM Sotheby’s auction, founder Bill Warner was honored, and Rob Myers, the company’s CEO, led an effort that raised $1.2 million for spina bifida, a primary cause for Warner and his retirement focus.

An interesting find at the Broad Arrow auction was a pristine 1967 Saab V-4 wagon, estimated at $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $47,040. They were once commonplace, but how often do you see one now? Competitive with contemporary Bentley racers was a marque not as storied today — Vauxhall. The 1924 Vauxhall 30-98 OE Type Velox boasted 112 hp and was the world’s first 200 mph car, the signage said. Estimated at $500,000 to $600,000, it failed to sell. Of considerably more recent vintage was a 1964 Jaguar 3.8 Series 1 with a useful five-speed manual, listed at $160,000 to $200,000 (and sold for $145,600). Younger still was a 1991 BMW 850i 12-cylinder with less than 2,000 kilometers on the clock, sold for $162,500 — well over its estimate of $125,000 to $150,000.

The Amelia cars tour the island on the Friday before the concours, and stop in downtown Fernandina Beach for lunch, where they are met with massive crowds. There were many highlights, but perhaps the most significant car there was a red racing MG-Cooper with British JOY 500 registration. The car’s styling would be instantly recognizable to fans of the AC Cobra, the car it preceded and inspired. But even the Cooper had Ferrari styling roots. The Cooper was a very successful racer in Britain, and gets credit as the Cobra’s granddaddy. And there it was parked in downtown Fernandina Beach, among the Delahayes and Buick Roadmasters.

Austria’s Denzel, which built cars closely resembling the contemporary Porsche 356, with Volkswagen, Porsche and, yes, Denzel power, was a featured marque at The Amelia, and four or five of the 1300 models in road and racing form made it downtown. Considering that only 62 were built to 1960, the showing of the little bathtubs was impressive.

Rolls-Royce brought the company’s design director, Anders Warming, to the Ritz-Carlton to talk about the electric Spectre, which hits the market in the fourth quarter of this year. The very slippery (0.25 coefficient of drag) Spectre will have an estimated 260-mile range. It’s a clean sheet of paper for Rolls, and Warming pointed to the illuminated waterfall grille and stars in the door panels as company firsts. Could the grille have been eliminated entirely, since there’s no radiator?

Held on the Saturday night before the concours was the first Hangar event, held at the airport’s Bent Wing Flight Services. The cars, an eclectic bunch, sat alongside vintage airplanes, such as a 1938 Lockheed 12A. Looking right at home was an unrestored Delage that Connecticut’s Redline Restorations found in pieces in a French barn. Other highlights were a rare 1960 DKW 1000 that was the spitting image of a 1957 Thunderbird, and a super-exclusive Spyker.

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