RM Auctions Monaco: How The Other Half Live

One car. That’s all it took.

I was curious about an ad for just one car so I clicked on the page and it took me into another world.

I know you can get some exotic stuff at car auctions, but this is something else. As I scrolled through the list of cars for sale I was left wondering how there could be so much exotica in one place, how there could be so many cashed up people in the one place all with the same automotive interest.

Below are a few selections from the upcoming RM Auctions sale to be held in Monaco, on May 17.

The Good

Fiat 130 Coupe – Engine design by Ferrari. Body design and manufacture by Pininfarina. It’s 1970’s gentrified motoring, Italian style, and it makes a quaint starting point.

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Lancia Fulvia HF – It’s too early for RM to have descriptions up on site so it’s hard to know if this is a genuine Fanalone, but it’s got the big headlamps and being a 1969, it’ll have the aluminium doors, bonnet and boot. Even though I find the name ‘Jolly Club’ a little strange (it was a racing team), this car is uber-cool.

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Alfa Romeo 8C – Alfa’s modern design masterpiece only qualifies as ‘good’. Seriously.

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Mercedes 190 SL Roadster – Elegant. Beautiful. But in this company, it feels a little average.

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The Really Good

1969 Lamborghini Miura – You know this is going to be a cracker auction when this is just one of the two Miura’s being offered for sale.

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Fiat Abarth 695 SS – OK, I’m probably playing this one up a bit, but it’s pretty rare and I like a little car that can.

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De Tomaso Mangusta – Some interesting history (thanks Wikipedia!) on the Mangusta: there was a failed agreement between Carrol Shelby and DeTomaso and they named this one the Mangusta because it’s Italian for ‘mongoose’, an animal known for it’s ability to kill Cobras.

It’s no Cobra-killer, but it’s still quite rare and beautiful.

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Iso Revolta IR300 GT – The IR 300 GT had a beautiful body by Bertone and potent power plant options for the early 1960’s, with either 300hp or 340hp available.

‘Revolta’ – not a good word to have in your company name.

This one’s more in the bard find category but will still fetch quality money.

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Iso Grifo – Because one Iso is rarely enough. The interior on this car is amazing.

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Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 – This one’s offered with no reserve so you might just get to pick it up cheap! Well, relatively cheap. All Ferrari 250’s sell for megabucks nowadays and I’m sure this longer 2+2 version will continue that trend. A beautiful car.

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Lamborghini 400GT 2+2 – Another super-elegant Italian exotic and another model that’s seeing two examples put up for sale at Monaco. The other one’s a Spyder conversion but I like this hardtop more.

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Whoa? They’re selling one of these?

Ferrari 365 Daytona – One of THE most desirable Ferraris as far as I’m concerned and while it won’t fetch the really big money yet, it’s only a matter of time.

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Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato – Pre-Fiat Lancias are growing in esteem and the prices they’re reaching reflects this. They don’t come up often, they’re beautifully engineered and look amazing.

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Aston Martin V8 Volante – I’ve included this in the Whoa! section because of what I think is some serious investment potential. Astons are going up and the 1980’s V8s are the ones trailing the trend, but following it nonetheless. It’s also here because it’s a 400+hp British muscle car that looks the dog’s bollocks.

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Porsche 356 Pre-A Speedster – Replicating Speedsters is big business nowadays, probably because the price of a real one made by Reutter Karossorie is so high. You might remember the twisted bits of rusty steel in the vague shape of a Speedster with a Reutter badge on it that I posted on site a few months ago. It sold at auction for $57,000.

This is one of those real Reutter ones. It’s magnificent. And it will sell for lots of money.

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Ferrari Enzo – It’s an Enzo. Need I say more?

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OK, now you’re just being silly

Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 – Eligibility for historic racing boosts price so a genuine Alfa Romeo racer with racing history is a recipe for frenzied bidding.

And aside from that, just look at it.

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Hesketh Formula One – Yes, a genuine Hesketh Formula One car, driven by a duo of eventual world champions in James Hunt and Alan Jones. Genuine pedigree, plus you get the best-ever reason to wear one of those funky Hesketh T-shirts.

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Toyota 2000GT – “The most desirable Toyota ever made” isn’t a sentence to send shivers down your spine, but the 2000GT is genuinely desirable and will no doubt put a decent hole in someone’s wallet.

It’s so nice it deserves a few extra photos.

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Bugatti Type 35B Grand Prix – And you thought sticking really big fancy wheels on a car was a new thing…..

“Recent Full Restoration” and “first supercharged T35” ensure big bucks, as does the name “Bugatti”.

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1982 Renault Formula One – So you missed out on the Hesketh? How about this genuine Formula One car from Renault, a former pole-winner at Monaco with Rene Arnoux at the wheel?

And don’t worry if you miss this one, too, because there are FIVE former F1 cars available in this auction, including a Monaco-winning Brabham from the 1960’s, a Tyrell from 1980 and a 1989 Ferrari raced by Gerhard Berger and restored at Ferrari’s own workshop!

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Buying old Formula One racers is how the other half live

This auction’s going to be amazing. I guess if you’re going to have it in Monaco, it has to be amazing. I’ll be very interested to see some of the prices these vehicles fetch.

If this is your world, congratulations. I hope you’re enjoying it. Do feel free to let us in for a sneak peek every now and then, OK?