Summer 2016 | Sea Island Life Magazine Spring/Summer 2016 | Page 70

The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO holds the all-time auction record at $38 million. In Demand New to the Block GT cars (for Grand Touring or Gran Turismo) have long been auction favorites. These highperformance luxury vehicles run a broad gamut from vintage Porsche, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo sports cars to classic Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz models. But the king of the GT auction block is Ferrari. The all-time auction record is $38 million for a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO purchased in August 2014 at a Bonhams’ Quail Lodge Auction. It beat the previous record of $30 million for a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R race car. Many of the other top-grossing auction sales of 2015 were also manufactured by the prestigious Italian marquee, including the $17.6 million purchase of a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM offered as part of RM Sotheby’s The Pinnacle Portfolio. Last year also saw a new benchmark for another vintage race car—a Jaguar 1953 C-Type Works Lightweight that sold for $13.2 million. However, Squindo says he has noticed a subtle yet definite evolution of buying habits within the last year. “Most notably, [there’s] a rise in values for modern supercars. ... Those who cherished models like the Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari 512 BB as ‘poster cars’ of their youth from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s find themselves [able to] purchase their very own drivable example.” Although sports and racing models continue to dominate top-seller lists, blue-chip American classics also have a strong following. RM Sotheby’s presentation of the Paul and Chris And