The 10 Most Expensive Cars Sold at the 2017 Monterey Auctions, Day 2

Bentley’s factory racing team dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1927 through 1930, with the pinnacle of this success being the Speed Six model. The roadgoing version of the Speed Six was remarkably similar to the racing cars, which, for instance, had 25-quart oil sumps aiding lubrication for their 6.5-liter inline-six engines.

This example features a gorgeous body crafted by Corsica Coachworks of London. In 1959, the Bentley traveled across the Atlantic Ocean on a cargo ship with its owners, who then drove it from Montreal to Winnipeg via the United States. In both 1981 and 1982, the next owner drove it from Portland, Oregon, to Monterey, California, where it was exhibited at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance; it returned there in 1985. Clearly, these cars were made to devour miles.

Few cars in the world will attract more attention than this U.S.-spec LaFerrari in Giallo Modena paint. Ferrari’s hypercar is rare and impressive enough, but paint it yellow, and there’s no hope of blending in with traffic—or society.

Too bad the first owner put only 200 miles on the odometer. In any event, this is an excellent return on investment for a two-year-old car that sported an original MSRP of around $1.4 million. Lesson: Supercars don’t cost money; they make money.

This dazzling Zagato-bodied example of Maserati’s first postwar sports car has quite a story. It was originally purchased in San Francisco and saw action at area racetracks until 1961. After the car was retired from racing, its owner ditched the original engine in favor of a Buick V-8. Don’t panic—the Maserati received a period-correct engine from a different A6G in 1986 and was eventually reunited with its long-lost original engine in 2008.

Along the way, this car wore coats of gray and silver paint and sported a black interior. Thankfully, since rejoining with its factory-installed twin-cam aluminum-block 2.0-liter inline-six, the A6G has been restored to its as-delivered specification, a fact that no doubt enhanced its value.

This Ferrari hasn’t always looked like this. Two months after it left the factory with different bodywork, it raced in the Targa Florio and in the Mille Miglia. In the second race, in the hands of owner Umberto Marzotto, it was “crashed heavily,” according to RM Sotheby’s. Umberto’s brother Giannino, however, won the 1950 Mille Miglia, and he had a plan to make this car more competitive in future events, commissioning sculptor Franco Reggiani to design a lighter, more aerodynamic body, which coachbuilder Fontana would craft.

With the distinctive skin you see here, the car returned to the Mille Miglia in 1951, where—with Giannino at the wheel—it led a factory-backed Ferrari by as much as 19 miles before succumbing to tire problems. It again started strong in ’52 but failed to finish. It was prepared for the ’53 Mille Miglia—which Giannino Marzotto again won—but didn’t compete. The car found its way to North America that same year, when it was prepped to compete in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana but did not start. In the 1980s, it returned to Europe, where it received a restoration in time to participate in the 1986 Mille Miglia. Aside from its highly visible racing appearances from decades ago, this eye-catching Ferrari has rarely been seen in public. Its new owner is welcome to bring it by the Car and Driver office anytime.

When new, the 250GT cabriolet cost about $3000 more than the sportier 250 California Spider, which has since leapfrogged its 250 sibling in value. But that more gradual appreciation rate is no reason to disregard cabriolets like this one, which is the last of 40 Series I Pinin Farina cabriolets.

Toward the end of the last century, its 2953-cc V-12—shared with the California—twice powered it in the Colorado Grand and the Copperstate 1000, two challenging long-distance tours for vintage cars. Here’s hoping its new owner takes this remarkably original blue cabriolet out on the open road once again.

In its original, 118LM form, this car was a factory entry in the 1955 Mille Miglia, driven by Paolo Marzotto, whose brothers campaigned the 1950 Ferrari 166MM that is #7 on this list. In that race, the car retired after blowing a tire at 174 mph in the first stage. Following the ’55 Mille Miglia, this striking Spider went back to the factory, which upgraded it to this 121LM spec (Ferrari created only four 121LMs). In this form, it competed in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by Maurice Trintignant and Harry Schell. Engine trouble ended its run in the 10th hour, but a sister car recorded the fastest lap in practice and exceeded 180 mph in some sections of the famous French track.

In 1955 and ’56, no longer part of the Ferrari works team, this car notched numerous podium finishes on the street courses and airfields of California. At Pebble Beach in April of 1956, California hot-rodder Ernie McAfee perished in the car after missing a shift and hitting a pine tree. The car was soon repaired, and today it retains its original 121LM-spec straight-six, a 4412-cc engine rated at a stout 360 horsepower.

To create the DB4 GT, Aston Martin chopped five inches from the DB4’s wheelbase, resulting in shorter doors and the loss of the back seat. This is the prototype that was used to guide the GT into production. RM Sotheby’s points out that the modifications were made “by cutting a very early DB4 platform chassis in two with the floor join reinforced by a fishplate, still visible today.” The DB4 GT also had thinner, 18-gauge aluminum body panels and an uprated engine fed by a trio of Weber carburetors. Back then, prototypes were more than test beds—they had to perform, too. Days after laying down some fast laps at Le Mans in April of 1959, it returned to England, where Stirling Moss set a track record at Silverstone and cruised to victory in a 12-lap GT race at the International Trophy Meeting.

Back at Le Mans in June, this DB4 GT’s new engine—smaller for La Sarthe—gave up after 21 laps. Converted to road-car spec, it was displayed in October to help launch the new body style. (In Car and Driver’s June 1961 issue, we marveled at this very car’s ability to accelerate from zero to 100 mph and back to zero in 24 seconds, which we recalled in a 1998 test of tuner cars that tracked their abilities to go from rest to 150 mph and back again.) When Aston Martin was finished with the car, company loyalist Gerald Lascelles, the queen’s cousin, bought it. Other previous owners include Mike Salmon, who raced at Le Mans a number of times, and comedian Rowan Atkinson. In 1989, the car was restored by Aston Martin to its 1959 Le Mans presentation—but with the bigger engine that was installed following that event. Upon completion, this car won its class at the 1989 Pebble Beach concours. Aston built just 75 DB4 GTs, some of which wore lightweight body panels; for comparison, the values of production lightweight DB4 GTs currently top out at about $3.5 million.

The Porsche 917 is one of the most successful racing cars in history. This particular 917 is the first that was tested in revised, short-tail K form (K standing for Kurz, or short). In this car, Brian Redman set the fastest times in a practice session at Le Mans in April 1970. Another 917K would go on to win Le Mans in June (and in 1971), but this car did not turn a wheel in competition. Instead, it was sold to accomplished racing driver Jo Siffert, who soon leased it to Solar Productions for use in the at-speed filming of Steve McQueen’s Le Mans. (Gooding & Company points out that this car “still retains the mounting points used to affix camera rigging to its rear frame tubes.”)

When the car was back in Siffert’s care after filming, he memorably drove it to his birthday party in July 1971, six weeks before he won the Austrian Grand Prix. Sadly, Siffert died in a race car in October 1971, and this car led the funeral procession. After years of laying dormant in a Paris warehouse, this 917 was rediscovered in 2001. The car has since been carefully restored, and it possesses a period-correct 630-hp 5.0-liter flat-12 engine and a five-speed manual transmission. See it in action on Gooding’s YouTube channel.

When we first reported test numbers on the McLaren F1 in 1994, it was 0.4 second quicker to 60 mph than the previous record holder, the Porsche 959. The F1’s 3.2-second sprint to 60 wasn’t eclipsed until we coerced a Mosler MT900S to a 3.1-second time in 2006. McLaren built only 106 F1s in all, of which 64 were road legal. Only seven of those were painstakingly federalized for street-legal use in the United States; this car is the first of that batch.

Prior to this F1’s initial shipment to the United States, the original owner and two close friends filled the McLaren’s unique three-seat cabin for a 4000-plus-mile road trip through England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The car remained with its original owner until yesterday. We imagine that 15 million bucks helps soften the blow of losing such an old friend.

Talk about credentials. This very car won the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometers in 1959; with Stirling Moss at the helm, it reset the lap record 16 times over the course of the race. Its sister car won Le Mans that year, still the only Aston to win the famous endurance race outright.