Thursday 7th May 2015

The £1m Fiat: Under the Hammer

PH picks out the best lots from RM's upcoming Villa d'Este auction, including one very special Fiat

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Lake Como. Home of the holidaying Luca di Montezemolo, backdrop to much of Bond's Casino Royale, repository of more million-pound yachts than you can shake a plank of marine ply at and, of course, the world-renowned Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este.

On 23 May, Lake Como will see RM Auctions and Sotheby's open their doors to another sale of exotica at Villa d'Este. Looking at the sale catalogue, the dreamy Como backdrop seems to be inspiring prices that come straight from la-la-land.

£800K upper estimate...

Fiat, sir? £1m please
Leaping out among the auctioneers' estimates - many of which are likely to be achieved, given the current state of the investor market - is a 115hp Fiat that could be worth more than a million quid.

Admittedly, it's no Panda or Punto. In fact, it's a truly sensational machine - one of very few 8Vs ever made, and a one-off coachbuilt convertible at that. The 1953 Fiat 8V Cabriolet by Vignale has an upper estimate of £1.03m. If it achieves anything like that, it will surely rank as the priciest Fiat ever purchased.

The same could happen to the Austin-Healey marque. With prices of regular Healeys now nudging the £80K mark, the chance to own one of only 50 examples of the lightweight race-spec 100S ever made will cost you probably ten times that. Yes, £800,000 really is the upper estimate for a 1955 Austin-Healey 100S.

Targa Florio and Mille Miglia finishes in history

Other £1m bargains
These prices make some of the other lots look like positive bargains. Take, for example, that holy grail of 911s, the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Sport Lightweight. A 1973example is up for grabs here and it might just breach the £1m mark, according to the auction catalogue.

The Ferrari 288 GTO has long since passed into the realms of the hedge fund heavies. Sotheby's is estimating that the up-for-auction GTO could go for as much as £1.5m which is certainly conceivable.

Interstellar Ferraris
This being Italy, Ferraris feature large. A few prancing horses do stand out. The £5m-plus estimate for a 212 Export Barchetta by Touring seems entirely feasible. When we get to £9.5 million for a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider by Scaglietti (not dissimilar to the one owned by Chris Evans), we're perhaps into the realm of 'pink elephants on parade'.

Well if you're after the rarest car in the auction...

But things could go even higher, as evidenced by the "estimate on request" subtitle for a 250 GT SWB Competizione built by Scaglietti. It is possibly one of the most beautiful cars ever produced and, since a similar one sold two years ago for more than £5m, we could very well see some exceedingly silly money changing hands.

But my favourite car of the auction is one I didn't even know existed. It's a one-off coupe created by Italian coachbuilder Frua (of AC 428 fame) on a BMW-Glas 3000 V8- itself already one of the rarest of all European 1960s V8 exotics. With an estimate of around £350,000, and definitely not to everyone's liking, it's surely overpriced, but what a truly fabulous object it is.

 

[j90gta]

That Fiat really is a thing of great beauty. However I cannot agree with your opinion that the 911 RS 2.7 is the Holy Grail of 911s; Monkeyman got it right when he said the greatest ever 911 was the 1974 3.0 RS. If ever you get the chance to drive one, you'll see why!

[bubney72]

Gorgeous machines.

[thelawnet]

Stupid prices. In 2002 they couldn't get $150k for the Austin-Healey.

Just ridiculous.

[mc_blue]

thelawnet said:

Stupid prices. In 2002 they couldn't get $150k for the Austin-Healey.

Just ridiculous.

It's a shame puts classic cars out of reach - the market is crazy.

[daytona365]

.......Another rather nice 'Fiat'.