Shelby, Ferrari & Jag Rake In The Cash At Monterey

OK, what is collectively known as The Monterey Weekend is over and things have started to cool down a bit. Now that the trophies have been handed out, the races won, the concours entrants thoroughly ogled, a fair assessment can be done. As far as the big buck sellers at the big time glitzy auctions are concerned, the winners are Shelby, Ferrari and Jaguar

Let's go through these in order, shall we?

First up, the Shelby Daytona.

The folks at Mecum Auction scored big in their first showing at Monterey by getting $7.25 million (gulp!) for the championship-winning 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe chassis number CSX2601. Turns out that this was the highest ever bid for an American car, and it's not like Daytona Coupes don't deserve it. The pedigree for chassis number CSX2601 is very impressive. It competed at Daytona, Monza, Spa and the Nurburgring. At the July 4 round of the sportscar championship in Reims, France, CSX2601 made history when it was the car to clinch the 1965 World Manufacturers Championship.

Next, the Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider

Yes, that's the same type of car that caused this conversation:

Cameron: The 1961 Ferrari 250GT California. Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion.

Ferris: It is his fault he didn't lock the garage.

In this case, auctioneers Gooding & Company, sold a1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider for a very healthy $2,750,000. To me, and this is just my opinion, that car is worth every nickel. Flat out gorgeous, great driver and that V12 engine sound. Gooding & Company also auctioned off Ettore Bugatti's personal 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Special Coupe for $1,375,000, and a 1953 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Drop Head Coupe for a paltry $1,650,000.

Finally, the 1952 Jaguar C-Type.

God, what an alluring car. This particular C-Type, chassis XKC-007, was offered up by RM Auctions was built in 1952 and was one of the first C-Types delivered to North America. In that same year, a young Phil Hill, who was just 25 at the time, raced it at Elkhart Lake to claim the C-Type's first North American victory, before going on to achieve another win at Torrey Pines that same year. Phil Hill's son had the pleasure of driving it out on the auction stage. It sold for a measly $2,530,000.

Source: Classical Drives. Photos from Flickr users Simon Davison, ANITA.trans and Ed Callow.