Pebble Beach 2016: Classic-car auctions start slowly
The first night of automobile auctions at this year’s Monterey Car Week ended with more of a whimper than a bang, with only two companies dropping the gavel and no surprising sales figures.
Mecum and Russo and Steele both held Thursday night auctions in Monterey. The combined total for the two houses was $4.7 million, according to numbers compiled by the classic car insurance company Hagerty.
That’s far below the $72 million sold through Thursday night in 2015, but that total included the extraordinary RM Sotheby’s Pinnacle collection sale, though, and was not representative of overall trends.
Mecum led the competition, turning over $3.7 million in vehicles. Among them were a late model Dodge Viper, a 1977 Ferrari 308 GTB, and a pair of Porsche Carreras.
Across town, at the Russo and Steele auction, $1 million in vehicles moved under the gavel. The auction house also sold a number of modern Porsches, but its highest-priced vehicle of the evening was a 2006 Bentley Continental GT Coupe that sold for $66,000.
And the top seller of the night? It wasn’t a classic car, or a car at all. A Mecum-offered 1913 Excelsior Big Valve Twin motorcycle sold for $110,000.
And even that sale was a little lower than expected. The Excelsior had been estimated to go for $125,000 to $150,000.
