Bonhams will take over the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on 14 August for its behind-closed-doors Quail Motorcar Auction, the bidding for which will be submitted online or via the telephone. The auction is being held in place of Bonhams’ traditional Quail Lodge sale, which takes place further up the Californian coastline during Monterey Car Week.
Before we dive into the exquisite assembly of rare modern supercars that Bonhams has consigned, it would be unfair not to mention this trio of blue-chip headliners. Firstly, there’s the 1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Cabriolet Décapotable. With its original Figoni coachwork and matching-numbers driveline, the beautifully preserved pre-War drop-top has a pre-sale estimate of 6.5–7.5m US dollars.
In terms of eligibility to the world’s greatest historic motorsport meetings, road rallies and concours events, you’d be hard pushed to beat Bonhams’ 1935 Aston Martin Ulster, one of only 31 Ulsters and 10 Works cars (est. 1.2–1.4m dollars). To be fair, the same can be said of the late-production, period SCCA race-winning Porsche 718 RSK Spyder, a car that, remarkably, has had just three custodians since 1959. It’s estimated at 2.8–3.2m dollars.
While the rest of the 100-lot catalogue is littered with highly desirable classics, it’s the contemporary contingent that really piqued our interest, not least because of the very healthy results these sorts of limited-production modern supercars have publicly garnered in recent years.
The 1999 Lamborghini Diablo VT ‘Millennium Edition’ (200,000–250,000 dollars) and the 2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider (270,000–320,000 dollars) both tick a lot of our boxes in terms of rarity, originality and specification, but they pale in comparison to Bonhams’ sensational 2018 Bugatti Chiron, the only US-delivered example finished in full green carbon-fibre. The original owners forked out over 400,000 dollars on optional extras for this car, which goes some way to explain the 2.5–2.8m-dollar estimate.
Though it doesn’t necessarily float our boat, we’re intrigued to see how the 2017 Lamborghini Centenario fares when it goes under the hammer. Just 20 coupés were built in Sant’Agata and this yellow car has covered a mere 700 miles. It’s expected to fetch 2–2.3m dollars. You can find our favourite ‘modern classics’ from Bonhams’ Quail Motorcar Auction listed below or, alternatively, browse the entire catalogue in the Classic Driver Market.
