Cars

Twenty-twenty will go down in automotive history as the year in which collector car auctions finally went online. Pressured by a global crisis, all the major players have taken their business online, often with surprisingly positive results. As we approach August – traditionally the month of the big American flagship sales where the multi-million-dollar cars change hands – auctioneers will have to prove that they can hammer away blue-chip Porsches and Ferraris without relying on billionaire peer pressure, the automotive inspiration of Monterey Car Week and the champagne-infused atmosphere.

The gossip in the paddock ahead of the Nürburgring 1,000km sports-car race in 1956 did not concern the ambitious four-car entries from the Works Ferrari and Maserati teams fresh from their dominant performances in the Mille Miglia, nor the roll call of star drivers assembled to drive for them, which included Juan Manuel Fangio, Phil Hill and Stirling Moss, to name but a few.

Opening on 23 July and closing on 30 July, the Open Roads, North America sale is perhaps not as jam-packed with blue-chip collector cars like some of the previous Online Only auctions from RM Sotheby’s, but the 53-lot catalogue boasts a pleasant selection nonetheless, largely populated with classic Americana from the likes of Packard, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Buick. 

Classic cars from Pandolfini online