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Long regarded as the sports car auction, RM's Monterey venue is always an exciting event to attend. Where else can you see Fiat Jolly beach cars bring upwards of $20,000, VW Micro Buses bring $50k plus, and bidders fight it out over multi-million dollar cars? While the public's imagination was caught by the 1962 Le Mans winning Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testarossa that brought $5.9 million (plus10% buyers commission) we were naturally more interested in the Alfas RM had on offer. For the first time in memory there were five Giuliettas on the block. Thus this would be an ideal opportunity to take the pulse of the current market for these classic sports cars. Colin Comer of Classic Auto in Milwaukee, Wisconsin provides our coverage. Colin is a well-respected dealer of classic sports and muscle cars -- besides being a died-in-the-wool Alfista and the owner of numerous Alfas including several Giuliettas. We hope you find his comments enlightening... --ED. | ||||||
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| Lot #001; 1956 Giulietta 750D Spider "Normale"; Chassis # 1495 00410; engine # 1315 40329. Red over black with red piping. A decent "driver quality" restoration, appeared to have been a solid car, no major rust repairs noted, poor door fit on both sides, indicative of thick body filler on door bottoms or perhaps prior damage,paint fair but awfully thick with numerous small defects, heavily undercoated chassis, some incorrect details such as carpet, electric fuel pump with bypassed mechanical pump still in place,etc. Stone and sand chips in windshield. K-Mart special radio in crude hole in dash. Engine number matches data plate. Just a car, but very pretty from 30 feet away, looks like it should be a fun car for the new owner - just don't strip off that paint! SOLD no reserve for $12,200 + 10%= $13,420. | ||||||
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| Lot #33;1958 Giulietta 750F Spider Veloce; Chassis #1495 05411; engine #1315 30110. White over black with red piping, painted dash top to body color. A nicely restored "club concours" level car, a real Veloce Spider, nice recent paint (but not perfect), panel fits to factory spec, lacking in some detail (i.e.,lots of black paint applied incorrectly as a quick cover up) beautiful aluminum pedal box/pedals left in car when painted so they are all white (ugh!), lots of black and chrome under the hood, Bosch electronics (replacing Marelli), appears to be a Euro car with KM/H speedo / gauges,orange tail lights,engine number matches data plate, correct DCO 3 carbs, a very nice car, but not done to the current level of "over-restoration", which it shouldn't be - Alfas are for driving! A neat car, I would call it a #2. SOLD no reserve for $26,000 +10%= $28,600. | |||||||||
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| Lot #43;1958 Giulietta 750E Sprint Veloce ; Chassis #1493 06552, engine #1315 30984. Silver over blue(?) cloth and vinyl. A decent older restoration to "European" standards - that is, THICK paint, lots of undercoating, and an "almost" exact interior. Not nearly as pristine as the auction catalog would lead you to believe, this was just an older restoration starting to let go. Cracks in the paint, especially in the door jambs, rust bubbles in the right outer rocker above undercoating that apparently hid either poor prep work down low or more bubbles, good panel fit but doors hard to close, generous body filler throughout, but yet still not "straight". DCOE carbs, thick black paint in engine compartment, chips in windshield, etc. Just a real pretty old Sprint , still a glorious sight after all these years! SOLD at $33,000 + 10%=$36,300. | ||||||
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| Lot #126; 1961 Giulietta 101 Spider "Normale", Chassis #171 150 on firewall, engine # AR0053029633. Red over Tan with red piping with tan wool carpets. Data plate missing from car. An older restoration to a decent original car, nice and solid. Nice paint with usual flaws, good panel fit, many incorrect items throughout including the interior (yeah, the whole thing), known to this writer as being a nice running and driving car, owned by a well known collector in Illinois. Just a good old car, nothing fancy, a car you buy an use - like lot #001. Not sold. | ||||||
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| Lot#194; 1959 Giulietta 750E Sprint Veloce;Chassis #1493 06924; engine #1315 31510 Light blue over blue/blue interior. Claimed original paint and interior. Stated as an all original car in the catalog with 28k miles. I can't vouch for the original paint, as the car looked to have some paint work in its history, and definitely the engine compartment was brush painted grey at some point. The interior was as original as they get, right down to the plastic on the passengers door and the rotted wool carpet and disintegrated seat foam. It sure smelled original, too! Engine number matched data plate, said to have just been serviced, and may have been, but it had a blown heater hose just laying there in a big coil, and ran pretty lumpy. Regardless, it was awesome! I love cars in this original "barn find " condition, and have to admit I really wanted to bring this one home with me. While it looked really rough, I think this car should be used "as-is" and left alone. This is Alfa history, f olks. Not sold. Overall,the Monterey auctions were quite successful when you look purely at the numbers. RM hammered the 330 Testarossa at $5.9m + 10% , for the high sale of the weekend. Christie's had a few also, the ex-Bill Serri Bugatti Type 51B at $942,500 with commission, the Ruger (bang-bang Ruger, that is) collection all selling at no reserve, including one of the best Mercer Raceabouts at $865,500 all in, and my favorite, the Ferrari 250 GT California Spider LWB (needing restoration, but an awesome original car) at $1,217,500 with commission. However, if we weed through the big numbers and look at the actual sales ratio, the auctions seemed a little off to me. Today's collector car market is being driven by a very educated buyer, who will put rarity, condition and desirability above price. Witness the prices above- while all are obviously very large numbers, they were all real cars, with air-tight histories, from prominent collections and long term owners. They were all "known quantities". Is $1.2 million a lot for an old Ferrari? Yes, but if I were in the market for a Cal Spider, it would have been the one I would have purchased. Why? Because it was essentially a one-owner (Ruger bought it when it was six months old), 25,000 mile, factory covered headlight, disc brake, outside-plug engine with comp cams and cold air box, all original car with a great history. Is there another on like it? Doubtful. Right now, the collector car market is red hot, with no signs of slowing down. Buyers want blue chip pre-war race cars, high-end vintage Ferraris, vintage, historically significant Hot Rods from the 40's-60's,and low production, high horsepower, well documented Musclecars from 1968-1971. Middle of the road cars are holding steady, but not breaking records at this time. Just look at auction reports from other venues, and you will see that "Musclecar Fever" is the driving force these days, with the right cars bringing $100,000 and up - sometimes a lot up too! Now, let's jump off the moon and back down to earth. "Average" cars, such as Big Healeys, XKE's, as well as our own Alfas are mass-produced cars. There are simply too many of them, and not many with famous histories like winning Le Mans with Phil Hill at the wheel. Does this make them less of a car? Absolutely not! We should enjoy the fact that they are still reasonably priced in this market. If you look at the Giulietta prices in particular , and remove our wild card 750 E at $36,300 (again, huh?), the cars brought what they reasonably should have. The two 750 Spiders were market correct in my opinion, the Normale was a nice driver, nothing more, nothing less, and $13,420 is right. The Veloce was a step above it, but not a concours car in any way, and at $28,600, sounds right again. I have always wondered why a good 750 or 101 Veloce Spider is not twice the price of a Normale just on production figures alone. Would $60,000 be wrong for a perfect 750F that was flawless? Not in my mind - you surely could not restore one for that, and with production figures of around 2,300 and most likely a third or less of that left, they are certainly rare. Having driven (and sometimes owned) just about every car out there, from the pre-war Alfas, Bugattis, to 1950's sports racing cars like the Maserati 300S and 200Si, to the 1960's "supercars" like 275 GTB Ferraris, Miuras, etc., I can honestly say that some of my most memorable drives were in Alfas. I am particularly fond of the 750 cars, and especially the Veloces. Great cars in their day, they still are impressive cars to drive now. Maybe someday the market at large will recognize this - until then, let's keep enjoying our "little secrets"! --CC | ||||||
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