2015 Bonhams Scottsdale Classic Car Auction Results

1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione in Scuderia Filipinetti Livery — 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione – © Bonhams

Bonhams briefly set a new Scottsdale auction record when a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione sold for $9,405,000. Four classic cars sold for over a million dollar while a further five cars achieved highest bids of more than a million but failed to clear the reserve margins. These included four top-end, multi-million dollar classic Ferraris.

2015 Bonhams Scottsdale Classic Car Auction Results

The following cars achieved results in excess of a million dollars at the Bonhams 2015 Scottsdale Auction on January 15, 2015:

Year	Car	Price ($)
1966	Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione	9,405,000
1955	Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing	1,375,000
1958	Mercedes Benz 300 SL Roadster	1,237,500
1964	Shelby Cobra 289	1,017,500

Record 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione at Scottsdale 2015

A 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione, a Le Mans GT class winner, sold for $9,405,000 at the 2015 Bonhams Scottsdale classic car auction. The car set a new record price for a classic car sold at the annual mid-January auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. The previous record was $8,800,000 paid for a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB at the 2014 RM Auctions Arizona sale.

However, the new record was broken a day later when a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM sold for $9,625,000 at the RM Auctions Arizona sale.

The 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione on offer was the eleventh of only twelve produced. It participated in Le Mans in three consecutive years: 1967, 1968 and 1969. In 1967, it won the Le Mans GT class for the Swiss Filipinetti racing team with Porsche drivers Rico Steinmann and Dieter Spörry at the wheel. The Ferrari has also been class winner at 1000 Kms de Spa-Francorchamps and 500 Kms de Imola.

Mercedes Benz 300 SLs at the 2015 Bonhams Scottsdale Auction

Bonhams had three classic Mercedes Benz 300 SL cars on offer at the 2015 Scottsdale auction. All three sold at hammer prices just below the pre-auction estimates. (At the Gooding sale, all four 300 SLs on offer failed to clear the reserve margin.)

A 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing achieved the highest result of the trio with a price of $1,375,000. This car originally belonged to the Right Honourable Lord Terence O’Neill, Baron O’Neill of the Maine – the later Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in the 1960s.

A 1958 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Roadster achieved $1,237,500 for a car with only 57,000 miles on the odometer and a hard top still in the original delivery wooden crate. A 1957 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Roadster sold for $902,000.

Ferraris Not Sold at the 2015 Bonhams Scottsdale Auction

The following four top Ferraris failed to clear the reserve margin at the 2015 Bonhams Scottsdale classic car auction:

Year	Car	Estimate	Highest Bid ($)
1966	Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy Long-Nose	3,300,000 – 3,600,000	HB 3,200,000
1972	Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider	3,000,000 – 3,300,000	HB 2,850,000
1955	Ferrari 250 Europa GT Alloy	2,800,000 – 3,400,000	HB 2,750,000
1963	Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta	N / A	HB 1,925,000

Disappointingly for Bonhams, the four highest bids received at the 2015 Scottsdale auction, other than for the record breaking 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Competizione, were for these Ferraris that failed to clear the reserve margins. With some bids only $150,000 and $250,000 below the lower estimates, deals could easily be done but Bonhams traditionally does not include post-auction trades in published results.