“Gooding Christie’s” was a new name in Amelia Island this year. But not really, as David Gooding’s auction company, formerly known as “Gooding & Company” until British auction house Christie’s acquired it last year, has been selling cars in Amelia since 2010. This year brought the usual mix of prewar greats, Enzo-era Ferraris, rare Porsches, and other classics we’ve become accustomed to seeing at the Amelia Island Omni. One of just two Amelia auctions this year along with Broad Arrow, (Bonhams was absent), Gooding achieved $67.4M in total sales, with 132 out of 142 lots sold for a 93% sell-through rate and a $510,594 average price. We look at the most interesting ones in detail below.
Lot 152: 1949 Cisitalia 202 SC Gran Sport Cabriolet
Sold for $445,000
Chassis no. 062SC; Engine no. 184. Light Gray with black top over Cognac leather. Older restoration, #1- condition.
Equipment: RHD. 1089cc/63hp I-4, single Weber carb, four-speed, wheel covers, Vredestein tires, banjo steering wheel, boot cover.
Condition: Previously owned by film producer and Sophia Loren’s husband Carlo Ponti. Restored in the 2010s. Represented with matching numbers engine. Gorgeous paint. Even gaps. The metal trim on the painted rear bumper is a little loose at one end. The interior looks like someone has sat in it two or three times and that’s it. The dashboard, gauges and steering wheel are works of art, and the rest of the car is, too.
Bottom line: Piero Dusio’s short-lived Cisitalia marque produced the world’s first great postwar GT car in the 202. It’s a shame only 170 or so were built because they are such pretty things. New York’s Museum of Modern Art thinks Cisitalias are so pretty that they have one in their permanent collection. This one is a few details short of being a concours winner but it nevertheless needs nothing. It could have brought over half a million dollars without being expensive.
Lot 117: 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe
Sold for $103,600
Chassis no. 194377S103870; Engine no. T1027JE7103870. Sunfire Yellow with black stinger over black vinyl. Unrestored original, #4 condition.
Equipment: 427ci/435hp L71 V-8, M21 four-speed, 3.70 Positraction, power steering and brakes, power windows, Rally wheels, narrow whitewall tires, AM/FM radio, telescopic steering wheel, headrests. Comes with an extra set of rear wheels with drag slicks mounted on them.
Condition: Purchased new by returning Vietnam veteran James E. Selvey, Jr. and campaigned on the drag racing scene in New Jersey during the late 1960s. Includes Selvey’s racing helmet, and there are a bunch of neat period event stickers on the rear glass. Showing 9838 miles. In preserved condition. The paint is heavily faded, worn through everywhere, and crazed. The engine compartment is aged and heavily patinated, but the interior shows surprisingly little wear or deterioration. An interesting car with just the right amount of preservation.
Bottom line: This isn’t a legendary drag-racing Corvette or anything, but we really thought someone would fall in love with this car and its story, its desirable colors and equipment, and its unrepeatable originality. That didn’t happen, though, as bidding on it was pretty relaxed and came in well below both our and Gooding’s (low est. $135K) expectations. The final result is roughly the condition #3 (“good”) value for a ’67 L71 coupe in the Hagerty Price Guide.
Lot 171: 1967 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 Rallye HF
Sold for $67,200
Chassis no. 818340001184. Maroon with blue/yellow stripe and HF graphics over black vinyl. Older restoration, #3+ condition.
Equipment: 1298cc/101hp V-4, four-speed, white steel wheels, Pirelli Cinturato tires, wood-rim steering wheel, wood dash, Veglia gauges.
Condition: Formerly owned by Briggs Cunningham and spent time on display in his museum. With the current owner since 2008. Good but older paint and chrome. Two blemishes on the driver’s door. Some scratches above the marker lights. Mild cracking at the top left corner of the windshield gasket. Severe cracking in the Perspex right rear quarter window. Mild age to the wood dash, mild pitting on the steering wheel and a cracked Lancia badge in its center, but the upholstery is holding up quite well. An older restoration of a high-spec rally-ready Lancia.
Bottom line: A clever, unconventional little car with its narrow-angle V-4 engine and front-wheel drive, the Fulvia was available as a sedan or coupe with in-house styling or as a fastback designed by Zagato. It’s the model that marked Lancia’s shift in focus to international rallying, and it was a successful endeavor. Lancia won the International Championship for Manufacturers (the precursor to the World Rally Championship) in 1972. This one, with its HF Rallye-spec engine and aged but solid condition, would make a rewarding ride in vintage rallies and driving events, and the price paid here is a perfect balance between its equipment and its condition.
Lot 161: 1967 Ferrari 330 GTS
Sold for $1,600,000
Chassis no. 9513; Engine no. 9513. Rosso Cina with black top over beige leather. Unrestored original, #4+ condition.
Equipment: 3967cc/300hp V-12, five-speed, Borrani center-lock alloy wheels, ANSA exhaust, Blaupunkt pushbutton radio, wood-rim steering wheel, power windows.
Condition: One of 99 built. Unrestored and showing 63,515 km (39,466 miles). Sold new in Italy, then bought by a young Californian in 1969 as a honeymoon gift, then spent several decades in his Northern California garage. Cracked, faded, chipped paint but it’s presentable and charming in its originality. Dull chrome and wheels. Oxidized underneath. Worn but intact leather. Surprisingly clear gauges and clean switchgear. It may be a “barn find,” but it is nowhere near as crusty and rotten as many barn finds are. It could be a reasonably straightforward restoration, or with some serious mechanical attention it could be driven and enjoyed as-is by someone who is into the patina look.
Bottom line: Ferrari introduced their 330 GTC in 1966. The two-seat coupe was an elegant Pininfarina-designed coupe that was more spacious and powerful than the famed 275 GTB, yet smaller than the 330 GT 2+2. The drop-top 330 GTS arrived later that year to give both closed and open options. In Ferrari math, no roof typically equals more money and in the 330’s case, the GTS is worth more than three times as much as the GTC. That said, the market may be soft on ’60s Ferraris, or the Amelia bidders weren’t smitten with this car’s originality, because it’s a #4 condition car that sold for #4 condition money.
Lot 33: 1960 Porsche 356B Coupe by Beutler
Sold for $235,200
Chassis no. 13030; Engine no. 602769. Cream over red. Older restoration, #3- condition.
Equipment: 1582cc/75hp H-4, four-speed, Michelin XAS tires, gold brightwork.
Condition: Bodied by Beutler of Switzerland. Sold new to Brumos in Florida. Replacement engine. In storage for the past decade. Old paint with scratches, chips, cracks, and some odd smudges on the front, and a few more on the tail. Clean wheels and tires. Pitted window frames. Aged steering wheel but mostly good interior. An unusual, rare coach-built Porsche. Looks like a 356 in more conservative dress and with a couple of itty-bitty back seats.
Bottom line: Although there were several rare 356s under the Gooding tent in Amelia, including multiple Carreras, this one was eye-catching just for how unusual it is. Making a 356 look more boring but also more expensive is a tough sell, so only five 356Bs are thought to have been built with this bodywork. Then again, the Beutler brothers of Thun, Switzerland did most of their work in small batches, so a frumpier four-seater Porsche was never meant to appeal to the masses, anyway. It certainly appeals to collectors, though. Despite the condition and replacement engine, this one sold for a healthy premium over a standard factory car, which in this condition would normally sell for under $100,000.
Lot 144: 1965 Alfa Romeo TZ-1
Sold for $1,160,000
Chassis no. 10511AR750081; Engine no. AR0051100068. Red over black vinyl with cloth inserts. Older restoration, #3+ condition.
Equipment: 1570cc/160hp I-4, alloy wheels, Avon tires, wood-rim steering wheel, Jaeger gauges, Perspex windows, manual, tools.
Condition: Period hill climb history in Italy. Known history since new. Represented with matching numbers engine. Dings in the trim around the grille. Mostly good older paint. A large crack at the back left of the hood is the only major flaw. Paint chipping off the wheel centers. Good interior. A sound older restoration of a famous, and gorgeous, Alfa race car. Both eligible and suitable for all sorts of vintage rallies and driving events.
Bottom line: The Alfa Romeo Giulia Tubolare Zagato (tubular spaceframe chassis, Zagato body) was a highly competitive sports car in its class all over Europe. Autodelta, Alfa Romeo’s in-house competition outfit, built 112 examples of the TZ. Gooding sold this one to the consignor in September of 2022 for £1,181,250 ($1,515,820), so this was an expensive two-and-a-half years of ownership. Gooding had a reasonable $1.3M-$1.6M estimate, so this looks like a good buy.
Lot 118: 1989 RUF CTR “Yellowbird”
Sold for $6,055,000
Chassis no. W09BT0343KPR06026; Engine no. CTR1039. Blutengelb (Blossom Yellow) over black cloth. Original, #1- condition.
Equipment: 3367cc/463hp twin-turbo H-6, RUF six-speed, RUF wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, roll cage, Recaro race seats, Blaupunkt cassette, books, tools, accessories.
Condition: One of 29 built and nine in this color, which really is the one you’d want. Unregistered until 2020 and showing 1677 km (1042 miles). There are two small paint cracks on the nose and a few small blisters throughout, but otherwise, this car looks perfect.
Bottom line: RUF started tuning Porsches in the 1970s. By 1981 it had gained full manufacturer status from the German government, and in 1987 had its first big break with the CTR (Group C Turbo RUF). Road & Track named it the “world’s fastest car,” and the name they’d given the car during the test, “Yellowbird,” stuck. Ruf also released a film called Faszination auf dem Nürburgring, which showed the Yellowbird screaming around the Nürburgring with test driver Stefan Roser at the wheel. Clips from it have made the rounds on YouTube and social media for years. With 29 built, the Yellowbird is rarer than contemporaries like the Ferrari F40, 288 GTO, and Porsche 959.
This result is a world record for a RUF at auction. For reference, a concours-condition F40 is $3.45 million, and a Porsche 959 Sport of the same quality is $4.7 million. To those unfamiliar with RUF this might seem like an extreme amount of money for what looks like a mildly customized yellow 911, but for something so rare and so groundbreaking in its day, it seems reasonable.
Lot 123: 1997 RUF CTR2
Sold for $2,645,000
Chassis no. W09BD0368VPR06008; Engine no. R36008. Adriatic Blue over black leather. Original, #2 condition.
Equipment: 3600cc/520hp twin-turbo H-6, six-speed, all-wheel drive, RUF wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport tires, tinted windows, books, tools.
Condition: Delivered new to Japan, arrived in the U.S. in 2020. One of 18 built and possibly four in the U.S. Showing 60,194 km (37,403 miles) but looks like a car with far, far fewer. The paint, wheels, and brakes all look great.
Bottom line: The 993-based successor to the original CTR “Yellowbird,” the CTR2 was thoroughly reworked from the standard Porsche and, like its predecessor, had performance on par with or greater than the best from Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. On the collector car market, other CTR2s sold for under seven figures only a few years ago. Broad Arrow brought one to Monterey in 2024 that sold for $2.1M, and with greater interest in RUFs and vintage tuned exotics in general, over $2M seems to be the new going rate.
Lot 46: 1931 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Sedan by Franay
Sold for $2,342,500
Chassis no. 2465; Engine no. J446. Black with black cloth top over red leather. Older restoration, #2- condition.
Equipment: 420ci/265hp I-8, three-speed, wire wheels, dual side-mount spares with mirrors, cowl lights, engine-turned dash, dash clock, division window.
Condition: Originally finished in Pearl Gray with Rose Beige interior. One-off, displayed at concours events in period. Owned by Queen Maria of Yugoslavia and sugar baron Antonio Chopitea. Restored in the 1990s. Paint and chrome are older but holding up well. A few chips at the edges of the hood. Panel gaps are a little uneven. Wood running boards are showing their age, and so is the interior wood in a few spots. Chassis is very clean. Light wrinkling to the leather front and back. A spectacular automobile and former concours car that would need another round of cosmetic attention before taking home a trophy again.
Bottom line: Christie’s sold this car at Rockefeller Center in 2002 for $854,500, and it was a star lot at Bonhams’ Scottsdale sale last year but hammered not sold at a $1.88M high bid. A handsome car with this French coachwork, it’s a standout even in the rich company of other Duesenbergs, and this turned out to be a better venue for it given the strong, estimate-beating ($1.7M-$1.9M) price on day one at the Omni.
Lot 136: 1988 Mercedes-Benz AMG 300 E 6.0 “Hammer”
Sold for $753,000
Chassis no. AMG12417216011; Engine no. 11796812065223. Blue Black Metallic over brown leather. Older restoration, #2 condition.
Equipment: 5953/370hp V-8, Getrag five-speed manual, AMG exhaust system, suspension kit, body kit, “Aero I” wheels, a long-range fuel tank, buffalo leather, Recaro seats, wood trim, Becker stereo, tools, spare, first aid kit.
Condition: Converted at AMG HQ in Affalterbach. Believed to be the only 6.0-liter example with a 5-speed manual. Known history from new. Recommissioned under current U.S. ownership. The paint and body are excellent and without serious flaws. The engine and underbody are pristine and the interior shows little deterioration. A gorgeous, genuine AMG Hammer.
Bottom line: This AMG, along with hundreds of other cars, boats, and motorcycles, was seized by the Italian government and sold in the famous “Duemila Ruote” auction in 2016. Dusty and neglected, it brought a mere €84,000 (about $91,500 at the time). A couple of things have happened since then. First, the consignor put a lot of time, effort, and money into making this car essentially perfect. Second, the interest in pre-merger AMGs (cars built before Mercedes-Benz took controlling interest in AMG in 1999) has absolutely exploded. This year in Amelia, for example, there were 13 pre-merger AMGs on offer.
Lot 157: 1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS
Sold for $2,205,000
Chassis no. 904028. Silver over blue cloth. Cosmetic restoration, #3 condition.
Equipment: LHD. 1991cc/200hp H-6 with dual three-choke Weber carbs, five-speed, alloy wheels, Dunlop Racing tires, wood-rim steering wheel, spares, tools.
Condition: One of 108 built. Won the Rheinland-Pfalz Trophy at the Nürburgring and finished second overall at the Grand Prix de Paris. Also raced at Spa and in the Angola Grand Prix, where it took first in class and third overall behind a pair of Ferrari 250 LMs. Its next owner had further success with a win at Zolder, third at Trier, and then first in class and third overall at the punishing 82-hour Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring. After selling to a buyer in the U.S., it raced in the SCCA until 1969.
Consistently maintained and serviced but never fully taken apart and restored. Some paint blemishes and cracks on the front and several huge cracks on the tail. Some light surface rust on the inner edges of the wheels. Good interior. A real-deal 904 with good history.
Bottom line: The first of the so-called “plastic Porsches” thanks to its fiberglass shell, the 904 was a big development for Porsche’s sports-car racing efforts after the brand departed from F1 in 1962. As with many such race cars, 904 values depend on history, and this one’s established competition use and success helped it to a strong result well above Gooding’s $1.8M high estimate. Only a handful of other 904s have crested the $2M mark.
Lot 30: 1935 Avions Voisin C25 Aérodyne
Sold for $1,985,000
Chassis no. 50023; Engine no. M2550007. Light yellow and dark blue over blue leather. Older restoration, #2- condition.
Equipment: RHD. 2994cc/90hp sleeve-valve six-cylinder, two-speed gearbox with electromagnetic overdrive, disc wheels, Excelsior tires, sliding roof, Jaeger gauges.
Condition: One of eight built and three known survivors. Unknown early history but entered collector ownership in 1963. Restoration finished in 2012. The fabric and leather interior was done by Hermès Paris after the consignor bought the car in 2013. Shown at Pebble Beach in 2022. Good older paint with a handful of blemishes behind the bumper. There are chips in the black-painted grille as well. Chips in the tracks of the sliding roof. Good, lightly worn interior with a wild pattern cloth on the door panels. Nitpicking aside, this car is a rare Art Deco masterpiece and just so cool.
Bottom line: A pioneer in architecture, aviation and automobiles, Gabriel Voisin started building luxury automobiles in 1919. They were clever, distinctive, expensive, and clearly influenced by his experience in aircraft. The C25 and particularly the Aérodyne body style is arguably the pinnacle of Voisin’s designs, with details like its electromagnetic gearbox and its retractable roof, which opens via a two-cylinder pneumatic suction motor in the trunk and has three porthole windows in it, because why not? It is about as Art Deco as a car can get, and it is hard to argue with the price paid for this one.
Lot 154: 1955 Ferrari 375 MM
Sold for $9,465,000
Chassis no. 0472AM; Engine no. 0472AM. Rosso Chiaro over tan leather. Older restoration, #2- condition.
Equipment: RHD. 4522cc/340hp V-12, triple Weber carburetors, four-speed, Borrani wire wheels, Dunlop Racing tires, wood-rim steering wheel.
Condition: The 375 MM was primarily a race car, but this one was specially ordered for road use by California banker and prolific Ferrari buyer Alfred Ducato. Won its class at Pebble Beach way back in 1956, in the “European Sports Cars Under $10,000” category. The engine wasn’t suited to normal road traffic, and Ducato traded the car back to Chinetti Motors in 1958. Just three owners from new, and in the Fred Leydorf collection since 1969. Original drivetrain. Comes with lots of documentation. Good but older paint. Slightly uneven gaps. Tidy but not perfect underneath. Mild age to the wheels. Very good interior.
Bottom line: Tied for the most expensive car sold in Amelia (the other was this 1959 250 GT California Spider) and deservedly so given its history, its looks, and its performance. If the new owner plans to show it, a restoration should be in order to bring the presentation up a few notches, and it really should be repainted in its original Azzurro (light blue) with black roof, as seen in period photos. It’s a lovely combo that sets this 375 MM apart as the road car it is compared to the many blood-red Ferraris of this period.
