This, dear friends, is a Jaguar XJR-15 race car. Not that ‘race car for the road’ spiel that used to get trotted out any time a car had more performance than a moped, but a genuine, bona fide race car that you’re somehow allowed to register and drive on the road. It’s also painfully rare – just 53 cars were built, and about half that number were ever given the necessary bits to pass what must have been the biggest sweetheart deal in homologation history. And that’s saying something.

Of course, rare race cars are... well, rarely what you’d call cheap. Tiff Needell – he of Top, Fifth and presumably a wide variety of other Gears – absolutely wrestled the XJR-15 around Silverstone for old, old TG TV, back in the very early Nineties, just before Jaguar put it on sale for £500,000. In modern money, that’s roughly £1,100,000. Not exactly giving them away, then.

So, then. Does that make today’s asking price of £1,450,000 via RM Sotheby's private sale any less doolally? Er, no. The best part of one and a half million pounds is still a colossal amount of coin, regardless of the XJR-15’s provenance, painful rarity or prodigious performance. That said, aside from a wonderful excuse for an excursion into alliteration, the XJR-15 absolutely delivers on all of it.

The shell, for instance, is the same carbon tub from the Le Mans-winning XJR-9, clothed in unique carbon-fibre bodywork by the man who went on to pen the McLaren F1 (Peter Stevens). The Jag beat the McLaren to the punch, too – the XJR-15 was the first all-carbon-fibre road car.

The V12 is also from the XJR-9, albeit shrunk by a litre and detuned to the point where you don’t need a pit crew to drive one. Official power output is 450bhp from six litres; what that rather normal-looking number doesn’t reveal is the always-on torque of the thing, pulling from way down the rev range all the way to the 6,200rpm redline, and the effect that has on a 1,050kg car. What it does reveal, on the other hand, is just how blasé we are about power figures these days. The XJR-15 also has something of a party piece: a light-aircraft-spec headset so you can have a conversation with your passenger. As one owner put it, without the headset, he can’t even hear himself talk, let alone his passenger. Because race car.

So, the XJR-15 is properly gorgeous, dripping with pedigree and imbued with the kind of laser-focus that generally requires as a fistful of Ritalin. Also, it must be said, with similarly twitchy results.

This one in particular has done just 1,362 miles since new, precisely 2,000 miles less than the race-winning distance of the XJR-9 at Le Mans in 1988.

So this is our plea to the new owner: please use the XJR-15 as it was intended. Because this, dear friend, is a race car.

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​​​​​​​Lot #1347 - Built on December 11, 1987, this 1987 Buick Grand National has a significant place in history. As the very last Grand National built, this car marked the end of General Motor's mid-size rear-wheel-drive G Platform. It also marked the closing of GM's Pontiac, MI, assembly plant, which had been responsible for producing millions of cars since it first opened in 1927. This Grand National was the final car to leave the assembly line and it features unprecedented levels of photo and video documentation. A GM film crew captured the car's final assembly and the emotional line workers who autographed their names on the engine and throughout the undercarriage as they installed their part for the final time. As the Buick progressed down the assembly line, the workers decorated it with signs reading, "Built by the Best" and "The End," and both signs are included in the sale. Designating it is the final Grand National, Buick applied an additional badge to the car's header panel, just above the passenger side headlight assembly. The car was prominently displayed by Buick at the 2003 Buick Centennial in Flint, MI, and starred in the 2012 film "BLACK AIR: The Buick Grand National Documentary." The car has been perfectly preserved in its climate-controlled "bedroom" in Louisiana. It still wears the original Window Sticker that says, "The Last Grand National," and all the factory-installed interior plastic is still in place. The car is also signed by Lloyd and Mark Reuss, the former and current presidents of General Motors. The Buick has 33 miles (mileage not indicated on the title) and is powered by a turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 engine mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission.

The question of what a Formula 1 star drives when they aren’t on the track is always one of great interest. For Michael Schumacher, between January and July 2010, the answer was this 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Estate, which is now for sale.

Loaned to Schumacher upon joining the newly formed Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 Team, which would go on to become a dominant force in F1, the car was registered to Mercedes-Benz AG in Schlieren, Switzerland, and given to Schumacher to drive.

Finished in black with a black leather interior, the car is very luxuriously appointed. So much so, in fact, that had Schumacher been paying out of his own pockets, the options fitted to the car would have added €20,000 to his bill or the equivalent of nearly €23,000 in today’s money ($25,981 at current exchange rates). Not that it’d have been an issue for him, of course…

Following his use of the car, it moved on to a Swiss owner, who put on the bulk of the car’s miles between 2011 and 2015 before selling it to a Mercedes-Benz engineer in Germany. They returned it to excellent condition, though they changed all four wheels. No explanation is available, but could they be curbed?

By 2018, it was sold to the current seller who claims to have only used the car during the summer months and describes it as being in generally good condition and a TuV examination passed in March 2021 returned with no advisories.

Currently being sold with 151,894 km (94,382 miles), Bonhams, which is handling the sale of the vehicle at its Les Grandes Marques du Monde auction in Paris, says that the car will be fitted with four new tires and will undergo a Mercedes-Benz inspection before the sale. Their estimates suggest that this 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Estate could go for anywhere between $57,000-$110,000.

An ultra-rare example of the 300 SL sports car was auctioned for $6,825,000 at the RM Sotheby's Scottsdale, Arizona, event

All the vehicles still exist but rarely change hands. The last known sale was in 2012, when one was auctioned for $4.62 million, according to Hagerty

The 1955 300 SL Alloy Gullwing had a list price of 5,000 German marks when it was new, which is the equivalent of $28,000 today. To put the auction car's value in perspective, a steel-bodied 1955 300 SL also with its numbers-matching engine was sold at the same event for $1,710,000

The price paid in Scottsdale was short of the pre-auction estimate of $7 million to $9 million, but still ranks it among the most valuable Mercedes-Benz cars ever sold, behind a handful of prewar customer cars and a 1954 W196 Formula One racing car driven by the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio that was auctioned for over $29,600,000 in 2013.

Every once in a great while, a legendary car comes up for auction and it sends a ripple through the collective hearts of enthusiasts everywhere. In this instance, it’s a 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster soon to cross the block for what will surely be a seven- (or maybe eight!) figure total when the hammer comes down. This is not just a vehicle but a tangible slice of history; it’s a car gifted to and driven by a legend.

After an incredible and impressive career during which he notched back-to-back world championships driving for Mercedes-Benz in 1954 and 1955, Juan Manuel Fangio was set to retire from F1 in 1958. To commemorate the occasion, the German automaker presented him with a gorgeous 1958 300 SL roadster finished in Metallic Light Blue over Crème. Before Fangio passed away in 1995, this specimen of a car was sent to Fangio's personal museum in his hometown of Balcarce, Argentina. In the next few weeks, the roadster will be up for auction through high-end firm RM Sotheby’s as a private sale, and it’s no exaggeration to say this has a fair shot at becoming the most expensive Mercedes-Benz 300 SL in the world.

Fangio is a testament to the saying “it’s never too late” as he didn’t start racing F1 until he was 37. He started out as a humble mechanic, dropping out of school at 13 to work. His passion for cars carried him through the next two decades, learning and driving and racing. When Fangio finally hung up his helmet for good, he had amassed a record number of wins that included five World Championship of Drivers events. For 46 years, that record stood until Michael Schumacher broke it with six championships in 2003.

Dubbed “El Mastro,” Fangio was an incredible all-around driver. He has been widely quoted as saying, “Driving fast on the track does not scare me. What scares me is when I drive on the highway and get passed by some idiot who thinks he is Fangio.” That sentiment didn’t keep him from road tripping; after he received this particular 300 SL he drove it throughout Europe and South America. Today, it has about 44,000 miles on the clock, most of which are said to have been logged by the man himself.

“Part of the appeal with owning a true artifact of motorsports history like this example is a direct line of association with the man who owned it,” says the auction house. “The gear selector, steering wheel, and seats have not been replaced, and as such are the very tools used to operate this sports car by the Argentinian expert himself.”

Think of it: the person who buys this storied car will sit in the very seat that cradled Fangio himself. They will steer with the same wheel. They will shift the car into drive with the same instrument Fangio took into his hands to conduct a symphony of internal combustion from the 3.0-liter straight six.

Offers will be accepted by RM Sotheby's as all-in sealed bids between March 21 and March 25 while the car sits in Switzerland waiting to be adopted. The auction house says it won't disclose the final price, but between skyrocketing prices for classics and the rich history of this vehicle, it would not surprise me a bit if it sells for north of $8 million.

A December 2021 service record viewable in the gallery notes that the rear wing is inoperable.

An oil and filter change was performed in December 2021 along with the addition of fresh coolant and gearbox oil. The December 2021 service record notes coolant leaks from the front radiators and labels the car as “not safe to drive.”

Schumacher’s epic 1998 Hungarian GP-winning Ferrari for sale

The Ferrari with which Michael Schumacher scored one of his greatest Formula 1 wins, but ultimately lost the 1998 F1 World Championship in the Suzuka showdown to McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen, is up for private sale with an asking price of USD 4.9 million.

The chassis is the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix winner, a victory that was viewed as a strategic masterstroke by Ross Brawn as well as proof of Schumacher’s genius behind the wheel

Schumacher drove this car once more later in the season, in the Suzuka finale. Although he qualified on pole, his race went wrong before the start when he stalled on the formation lap, meaning he started at the tail of the grid

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About a month ago, we salivated over an exceptionally special example of the Toyota 2000GT. This 1967 model is not only the first serial-numbered 2000GT but is also one of three to be prepared by Shelby for SCCA C-production racing. We said at the time that this particular 2000GT had all the ingredients to break records when it went up for auction, and that's exactly what happened. Although it sold for less than the estimate of between $2.75 and $3.5 million, the final sale price of $2,535,000 was still enough to make this the most expensive Japanese car ever to be sold at auction, according to information from NewsAtlasThis 2000GT's sale price exceeds the previous best of $2.1 million for a charity sale of a 2020 Toyota Supra and the $2 million for a 2021 Lexus LC 500 Convertible, another charity sale. Both of those sales were listed by Barrett-Jackson, but Gooding & Company now has the honor of having listed the most expensive Japanese car ever. Of the top ten most expensive sales, six of them were for 2000GT models, underlining what an iconic vehicle Toyota's sports car is. This 2000GT sold for more than twice the price of the first 2022 Acura NSX Type S.

Introduced in the 1960s to boost the Japanese marque's profile, the original 2000GT had a 2.0-liter twin-cam six-cylinder engine engineered in partnership with Yamaha. Producing 150 horsepower, the car weighed under 2,500 pounds and could hit 60 mph in about ten seconds.

However, this Toyota-Shelby 2000GT has an output of 210 hp. It comes with three weber twin-choke carburetors, a five-speed manual gearbox, a limited-slip differential, and front/rear independent suspension with coil springs.

Having been kept by Toyota Motor Corporation for promotional duties, chassis MF10-10001 received numerous upgrades by Shelby and Toyota engineers to prepare it for SCCA racing. Dual megaphone exhausts were fitted, as were adjustable KONI shocks, a differential cooler, and a Ferrari-style gated shifter inside. A complete body-off restoration to bring the car back to its historic white and metallic blue racing livery took place in the 1980s. It's no wonder this beautiful car sold for millions today and we hope it continues to be carefully preserved as an important chapter in Toyota's history.
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A 1995 Nissan 240SX that made headlines thanks to its incredibly low 590 mileage (950 km) has caused waves again after being pulled from auction in response to multiple questions about its history, condition and even the bidding process.



The S14 popped up on the Bring-a-Trailer site last week, and when we wrote about the auction we noted that the underside of the car looked strangely weathered for a car that’s purportedly done almost no miles. But marque experts also watching the bidding uncovered a long list of red flags that go way beyond some surprisingly scruffy suspension and chassis components, and BaT yanked the listing with bids at $19,000.

One key fact missing from this month’s BaT listing, but remembered by eagle-eyed car enthusiast who’d seen the car advertised for sale two years previously at $39,000 was that it had supposedly received damage when new. The seller at the time, Duncan Imports of Christiansburg, VA, wrote on its website that the 240SX was “all original and in pristine condition”, before contradicting that statement by saying that the vehicle “originally received minor damage in transit and the original owner purchased it, fixed it up, and kept it practically new since then.”

Points of concern

But Nissan S-body super fans from the Zilvia.net website who clearly know these cars inside out, pointed out a host of things that about this car that didn’t add up and suggested the damage the SX suffered might not have been that minor. The lack of front fender liners, the presence of an aftermarket radiator pulley and what looks like a replacement radiator core support, plus missing VIN rivets on the dashboard make it look like the impact might have been severe enough to cause the airbags to fire. And the absence of badges on the rear could be due to the whole car having been painted, rather than the front end.

Shill bidding too?

Those inconsistencies, and many others covered in Collector Car Feed’s video, when pointed out to Bring-a-Trailer would hopefully have been enough to cause the staff in charge of running the auctions to take note, and potentially take action. But the story gets even more suspicious because the same sleuths that raised concern about the condition and history of the car also raised the prospect that the car’s seller, who was allegedly Duncan Imports, was inflating bids on its own auction.

The photos used in this month’s listing were the exact same pictures used by Duncan Imports on its website, and taken at its dealership, a couple of years back. That could just be laziness on the seller’s part, but get ready for the twist. One of the bidders in the auction, with the username Pilatus, bid the car to $19,427 and wrote in the comments “I have seen this car! Keep the negative comments coming so I can steal this one.” But digging into previous comments made Pilatus on other auctions, web detectives discovered him saying of 1992 Honda Civic Del Sol auctioned in January: “I want to buy it back! Gary Duncan.”

Bring-a-Trailer apologizes and withdraws listing

By Monday morning BaT couldn’t ignore the furor any longer and having looked into the questions raised by commenters, pulled the auction, leaving a note that read “This listing has been withdrawn by BaT because something during the auction was not fair for the buyer and/or seller.”

It apologized for failing to include the seller’s mention of paintwork from an original listing, but went on to say that “the seller has failed to follow advice on how to salvage this auction…and has instead engaged in shill bidding, an activity we do not tolerate on BaT.”

The reality is that shill bidding happens on every auction platform, and given some of the crazy hammer prices we’ve seen on BaT cars lately, you’d be a fool to think the seller was the only person ever involved in it. Many of those instances go unchecked because it’s sometimes hard to sort genuine bids from fakes, but it’s cool to see the car enthusiast community pull together to save an innocent car buyer from getting fleeced on this occasion.

We’ve reached out to both BaT and Duncan Imports for a comment and will update this story when we hear back.

A pair of extraordinarily low-mileage C4 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 models are currently up for grabs. Both would be equally fitting for a museum, a pristine garage, or would serve as very entertaining cars to drive on the street.

Both of these Corvette ZR1s have been listed through Fusion Motor Company in Los Angeles and share the same $124,950 asking price.

First up is a 1990 model. It has been driven just 30 miles (48 km) since leaving the factory and the cabin is still wrapped in the original plastic. The listing provides very few details about the car’s prior ownership history but says that it comes with all of the original accessories, including a coffee table book, VIN-specific leather document holder, and a ZR1 gold key ring.

Chevrolet developed the C4 Corvette ZR1 with the help of Lotus and equipped it with an aluminum-block V8 known as the LT5. This engine is good for 375 hp and is coupled to a six-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels. Given just how good the C4 ZR1 is supposed to be to drive, it’s a shame that no one has had the chance to enjoy this example.

As for the second C4 Corvette ZR1 available through Fusion Motor Company, it is a 1994 model that comes with the improved 405 hp 5.7-liter V8 and has 33 miles (53 km) under its belt. It too retains the original plastic wrapping over the interior and comes with all the original documentation. It is also painted black with an all-black interior but it does have different wheels than the 1990 model also available.

Given how similar these two cars are, we wouldn’t be surprised if a Corvette collector purchased both of them. Whatever ends up happening with the cars, we hope that they will (finally!) be driven.

Chevrolet developed the C4 Corvette ZR1 with the help of Lotus and equipped it with an aluminum-block V8 known as the LT5. This engine is good for 375 hp and is coupled to a six-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels. Given just how good the C4 ZR1 is supposed to be to drive, it’s a shame that no one has had the chance to enjoy this example.

As for the second C4 Corvette ZR1 available through Fusion Motor Company, it is a 1994 model that comes with the improved 405 hp 5.7-liter V8 and has 33 miles (53 km) under its belt. It too retains the original plastic wrapping over the interior and comes with all the original documentation. It is also painted black with an all-black interior but it does have different wheels than the 1990 model also available.

The Mazda RX-7 FD is widely considered one of the most beautiful and desirable Japanese cars of the ‘90s. Thus, when a close to zero-mileage example appears for sale, a high asking price is a given. For an eye-watering €159,000 ($167,367), you can get your hands on the pictured 1992 Mazda RX-7 which is in showroom condition, despite leaving the factory thirty years ago.



The model is listed for sale on the German website mobile.de, with the single owner stating it has never been used on the road, but only driven around the exhibition hall. While it is hard to believe such a claim, the 475 miles (764 km) on the odometer and the amazing condition of both the exterior are a testament to the garage-queen nature of this Mazda.

According to the listing, this was the first FD that reached US shores in April 1992. Instead of being driven around revving its rotary engine, it spent most of its time in a closed garage in Germany as part of a large car collection. Storing it in an environment with controlled temperature and humidity has retained its unused mechanical components in mint condition, with the help of protective coatings on the chassis and body. The time-machine RX-7 also comes with a German registration certificate from 1995 and all of the original paperwork proving its driverless past.

The red exterior paint is virtually new, as is the black leather upholstery inside the cabin. Under the bonnet, there is a stock 1.3-liter sequentially-turbocharged rotary engine producing 236 hp (76 kW / 239 PS). Power is sent to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox with the help of a limited-slip differential. Creature comforts include a Bose sound system with a CD player, manual air conditioning, and a sunroof.

Interestingly, looking back in November 2021 we found out that the exact same RX-7 was listed for €129,000, which means it has appreciated by €20,000 over a six month period. Would you spend that kind of money on a 30-year-old Mazda RX-7 in pristine condition or save it for something else?

Rumor has it that Mercedes-Benz just sold one of its most prized vehicles to the tune of $142 million. If true, the Silver Arrow 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut Coupe” would be valued at nearly three times the next most expensive car ever confirmed to have traded hands.

While Mercedes-Benz has yet to confirm or deny any such sale, the folks over at Hagerty seem convinced that this sale did in fact happen after contacting multiple sources. They also seem to have someone on the inside too because they detail that around 10 or fewer individuals were invited to attend a private event at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on May 6, 2022.

Each of those individuals met the predetermined criteria that Mercedes required of the person they would ultimately sell the 300SLR to. As of this writing, the Mercedes-Benz Museum’s website does indeed say that it’s closed from May 6 to May 15 for ‘an event’.

Again, if confirmed, this is by far the most valuable automobile ever to trade hands. The next most expensive on record was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that sold for $48,405,000 in 2018. That same year a rumor came out that another 250 GTO was purchased in a private sale for $70 million but that has yet to be confirmed.

If this is indeed the Silver Arrow race car that Hagerty thinks it is, it’s undoubtedly one of the most storied cars in history. All indications point to this car being one of just two hardtop coupes ever created by Mercedes-Benz. One other reason that it’s worth so much is that they just don’t trade hands.

The specific car in question was brought back to running order around 2010 and even ran up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed by Sir Jackie Stewart and Mika Hakkinen. It was one of the most potent race cars of its day and laid the groundwork for many of the cars we know and love today.