RM Sotheby's returned to the Portola Hotel and Monterey Conference Center for its twenty-ninth year at Monterey Car Week, and left with the highest-grossing Monterey auction in the house's history: a reported $380 million across 199 lots at a 90 percent sell-through. Bidders came from thirty-nine countries. Sixty-nine lots cleared $1 million, fourteen cleared $5 million, six crossed $10 million, and two went beyond $30 million — thirty-eight of the results set records.
The weekend belonged, almost absurdly, to Ferrari. The marque took seven of the top ten positions and accounted for more than sixty percent of the sale's value, some $107 million, including all six of its modern halo cars.
The $40 million anomaly
The headline lot was the all-electric 2026 Ferrari Luce "Tailor Made," chassis 0, which fell at $40,000,000 — a new record for the most expensive new car ever sold at auction. The figure demands context: the car carried a stated estimate in excess of $1,100,000, derived from a base list price near $640,000, and the result exceeded that estimate more than thirty-five-fold. As a charity lot benefiting the Ferrari Foundation, the buyer's premium was waived and all proceeds were donated, which means the transaction can't be read as a conventional market comparable. What it does confirm is the gravitational pull of Ferrari's most exclusive offerings.
A record for the F1 GTR
The most significant result for the collector — as opposed to the philanthropist — was the 1996 McLaren F1 GTR, chassis 10R, the "Pop-Art F1" owned by Nick Mason for twenty-five years, at $34,655,000. It became the most expensive British car ever sold at auction, landing roughly $345,000 under its in-excess-of-$35 million estimate. The first F1 GTR built to 1996 specification, and one of only two Short-Tail factory XP prototypes, it remains the only example to wear its factory pop-art livery in Blood Red and yellow.
America answers
The 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport at $18,705,000 became the most expensive Corvette ever sold at auction, beating its estimate by $7.7 million — one of only five built before Chevrolet cancelled the program. Alongside the Shelby Daytona Coupe's $42.9 million record at Gooding Christie's the same weekend, it signals that America's great competition cars are now commanding the attention long reserved for Europe's.
Beyond the Big Six, a 2025 Bugatti Mistral brought $8,310,000, a 2024 Pagani Huayra Roadster "Executor" set a record at $8,035,000, and a 1989 Porsche 959 Sport reached $7,045,000. The 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato was the notable casualty — a $11,750,000 high bid wasn't enough to sell it.
Monterey continues to set the tone for the global market, and this year's message was unambiguous: rarity, provenance, and competition pedigree remain the foundations of value — even as a waived-premium charity lot briefly bent the ceiling out of shape.
