Bugatti Joins $5.2 Million Mercedes; La Tache Tops Sale
Baku, September 21 (AZERTAC). A Bugatti Veyron will be among lots at a collectible car auction that also includes a 1955 Mercedes- Benz Gullwing estimated at as much as $5.2 million.
The Mercedes, one of just 29 alloy-bodied 300SL models, is formally valued at 3.2 million pounds in a sale of 90 cars and motorcycles by RM Auctions in Battersea, London, on Oct. 31.
Prices of the rarest 1950s and 1960s cars by marques such as Mercedes and Ferrari are on the rise, dealers said. Some of the most recent luxury models are struggling to appreciate.
“The Veyron is completely crazy,” said Adrian Hamilton, chairman of the Hampshire-based dealer Duncan Hamilton & Co., which has bought and sold several examples. “If you drive flat out, it runs out of petrol in 16 minutes. It costs a fortune to maintain. Yet a car like that may never be created again. It could potentially be a reasonable investment, depending how many miles are on the clock.”
The 2008 Veyron EB 16.4, with a top speed of more than 250 miles per hour, is being sold without reserve and has less than 700 kilometers (435 miles) on its odometer. The Veyron had an original price of $1.5 million to $2 million, dealers said, and this one is estimated to fetch between 440,000 pounds ($715,000) and 560,000 pounds. It is one of 22 European- and U.S.-made cars entered by the Dutch collector Wim Zegwaard.
A case of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache 2005 fetched a top price of $45,938 at a Sotheby`s (BID) wine auction in New York that registered the company`s highest-ever levels of buying from Latin American clients.
Cork Street`s status as one of London`s destination gallery districts is being threatened by two proposed real-estate developments, dealers said.
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