A rare German luxury car set a new record for the highest Arizona car-auction price, fetching $9.9 million Friday evening. The 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster fell short of its projected sale price of $10 million to $13 million but still beat a previous Arizona record of $9.6 million set last year for a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM at the same auction, RM Sotheby. The red two-seater Mercedes originally was priced at 28,000 reichsmark, or about $12,000.Image may be NSFW.
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When it was new, the 1937 model was delivered to the United States and bought by Reginald Sinclaire of Larkspur, Colo., who was an heir of one of the founders of Corning Glass, according to RM Auctions. The manual-transmission car is believed to have been driven fewer than 11,000 miles in the past 80 years. The most expensive car sold at a public auction was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that sold for $34.65 million, not including a buyer’s premium, on Aug. 14, 2014, at Bonhams Quail Auction in Carmel, Calif., according to Bonhams, a British auction house.
Friday was the first day that four major collector-car auctions were happening simultaneously in the Phoenix area: The eight-day Barrett-Jackson collector-car auction ends Sunday in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale.
Gooding and Co. started 11 a.m. MT Friday at Scottsdale Fashion Square mall.
RM Sotheby’s ran Thursday and Friday at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix.
Russo and Steele started Thursday and runs through Sunday in north Scottsdale.
The highest price so far this year at the venerable Barrett-Jackson auction also was set Friday as part of a charity auction. Acura sold a VIN #001 2017 NSX supercar, which can accelerate to 60 mph in 3 seconds and reach a top speed around 190 mph, for $1.2 million to benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and Camp Southern Ground.