Flashy Italian cars laced with nostalgia

BUDGET, schmudget we have much more critical issues to discuss here.

1956 Maserati 450S.jpg

BUDGET, schmudget we have much more critical issues to discuss here.

Like whether you take the low-end suite at the Hotel Hermitage for $4000 a night or just forget the persons on struggle street and upgrade to the $5000 one with jacuzzi? This is important when you are thinking about turning up at any Monte Carlo auction or race or nightclub, but particularly last Saturday’s RM Monaco auction.

You never know whom you will run into for breakfast in The Brasserie at Monaco’s Cafe de Paris. Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, the Rosbergs and other famous racers like Ringo Starr choose to live in bonny Prince Albert’s principality for the weather and low rental costs.

At the Le Sporting Monte-Carlo (basically the Jeff’s Shed of the Riviera), Rob Myers and the gang were selling more mouth-watering metal than the Reserve Bank has leftover pennies. None was more mouth-watering than the 1956 Maserati 450S Prototype by Medardo Fantuzzi, which was passed in at a lousy $5.1 million.

This car has a very Italian story. In other words, too beautiful, too complex and too unbelievable to tell. But here’s the sound bite. Built as a six-cylinder to be driven by Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkison in the 1956 Mille Miglia, it went back to the factory when Stirl parked the car on a tree above a huge ravine. With an American order for a V8 from a US property developer (who else?), the engineers shoved in a bigger engine and new body designed by Fantuzzi.

After a few more races and crashes, the car sold without an engine to another American, who naturally slipped in a Corvette V8. Finally, and thankfully, an Italian saw the 450S running around, bought it, took it back to Italy, where it was restored to its 1956 glory at mouth-watering cost.

But as expected in the $60 million RM autorgy, Ferraris accounted for six of the top sellers including a world record $5.7 million for a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/C.

Top range classic prices have been strong this year. Three Paris auctions, Artcurial, Bonhams and RM, saw three $3 million plus sales (two Ferraris and a Porsche). Look forward to some record breakers at the Monterey auctions in August. Remember, two cars broke $30 million last year. RM sold a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB for close to $30 big ones and Bonhams got away a 1954 Mercedes W-196 for about $32 million.

We should also note the 20th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s fatal crash in the San Marino GP. Like many stars who die young, Senna is more famous now than when he was the greatest driver of his time. His death led to safer racing, but as we saw with Mark Webber in 1999, racing teams still put winning first. Webber’s Mercedes went flying in practice. The car was repaired and Webber went out and it flew again. Despite this, the team sent the two uninjured Mercs out and Scottish driver Peter Dumbreck’s car became airborne, somersaulted and landed away from not too many people. Merc first blamed the humps on the track, then later admitted the cars were an aerodynamic nightmare.

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