Porsche 917, Ferrari 275 GTB/C – what's your $16M going on at Monterey?

No surprise that one’s a Porsche and the other’s a Ferrari. The headliners are taking star billing ahead of the sale by Gooding & Co, official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, on Friday and Saturday 18-19 August. So what exactly will all those millions – at current exchange rates the cars are about £12.3m each – get you?

The Porsche

It’s everyone’s favourite race-car pin-up, the Porsche 917K, and in Gulf colours too.

Look familiar? It should: it was one of the cars used in Le Mans, the film. Jo Siffert, who owned it at the time, lent it to the production company for, among others, Steve McQueen to blast around La Sarthe in, chasing Ferrari 512s.

This 1970 example of what was the ultimate sports racer of its era – and what to some is the greatest racing car of all time – knew its way around Le Mans but it never raced there, or indeed anywhere else. It was built by Porsche as a test car to hone the mighty flat-12 engined beast in new K (or short) form ahead of the great race.

In the early months of 1970 in the hands of Brian Redman and Mike Hailwood, it duly did the business, setting the fastest time during testing and paving the way for 24 Hours glory by another 917K in June. The sale car (officially, 917-024) was used for further testing before Jo Siffert, F1 ace turned Porsche sports car hero, bought it.

Then came its moment of Hollywood stardom.  917-024 still retains the mounting points used to affix camera rigging during the making of the Le Mans, a movie almost as legendary as the race.

The car was said to be Siffert’s favourite. He famously drove it to his own birthday party in 1971; and then, just four months later, 917-024 led the funeral procession after Siffert was killed driving a BRM.

This Porsche’s propensity for making headlines was not yet over. The car was sold to a French collector in 1978 who stashed it away in a warehouse outside Paris. For more than 20 years it was untouched. When it was chanced upon its discovery was heralded as the ultimate “barn” find. The car was promptly moved out of the warehouse to a real barn, complete with hay bales, to oblige the headline writers and photographers.

Now, after a restoration with the aim of making it a usable racing car for events like the Le Mans Classic, it is set to make more headlines at Gooding & Co’s auction. Its presale estimate is US$13-16m. 

The Ferrari

Just a dozen 275 GTB/Cs were made and this is one of them. Any Ferrari with a C – for competizione – in its name is special and the 275 in this form just drips desirability from every pore of its super-thin aluminium skin.

Although based on a road berlinetta the 275 GTB/C was very much a bespoke racer, Ferrari’s needs-must competition sports car after the mid-engined 250 LM failed to be homologated. Three lightweight racers based on the 275 GTB were initially built – one was third overall at Le Mans in 1965 – and following on from them came the 12 GTB/C cars for 1966. The cars were bodied by Scaglietti and with especially thin aluminium, Plexiglas windows and Borrani aluminium-rimmed wire wheels, they followed the race cars’ quest for light weight.

And the engine? That was the familiar single-cam 3.3-litre V12 but with high-lift camshafts, competition pistons, a redesigned crankshaft, dry sump lubrication and magnesium castings in place of standard aluminium. With all-disc brakes and all-independent suspension set up for competition use, the V12’s 333bhp at 7800rpm proved a winning recipe, the 275 GTB/C scoring many class wins for the privateer teams that ran the cars. 

The car for sale – the estimate is US$12-16m – certainly had its share of success in Italian domestic race series where it was campaigned by its first owner, the amateur driver Renzo Sinibaldi. Its last race was the Targa Florio in 1969; an accident put it out.

The sixth of the 12 GTB/Cs, the car left the Scaglietti works painted Argento Metallizzato (silver metallic) with black leather upholstery – just as it is now after a restoration to show quality by Motion Products Inc (MPI) of Wisconsin. In 2007 the car was awarded a second in class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The car has had a lot of further work done since – there are bills for $800,000 – but not been shown for 10 years. A Concours-winner in waiting? Could be…

The 275 GTB/C is acclaimed by all who drive it as the ultimate dual-purpose sports car of its day – a GTO for 1966.

And the best news? At US$16m it’s only half the price of a GTO! 

A walk down millionaires' alley...

If the Ferrari or the Porsche don’t float your boat, here’s a further selection from the Gooding & Co Pebble Beach auction: just 23 cars all with seven-digit prices. If they achieve their high estimates (the figures shown) there’s a cool sixty million dollars worth here…

• 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Series I, US$7m
• 1928 Mercedes-Benz S-Type, US$6m
• 1956 Maserati A6G/54 Berlinetta, US$5m
• 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari, US$3.9m
• 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial, US$3.8m
• 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4, US$3.5m
• 1974 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT 12, US$2.8m
• 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport, US$2.5m
• 1958 BMW 507 Series II, US$2.5m
• 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB, US$2.4m
• 2015 McLaren P1, US$2.2m
• 1939 Bugatti Type 57C, US$2m
• 1966 Ferrari 275 GTS, US$2m
• 1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, US$1.8m
• 1953 Fiat 8V Berlinetta, US$1.8m
• 1951 Ferrari 212 Inter Coupe, US$1.8m
• 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4, US$1.6m
• 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, US$1.5m
• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, US$1.5m
• 1963 Porsche 356 B Carrera 2, US$1.5m
• 1937 Maserati 6CM, US$1.4m
• 1965 Shelby 289 Cobra, US$1.4m
• 1988 Porsche 959 Komfort, US$1.4m