Two cars from the official BMW factory collection were among the top selling lots at Bonhams inaugural sale of Collectors’ Motor Cars in Dubai yesterday (10/11/10), with both achieving world record prices for their models at auction. The sale was truly international with cars being sold not only to the local region, but also attracting buyers and bidders from Australia, USA and Europe.
This was the first time that cars have become available from the world-renowned BMW factory collection, so it was not surprising that buyers were keen and bidding was fierce. The white BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’ – the 46th of only 57 examples built beat its pre-sale estimate of $165,000-215,000 to finally sell for $218,400.
A 1979 white BMW M1 with very low mileage and in concours condition was also consigned to the sale from BMW. A truly iconic car worthy of inclusion in any collection, it sold for – $264,000 (estimate $165,000-215,000).
The 1972 Ferrari Daytona Shooting Brake, which is recognised as a unique icon of design sold for $300,000 and a 1973 Ferrari Dino 246GTS sold for $174,000, while a 1965 Bentley S3 Continental DHC formerly the property of Alfred H. Heineken made $138,000.
The top selling watch was a rare 18ct gold Patek Philippe chronograph which sold for $74,400.
James Knight, Group Head of Motoring at Bonhams comments, “We are obviously delighted with the strong results of the two BMW world records for respective models but it is the general enthusiasm and positive reactions that Middle Eastern collectors reserved for Bonhams’ first classic car sale in the area that were amazing – we are equally thrilled that the majority of the cars sold will remain in the region.”
See complete results here.