Mecum Daytime Auction in Monterey exceeds $44 million in sales

(August 21, 2015) In a jaw-dropping display of some of the finest vehicles ever offered at the Mecum Daytime Auction in Monterey, Calif., $44,335,001 in total sales was achieved as 387 vehicles changed hands in three days of auction action, Aug. 13-15.

Headlined by the multimillion-dollar sales of a 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400 S and a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda Convertible, top sales at the auction included a total of seven cars that sold for $1 million or higher.

“The level of quality offerings at the Daytime Auction continues to increase year after year, and 2015 was no exception,” said Dana Mecum, president and founder of Mecum Auctions. “With one of the deepest, most diverse dockets ever offered, the $10-million increase in sales is a testament to this trend, and we are looking forward to raising the bar once again in 2016.”



The top 10 sales of the Daytime Auction serve as an excellent representation of the variety and quality of the cars offered throughout the weekend with marques both foreign and domestic, vintage and modern. The original Lamborghini Miura (pictured above) exceeded its pre-auction high estimate by more than a half-million dollars commanding a high bid of $2.3 million. The Hemi Cuda, which served the duty of demonstrator for its designer John Herlitz when new, proved as few others have done in the past that there is unquestionably such thing as multimillion-dollar classic American muscle with a hammer price of $2.25 million.

The much-heralded Turbo Carrera Porsche originally special ordered by Steve McQueen, pictured at right, was expected to break the one-million-dollar mark with its sale, and it did so with ease at almost twice that amount coming in at a hefty $1.95 million.

The low-mileage Corvette collection hailing from the garages of Ed Foss did extremely well with 21 of 26 hammering sold topped by an unrestored 2,299-original-mile 1956 convertible, which demanded a high bid of $275,000. The group overall brought $2,563,500 in sales.