Back to back: Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 or Mercedes-Benz 500K?

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Back to business as usual? It almost looks like it when you take a look online at Bonhams’ latest sale at the Quail. But the cars on offer cannot be found on one location and the actual auction is not one like we were used to with a hall full of bidders. But let's dream away never the less and look at two of the most outrageously expensive cars on offer, both of which can be viewed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA.

Alfa Romeo 8C 2300

There’s a 1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 with a body by Figoni and estimated to make 6.5 to 7.5 million dollars to start with. It’s a car that was sold to Alfa Romeo’s Paris concessionaire as a ‘knock-down kit’ (this could well become world’s most expensive kit car - hoho) and sent over to Joseph Figoni’s coachbuilding enterprise in Boulogne-Billancourt. “It has a pedigree which is delightfully uncomplicated”, writes the auctioneer with understatement, but it seems to be right. The car was sold to a mister Raoul Calvayrac of Paris and his daughter recalled it back in 2003 when interviewed for a mighty book on the subject of the 8C 2300. After France it found its way to the US, from New York it went to Cincinnati where it stayed for some 40 years, keeping it original all the time. Only in 2005 after another change of ownership had taken place a ‘repaint and general refurbishment’ was deemed necessary. One more owner followed before the car made it to Bonhams’ catalogue. What a car!

Mercedes-Benz 500K

It will undoubtedly be the star of the sale on the 14th, but there’s another stunner that’s about as legendary in design that we’d like to share with you here. A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K Open Tourer that’s – like the Alfa – a former Pebble Beach winner. Unlike the Alfa, its early days seem to be slightly more mysterious, though. Fact is that the car was bought in Munich in 1951 by ‘flying doctor’ Ralph W.E. Cox Jr. while on honeymoon. He drove it over to Paris and had it shipped from Le Havre to New York and was kept in its original state until a mild restoration in the mid-1990s. In 2014 Cox’ collection was sold to a Californian Mercedes-Benz collector who (unfortunately?) submitted it to an ‘extensive refurbishment’. It is offered now once more and estimated to sell at 2 to 2.5 million dollars. Despite the immense price difference, we would have serious trouble in choosing one of the two. How about you?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Picture courtesy of Bonhams.

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