Yesterday RM Sotheby’s sold this fantastic triple-black XKE for $235,200USD at their ICONs sale in New York City.
This particular example, 1E 13575 started out as a low-mileage, rust free, California survivor.
It was completed by Shaun Saunders in Scottsdale, Arizona who is known for his meticulous dry builds. If I could critique one aspect it would be the over-polished intake manifold and carburetor setup.
The $235,200USD was probably a supreme disappointment in New York. A very similar car, known as the Black Beauty sold for $467,500 at the same sale in 2013.
Today RMSotheby’s are anouncing the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning D-Type chassis XKD501 for their upcoming Auction in Monterey.
They call this “Unequivocally one of the most important and valuable Jaguars in the world”
XKD501 was the first customer D-Type delivered to Ecurie Ecosse, the Scotland stable founded by David Murray and known for their Scottish Flag Metallic Blue Jaguars.
Against three long-nose D-Types entered by the Jaguar factory, Ecurie Ecosse used XKD501 with factory support at the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Driver’s Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart took overall honors at the 1956 Le Mans race ahead of the chasing Aston Martin DB3S.
RM describe the car: “Now offered from only its third private owner, XKD 501 checks all the proverbial boxes. It has won the most grueling contest in sports car racing, the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans, and is a centrifugal component of Jaguar’s three consecutive wins at Sarthe. The Jaguar has been fastidiously maintained and serviced by just four caretakers, including a restoration by some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts. Almost unique among a run of automobiles that inevitably led hard lives, its history is refreshingly clean, concise, and incredibly well-known.”
UPDATE: Sold for $21,780,000 – the highest price ever achieved for a British automobile at auction.
UPDATE: Sold for $13,750,000 – a new auction benchmark for an American automobile.
Today RMSotheby’s anounced the AC/Shelby Cobra prototype for their upcoming auction in Monterey.
What they call “the most important modern American car” is actually British.
That’s because this prototype was assembled by AC Cars in Thames Ditton, England.
In fact the front badge gives equal credit to both AC Cars and Shelby!
I wrote earlier:
Shelby recalls “I went to AC Cars in about June 1961. I’d looked at several other chassis situations for building my own cars, including AC’s Ace. Ray Brock came to me about the same time and said, ‘Ford has a new small-block V-8. 221 inches.’” Not long afterward he was in Detroit to meet with Dave Evans, Don Frey and Lee Iacocca. He recalls “I told him that I had a chassis, and that, if I could get these Ford engines, I thought I could build a car that would blow off the Corvette. I needed to borrow $25,000 to build two cars, plus engines. Iacocca agreed.”1
Putting an American V8 in a well-used european chassis such as a Ferrari or Maserati was common in 1960s racing, but Shelby was the first to market a working a sports car with official factory backing. Furthermore, many of the V8-powered specials in SCCA racing had achieved success alongside more expensive European marques. With the Cobra, Shelby saw a new opportunity.
After Shelby’s visit to Thames Ditton, AC Cars agreed to ship a modified version of their AC Ace to America without an engine. All the initial development of the chassis was done by AC who fitted the first prototype with the 221 in³ Ford V8. Like the production cars to the follow, this first car was eventually shipped to America, engineless.
In February of 1962, CSX2000 sometimes known as CSX0001 was completed in Dean Moon’s shop in Santa Fe Springs, California. When it reach Shelby, one of Ford’s first 260 in³ engines was available, which at the time was an upcoming racing engine developed with joint co-operation with Holman & Moody. Not long after arriving, the brushed-aluminum car was outfitted with a 260 and christened a Shelby.
Shelby gives little credit to AC. He commented “We strengthened the chassis tubes, we had to put different spindles and hub carriers on it, we had to put a different rearend in it,” recalls Shelby. “We changed those old buggy springs…there were very few nuts and bolts in that car that were the same nuts and bolts as in an AC Ace.”
Images by the talented Darin Schnabel for RMSotheby’s
