Automotive

$3.85-million Ford Mustang sale smashes world record for second time in six months

$3.85-million Ford Mustang sale smashes world record for second time in six months
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
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$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
The first bricks-and-mortar collector car auction since the pandemic looked quite a bit different to normal, though online sales rose significantly, contributing to the best result overall in 33 years
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The first bricks-and-mortar collector car auction since the pandemic looked quite a bit different to normal, though online sales rose significantly, contributing to the best result overall in 33 years
The first bricks-and-mortar collector car auction since the pandemic looked quite a bit different to normal, though online sales rose significantly, contributing to the best result overall in 33 years
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The first bricks-and-mortar collector car auction since the pandemic looked quite a bit different to normal, though online sales rose significantly, contributing to the best result overall in 33 years
You’d expect the most expensive French national flag ever sold at auction to be sold in France but … someone paid $36,580 for the flag used to start the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans
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You’d expect the most expensive French national flag ever sold at auction to be sold in France but … someone paid $36,580 for the flag used to start the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans
The top 10 road art results from the Mecum Indianapolis 2020 auction showed a distinctly Ford flavour
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The top 10 road art results from the Mecum Indianapolis 2020 auction showed a distinctly Ford flavour
View gallery - 21 images

Mecum Auctions finished the first big bricks-and-mortar car auction since the pandemic began in Indianapolis this week, ushering in a new era for the collector car industry and smashing the world record price for a Mustang for the second time this year.

After selling the McQueen “Bullitt” Mustang for US$3,740,000 at Kissimmee on January 10, it’s the second time in six months that a Mustang has sold for more than three million dollars, this time with Mecum hammering down the Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype for $3,500,000 ($3,850,000 with 10 percent buyer premium included) in Indianapolis.

$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020
$3,850,000 | 1965 Shelby GT350 “R-Model” prototype | Mecum | Indianapolis | 17 July 2020

Though it was the most successful Mecum Indianapolis auction in 33 years of running the annual flagship event, it was quite a different format to the normal football stadium sized crowd, with social distancing rules strictly obliged, and a much greater online audience than previous auctions.

The first bricks-and-mortar collector car auction since the pandemic looked quite a bit different to normal, though online sales rose significantly, contributing to the best result overall in 33 years
The first bricks-and-mortar collector car auction since the pandemic looked quite a bit different to normal, though online sales rose significantly, contributing to the best result overall in 33 years

The sell-through rate for the 1800 vehicles presented was an exceptional 78 percent, significantly boosted by 346 of those sold vehicles going to internet bidders. Online bidders accounted for $10.3 million of the total.

With a staunch Ford-oriented audience turning up for the event, the road art category was the bit that really helped overall sales climb past an unprecedented $74 million in sales. There were more than 6,000 Road Art lots offered over nine auction days, July 10-18, and those lots sold so well that they brought the overall sell-through rate for the auction to 90 percent.

The top 10 road art results from the Mecum Indianapolis 2020 auction showed a distinctly Ford flavour
The top 10 road art results from the Mecum Indianapolis 2020 auction showed a distinctly Ford flavour

The breadth of offerings across the 6000 Road Art lots was staggering, but that aforementioned Ford-inclined audience really bid up anything with Ford DNA and as can be seen from the top 10 road art lots of the auction, Ford almost made it a clean sweep.

You’d expect the most expensive French national flag ever sold at auction to be sold in France but … someone paid $36,580 for the flag used to start the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans
You’d expect the most expensive French national flag ever sold at auction to be sold in France but … someone paid $36,580 for the flag used to start the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans

The most fascinating purchase in this category was the embroidered silk French Tricolour used as the starting flag at the 1967 Le Mans race – the race in which Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt won by four laps in a Ford GT, and Gurney began a motorsport tradition by spraying the crowd with champagne from the victory dais.

The similarities between Ford’s four-year sweep of Le Mans and the Indianapolis auction were uncanny. The top 10 cars sold at the event went like this:

Here's the complete top 10 collector-car sales from the Indy 2020 auction:

  1. 1965 Shelby GT350R Prototype (Lot F140) | $3,850,000
  2. 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS (Lot S143) at $1,430,000
  3. 1966 Shelby GT350 Convertible (Lot F145) | $1,100,000
  4. 1964 Shelby 289 Competition Cobra (Lot F143) | $990,000
  5. 2018 Ford GT (Lot S135) | $946,000
  6. 1965 Shelby GT350 Paxton Prototype (Lot F141) | $880,000
  7. 1966 Shelby GT350 Paxton Fastback (Lot F142) | $852,500
  8. 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III (Lot S114) | $726,000
  9. 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona (Lot S144) | $715,000
  10. 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO (Lot S117) | $698,500

That would have to be the first time ever that Shelby has comprehensively outsold Ferrari on the auction block of a globally-significant auction, though it was largely because of the offering of the John Atzbach Shelby collection.

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