This year marked RM’s “Lucky Thirteenth” Arizona auction, held January 19-20, 2012 at the posh Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa. Growing from $6.3 million in 2000 to consistent totals in medium eight figures, RM’s $25,660,400 sale in 2012 marked the Arizona auction’s fifth year with greater than $20 million in sales.

RM got shuffled around some this year, moving into a ballroom in the main Biltmore hotel from the convention center which was booked to an oil company’s North and South American sales meeting. The new room was inconvenient for bringing cars onto the block, and cramped for bidders and onlookers. A return to the Convention Center next year would be a positive development.

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The 13th annual RM Auctions Arizona sale saw 140 automobiles cross the auction block, with registered bidders representing 21 countries. Top sale went to the 1957 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Scaglietti Coupe that sold for $1,815,000, followed by the 1959 BMW 507 Roadster and the 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder – $990,000 that both made $990,000.

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1934 Packard Twelve Convertible Victoria

RM Auctions returns to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Amelia Island, Florida on March 10, 2012 for its annual Amelia Island auction.

Now in its 14th year, the official auction house of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will showcase over 100 automobiles, with consignments including a 1934 Packard Twelve Dietrich Convertible Victoria and a 1929 Cord L-29 Hayes Coupe. In 2011, RM Auctions once again enjoyed the top auction results posted during the Amelia Island Concours weekend, generating $24.3 million in sales with a 96% of lots sold.

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The RM Auctions Arizona sale promises to kick off the 2012 auction season in style with the sale of nearly 150 classic and significant automobiles.  Held on the grounds of the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa January 19th and 20th, the 13th annual RM Arizona auction features an important selection of Ferraris in addition to a wide array of significant automobiles.

“Following another vibrant year in 2011, we’re thrilled to return to Arizona in January and kick off what is shaping up to be another exciting auction season,” says Rob Myers, Chairman and Founder, RM Auctions. “Ferrari is truly one of the world’s leading automotive marques and remains the perennial leaders of the pack when it comes to achieving great prices at auction. We’re excited to present yet another superb offering at our January sale as we continue to build upon our strong track record at the Biltmore.”

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“Following another vibrant year in 2011, we’re thrilled to return to Arizona in January and kick off what is shaping up to be another exciting auction season,” says Rob Myers, Chairman and Founder, RM Auctions.

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By Edward Lenahan

“The most exciting thing about piloting an old vehicle,” I said to my wife Marguerite, “is the nagging sense it’s going to kill you.”  We had just experienced our own brand of excitement, barely stopping our old tandem bike before a busy intersection, and this comment wasn’t so much a casual observation on my part as it was a way of making our near-death seem innocuous and charming.

To her credit, Marguerite shrugged the whole thing off as if this were normal for her, which, since finalizing a poor choice of men, it is.

Anyways, this particular morning being Sunday and there being considerable amounts of time to drink small oceans of coffee, read auction catalogs, and ponder life’s great philosophical questions from the soft confines of the couch, I concluded for the thousandth time that I don’t like math.  Particularly when applied to bicycles and vintage cars.

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RM Auctions offered approximately 100 automobiles and 25 motorcycles at the single-day London 2011 auction, with the top sale going to a matching-numbers 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Tour de France Berlinetta, chassis number 1039 GT.

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Once again corresponding with the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, RM Auctions’ 2012 Monaco sale will see 80 automobiles cross the auction block, in addition to the Saltarelli Collection of significant Ducati motorcycles. The addition of the motorcycles means the 2012 Monaco auction will be extended to two sale days (11–12 May), with an auction preview planned for the 10 May.

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Report and photos by Rick Carey, Auction Editor

RM has turned its annual auction during Hershey week into a celebration of old cars and unusual cars.

It’s a perfect place to highlight the unusual to the legions of collectors and restorers who’ve spent the week wandering the swap meet field looking for Mason connecting rods and Owen Magnetic transmission gears. Their mindset is to see the potential in every tired old beater, scruffy barn find and used old restoration. Hershey is the place to put them in front of a receptive audience, and that’s what RM does.

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The RM Auctions London 2011 sale will feature approximately 100 automobiles, in addition to a select range of classic bikes also set to go under the hammer during the single-day auction. Headline offerings at the fall London sale include a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Tour de France, 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Scaglietti Spyder, 1972 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/TT/3, 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV, 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT and 1930 Bugatti T46 Petit Royale.

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Held during the AACA Eastern Regional Fall Meet, the 2011 RM Auctions Hershey sale saw the world’s oldest running motor car, a historic 1884 De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout, sell for $4.62 million, more than double its original pre-sale estimate.

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Report and photos (unless noted) by Rick Carey, Auction Editor

RM Auctions pulled off an unprecedented feat at Monterey in 2011, selling five eight-cylinder supercharged Mercedes-Benzes in a single night.

They weren’t mundane cars, either – if the term “mundane” can be applied to any 500K or 540K. There were two Special Roadsters, a Special Coupe, a Sport Cabriolet A and a Roadster.

When the curtain descended late Saturday evening these five cars had all sold on the block for a total of $26,529,250, a mean value of $5,305,850.

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The star consignment for the 2011 RM Hershey sale is the world’s oldest running motor car, an 1884 De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout. Commissioned by French entrepreneur, Count de Dion, and built by Georges Bouton and Charles-Armand Trepardoux, the 1884 De Dion steamer was nicknamed ‘La Marquise’ after the Count de Dion’s mother. Measuring just nine feet in length, ‘La Marquise’ features twin compound steam engines, ‘spade handle’ steering and seats four people ‘dos-a-dos’ (back-to-back). The seats are located on top of the steel tank, which holds 40 gallons of water, good for about 20 miles; its sophisticated boiler, fed by coal or coke, can be steamed in 45 minutes.

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RM Auctions presented its first auction at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in the Spazio Villa Erba at Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como on May 21, 2011. The effort featured a concentrated consignment of elegant and racy cars suited to the elegance of the concours. There were just 32 in total, but they carried a total low estimate of some $44,698,488 (€31,540,000.) Only one car, the Lancia Stratos-based ‘Sibilo’ concept from the Bertone Collection, carried an estimate below €100,000.

Three-quarters (24) of the 32 cars offered were sold, bringing a total of $33,207,122, an average of $1,383,630. The median transaction was a whopping $888,868 (64.2% of the average.) 13 lots hammered sold under their pre-sale low estimates (54.2%) while 5 brought more than their high estimates (20.8%) and the $29,649,216 total of the successful bids exceeded by ½ of 1% their total low estimates.

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The headline consignment of the 2011 RM Auctions Monterey sale, a spectacular 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Spezial Roadster, chassis number 154140, attracted spirited bidding in the room and on the phones, selling for $9,680,000 – a new world record for a Mercedes-Benz sold at auction.

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The 26th annual RM Monterey auction will feature approximately 150 cars, with a multitude estimated to garner over $1 million. Headlining the 2011 Monterey sale is the 1952 Ferrari 340 Mexico Berlinetta; 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Spezial Roadster; 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Sport Cabriolet A; 1970 Porsche 911S Steve McQueen Le Mans movie car; 1952 Chrysler D’Elegance and 1935 Bugatti Type 57 Grand Raid Roadster.

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Celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2011, RM’s flagship UK sale is the highest grossing collector car auction in the UK. The 2010 auction, headlined by the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond movie car, achieved in excess of £19 million in sales with an 87% sell-through; bidders represented over 30 countries.

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RM Auctions, Inn at St. John’s, Plymouth, Michigan, July 30, 2011

Meadow Brook is gone, replaced by the Concours America at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan.

Located barely 20 minutes from Detroit Metro Airport, between Livonia and Ann Arbor, the periphery of Plymouth, Michigan suffers some of the ‘closed auto plant’ blight of the Detroit area but more than makes up for it with carefully maintained homes, tree-lined avenues and a walking-centered downtown clustered around a village green with sidewalk dining and more ice cream shops than the Coney Island boardwalk.

Situated just off the main Livonia-Ann Arbor road, the Inn at St. John’s has evolved from a 1940’s seminary and still provides retreat and spiritual services to the Detroit Archdiocese although the seminary closed in 1988. Redevelopment began in 1998 and has proceeded into 2006 with the opening of a 118-room boutique hotel and conference center where the Concours d’Elegance of America is now established on the Inn’s 27-hole golf course.

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RM Auctions presented 70 automobiles during the four-hour auction, with the top sale going to the 1932 Packard Twin Six Individual Custom Convertible Sedan that sold for $1,100,000. Delivered new to famed American entertainer Al Jolson for $6,600, the Dietrich-bodied Packard was one of two built and unseen for nearly half a century.

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The headline consignment is a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Spezial Roadster, chassis 154140 from the private collection of Sam and Emily Mann. One of just a select few built with the most desirable configuration of high door, long tail and covered rear spare, of which it is believed just three examples survive, the 540 K is expected to establish a new world record for a Mercedes-Benz sold at auction.

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