On the Auction Block presents its list of the top ten cars offered by RM Auctions before 2008. The best is left for last in this segment, with the Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa, driven again by Phil Hill 45 years after he won with it at Le Mans
The legendary race driver Phil Hill’s son, Derek, drove this historic 1952 Jaguar C-Type to an auction world record this week, selling for US$2,530,000 at RM’s Sports & Classics of Monterey event in California.
One of just 53 examples built, XKC 007 was imported in August 1952 by Western distributor Charles Hornburg, who promptly hired 25-year-old Phil Hill to race the car in September on the 6.5-mile street circuit around Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Following the C-Type’s overall win at Le Mans in ’51, this was the North American racing debut for the C-Type. Hill didn’t disappoint, taking the car to an overall win in the Sheldon Cup on Saturday (Jaguar’s first major victory in the all-important U.S. market) and a 4th overall in the Elkhart Lake Cup race on Sunday, trailing a trio of V8-powered Cunningham’s. Hill subsequently raced the car to another overall win at Torrey Pines in December 1952.
XKC 007 passed through nine owners over the past 57 years, and one even took it to a 157mph top speed at Bonneville. The new tenth owner is getting a true piece of motorsport history.
Additional top-sellers at RM’s Sports & Classics of Monterey event included two other million-dollar cars – a race-bred 1955 Aston Martin DB3S, which brought an impressive US$1,980,000, and a stunning 1935 Duesenberg Model SJ Disappearing Top Convertible Coupe for US$1,430,000.
Two exceptionally rare and desirable cars are to be auctioned off at the annual Pebble Beach Auction on August 15th and 16th. Auctioneers, Gooding and Company are delighted to announce the consignment of the 1935 Duesenberg Model SJ Roadster, owned by Prince Serge M’Divani, and the 1927 Packard 343 Convertible Sedan from the estate of Racing Legend Phil Hill.
For those of you who feel you have sufficiently deep pockets can either participate or witness the action via live webcast on www.goodingco.com.
Other highlights include two California Spiders and the Michael Schudroff collection of important post-war cars, the majority of which will be sold at no reserve.
The upcoming auctions at Pebble Beach in the states are shaping up to feature some spectacular cars. The auctioneers will be putting such notable classics on the block as Ettore Buggati’s own Type 57C (read news), the one-of-a-kind Miller V16 racing car (read news), and now, this historic 1952 Jaguar C-Type.
This special C-Type Jaguar was the first to be imported into the United States, model XKC-007 and was delivered straight to the race track where it was piloted by legendary racer Phil Hill. The World-Champion-to-be took this particular C-Type to three victories at Elkhart Lake, Torrey Pines and Watkins Glen, scoring as the first victoris for the iconic C-Type in its history.
After being retired from racing duties, XKC-007 was bought and sold by numerous collectors before undergoing a full restoration in 1986, after which it scooped some awards on the vintage concours circuit — including a reunion date with Phil Hill to commemorate Jaguar’s 50th anniversary in 2002.
XKC-007 will be up for auction at RM Auctions three-day Sports & Classics of Monterey event from August 13-15.
This is O’Neil’s second book on these races in the Caribbean. This time it’s a 96-page soft-cover in Veloce’s Those Were the Days series, with a potted story on each of the 13 years of race weeks. But what makes the book is the great selection of photos, and they just about all seem to be new, not repeats from the previous book.
Although the circuit and the organisation could be a bit rough and ready, at various times many top drivers drove in these races: Gurney, Moss, Ireland, Penske and Phil Hill among them. The week was renowned as much for the accompanying social life as for what took place on the circuit. In addition to the main trophy races for GTs and sports-racers, the programme on occasion included F Vee (McLaren, Amon and Rindt all competed successfully), karts, and F Junior. But there were also Ladies Races, Residents’ Races and some pretty weird and wonderful vehicles to be seen.
Most of the photos are monochrome but there are a few colour shots too. Whether it’s an incredibly youthful Ricardo Rodriguez, Jim Hall’s wrecked Chaparral, Foyt’s Hussein-Dodge, or GM’s experimental Stingray SR2, you’ll be in for some treats when you leaf through this recommended book.
Motor Racing at Nassau in the 1950s and 1960s by Terry O’Neil
Review copy supplied by the publisher
Review by Mark Holman
Rumours of a future on-screen connection between Brad Pitt and the late Steve McQueen have been floating around for some time. Earlier reports stated that Brad Pitt was set to reprise the legendary Steve McQueen’s role in the classic car film Bullitt, but new reports have now emerged saying that Pitt is contracted to play the much admired actor/racer in an upcoming biographical film of McQueen’s life.
The as-yet-untitled McQueen biopic is reportedly being produced by Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters, and the film is said to begin production next year. Together with upcoming biopics on Phil Hill and Ayrton Senna (read news item), it looks like classic racing fans have a lot to get excited about.
I guess it’s a simple enough idea, based on Phil Hill’s long-running series of articles on sports-racing Ferraris for Road & Track and Rosso Ferrari. But the magic lies in how it has all been brought together.
Hill won 25 sports car races in Ferraris through the ’50s and early ’60s. In the book he writes about 19 different models, almost all of which he raced at the time.
They weren’t all enormously successful, though most were, but very few of these cars are less than fabulous to look at.
Hill’s early days racing in the US get good coverage — it must have been a great period to watch and compete in. He has a wonderful knack for giving just enough of every aspect of the models featured — specifications, development, team politics, personalities, his own experience in racing them (some amusing, some tragic, but nearly all successful), subsequent history and owners of the individual cars featured to bring the period to life.
Cars featured in the book include the AAC 815 and the first Corsa Spyder, through the big four-cylinder Monzas, the 4.0-litre V12 MI and the elegant Testa Rossas, to the 1994 333SP.
Each model he drives again to provide a current viewpoint. The book is topped off with a wonderful piece about the Fiat transporters the factory used in the 1950s! John Lamm’s colour photos and the contemporary black-and-white shots are superb, and the large page size really shows them off well.
I remember Dalton Watson doing many one-make photographic books of quite modest size 30 to 40 years ago. This new Ferrari book is on quite a different scale, and the production quality shows the contents off beautifully.
You don’t even need to be a Ferrari fan to enjoy this one.
