2010 top car auctions

2010's Top Ten Cars Sold at Auction

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

The industrialist hordes lifting placards to bid this year's vintage machinery were not victim to the paroxysms of 2009, when a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa went for $12.2 million and a 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe was swept away for $7.25 mil. None of the top ten trophies in this year's vintage bazaar provoked such financial spikes, yet the decline from first place to tenth was much more gradual: the sum of 2009's offerings was $51.22 million, while 2010 racked up $50.54 million.

That isn't to say the year lacked any monumental spasms: a 1957 Bugatti Type 57C Atlantic "changed hands," to use the clinical parlance of tycoons, for somewhere between $30 and $40 million. That, however, was a private treaty sale handled by Gooding & Company, not an auction result.

Ferrari made another top showing among the perp-walk of pageant winners, with prices spanning $7.26 million for a Ferrari to €2.8 million for a... Ferrari. But Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mercedes and Talbot Lago were also on the list of what ended up being a very beautiful party...

Gallery: Top 10 Cars at Auction - 2010