Auctions

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Even with all the hullabaloo surrounding the RM auction in Italy, certain other cars coming up for auction have still managed to grab a few headlines.
Mecum is selling the 1938 Indy Blue Crown Special, the first car ever to use disc brakes in the Indianapolis 500. The car has only passed through two pairs of hands since and has an estimate of $800,000-1m. It not only comes with pictures, spares and memorabilia, but also original blueprints and notes. The Blue Crown Special qualified for the Indy 500 five times between 1939-47 and, although it never won the event, it remains one of the most interesting and original cars to have graced the Brickyard.

Another car going under the hammer at Mecum’s sale at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on May 13-17 is the 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupé – CSX2601 – which first raced at Sebring in 1965. That year it finished second in the GT class and seventh overall, but five years later at Reims Bob Bondurant clinched the Manufacturers GT Championship for the United States and Shelby American.

Carroll Shelby built only six Daytona Cobras so rarity alone is enough to justify the car’s high estimate, but add in the fact that it’s a wonderful-looking shape and that this example has a colourful history at Sebring and, indeed, at tracks around the world, and Mecum isn’t being too optimistic with an eight-figure price tag.

As if these cars weren’t enough to make the auction world sit up and take notice, Bonhams has also recently announced that it is selling an Auto Union D-Type driven by Hans Stuck Sr for an estimated £5.6 million on August 14. But more on that next month…