2020 is still young. But, the global economic collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic has many auto enthusiasts debating whether it is a good time to buy or sell a car right now. Yet, the strange thing about car auctions is that historic and rare cars will always remain historic and rare. So, those types of cars will always command a better price than others, regardless of the world economic stability. Even with some of the trepidation in the automotive community, some cars are still this selling at enormous price points.

According to a post from Classic and Sports Car, they have tallied the sales from January 1 through March 31 of this young year and developed a list of the strongest sellers so far. Interestingly, only three cars were made after the year 2000. Here are the top ten sellers on the list.

1932 Bugatti Type 55 Supersport Roaster

$7,100,000

This car sold at Bonhams’ Amelia Island event in March. Only 14 of these roadsters were built. Of those, only 11 have the original coachwork, this one being one of them. 

1931 Bugatti Type 55 Two-Seat Superport

$5,061,380

This vehicle sold at Bonhams auction at the Les Grandes Marques du Monde au Grand Palais event in February.

1968 Ford Mustang GT – Bullitt

$3,740,000

This vehicle sold at a Mecum auction in early January. It is one of two Mustangs driven by Steve McQueen in the ever-popular car chase scene from the movie Bullitt. A letter from Warner Brother certifying that is was the Mustang featured in the film was included with the sale. 

1907 Renault Type AI Vanderbilt Racer

$3,332,500

This Renault is one of 10 built at the request of Willie Vanderbilt. Many had differing coachwork but were mechanically the same. This car, in particular, was on display at Indianapolis Speedway Hall of Fame Museum for sixty years.

1995 Ferrari F50

$3,222,500

Ferrari’s are always popular when they come up for sale. This one sold at Gooding and Company’s Scottsdale sale. It only had 5,200 original miles. There were only 349 units built of this vehicle. It still had its tool case and Ferrari suitcase.

2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 

$3,000,000

This new generation C8 Corvette sold at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction in January. It was sold as part of a charity fundraiser. So, in addition to being an early VIN number vehicle, the new owner was able to help the Detroit Children’s Fund.

2003 Ferrari Enzo

$2,782,500

This Enzo sold at an RM Sotheby’s auction at Amelia Island in March. It had less than 1,700 miles on the odometer at the time and is one of only 399 copies.

1965 Ferrari 275 GTB

$2,745,321

This vehicle sold at Artcurial’s Retromobile sale in February. This Ferrari actually saw race time with over 40 international races in its logbook. 

1932 Hispano-Suiza J12 Dual Cowl Pheaton

$2,425,000

This convertible sold at Gooding’s January 17th auction. It is one of ten dual cowl units of this model. 

2018 Pagani Huayra Roadster

$2,370,000

RM Sotheby’s in Arizona sold this vehicle. It is the 42nd of 100 built. This twin-turbocharged V12 sports car has an AMG sourced engine and plenty of carbon fiber.  

This list of the top ten sold vehicles at auction so far this year proves that even in a questionable economy, people are still willing to part with money if the historicity and rareness of the vehicle are sufficient enough. It will be interesting to see how the rest of 2020 pans out for the automotive connoisseur. Many prestigious events have been canceled or postponed. So, this may create more pent up demand for those auctions and events that do remain on the schedule. In either case, 2020 has started out with some strong sellers.