Eighties Vehicles at the 2015 Mecum Monterey

Mecum’s August auction in Monterey included a good amount of cars from the 1980s. As always, I’ll concentrate on the cars and trucks that actually sold (remember that this is not a no reserve auction—one of the white 1986 Ferrari Testarossa coupes used as hero cars in Miami Vice was a no sale bid up to $600,000) and add some of my opinions. Where I have covered the specific year and model of a car in this blog, I link to it.

Thursday:

• 1985 black Buick Grand National coupe with a gray interior—$9,000 hammer price.
• 1983 black Mercedes-Benz 500SL convertible with a tan interior and 78,000 miles—$18,000
• 1989 black Chevrolet Corvette coupe with a black interior and a six-speed manual transmission—$9,000
• 1985 beige with woodgrain side panels Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country convertible with a beige interior and 12,000 miles—$12,000
• 1984 blue Jeep CJ-8 Scrambler pickup truck with a black interior—$14,000
• 1988 silver Mercedes-Benz 560SL convertible with a beige interior and 20,000 miles—$35,000
• 1988 white Jaguar XJ-SC with a blue interior—$8,000 for this strange “targa convertible.”
• 1984 bronze BMW M6 coupe with a brown interior and 31,000 miles—$44,000
• 1988 black Ferrari 328 GTS with a cream interior and 58,000 miles—$65,000
• 1987 red Porsche 928S4 coupe with a black interior and 60,000 miles—$15,000
• 1986 red Porsche 944 coupe with a black interior and 95,000 miles—$8,000

Friday:

• 1983 red Datsun 280ZX coupe with a gray interior, a five-speed manual transmission, and 16,000 miles—$22,500 means that this is the  first vehicle in this auction to meet my criteria for serious 1980s collectability of original cars or trucks: selling for equal to or above its original base list price. I’ll mark these vehicles in bold green.
• 1980 white Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible with a red interior—$38,000
• 1982 yellow Toyota FJ-43 Land Cruiser SUV with a gray interior and 46,000 miles—$42,500
• 1987 white Lamborghini Jalpa P350 coupe with a white interior and 23,000 miles—$80,000 is about 25% over what  Hagerty’s valuation tools sees as all the money for a 1987 Jalpa.
• 1982 silver beige Chevrolet Corvette Collector Edition coupe with a silver beige interior and eight miles—$60,000 has to be an all-time record for a stock 1982 Corvette. I worked hard to deduct any points at all while judging the exterior of this car in 2008—back then it had six miles.
• 1987 white Chevrolet Corvette 35th Anniversary Edition coupe with a white interior and 163 miles—$50,000 for another car from the Ed Foss low mileage Corvette collection.
• 1988 dark blue Chevrolet Corvette Corvette Challenge race car (#58: Robin Dallenbach) with a black interior and 8,300 miles—$30,000
• 1987 red Ferrari 328 GTS targa coupe with a beige interior and 33,000 miles—$85,000
• 1987 black Buick GNX coupe with a gray interior and 12 miles—at $140,000

Saturday:

• 1984 white Chevrolet Corvette coupe with a graphite leather interior—$15,000 for the first C4 Corvette actually sold to a paying customer.
• 1985 red Porsche 935 Kremer K2 coupe with a tan interior and 4,200 miles—$390,000 for this factory racing special.
• 1989 red Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet with a black interior and 13,000 miles—$200,000
• 1989 red Ferrari 328 GTS targa coupe with a tan interior and 16,000 miles—$90,000
• 1989 red Ferrari F40 coupe with a red interior and 5,500 miles—at $1,150,000, by far the highest eighties vehicle sale of the auction.
• 1989 white Porsche 911 Speedster convertible with linen interior and 7,800 miles—$190,000
• 1989 black Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary coupe with a black interior and 2,200 miles—$270,000 is #2 money according to Hagerty’s valuation tools.
• 1989 red Porsche 911 Speedster convertible with a black interior and 68,000 miles—$100,000
• 1989 red Ferrari Testarossa with a tan interior, 16,000 miles, and a recent major service—$122,500 is actually a fairly reasonable price.
• 1981 red Porsche C928 custom convertible with a tan interior and 6,300 miles—$55,000 for this Carelli International-modified car.

As usual, there was obviously real money in the room at Monterey. Even more than normal, it seemed to be home to low mileage cars.

What do you think of this auction’s results?