Category Archives: Auctions

Auctions

A Time Capsule on Wheels: 2005 Acura NSX-T Heads to Auction

Original Acura NSXs aren’t unicorns—you can still find them in decent numbers if you look hard enough—but every so often, one pops up that feels like it’s been trapped in amber. Case in point: this 2005 NSX-T now up for auction on Bring a Trailer, a car so well-preserved it might as well have rolled straight out of Honda’s Tochigi plant yesterday.

With just 4,300 miles on the odometer, this Long Beach Blue Pearl NSX has lived its entire life under the care of a single owner, who also happened to run Smithtown Acura of Saint James in New York. If you’re picturing a pampered existence filled with climate-controlled storage and meticulous service stamps, you’re exactly right. Maintained by Advantage Acura and Acura Honda, the car has been religiously kept up to factory spec, right down to a fresh timing belt, water pump, and valve adjustment.

And here’s the kicker: it’s still sitting on its original 2005 rubber. Yes, those tires. While any sane buyer intending to actually drive the car will swap them immediately, they’re proof of just how untouched this NSX really is. No aftermarket spoilers, no questionable exhaust swaps—just a pure, unfiltered late-model NSX exactly as Acura intended.

The visuals are classic NSX theater. The removable roof panel is painted to match the vivid Long Beach Blue Pearl body, offset by 17-inch forged silver wheels and gold-painted brake calipers that peek through with just the right amount of flash. Step inside, and the time-warp continues: Onyx leather seats show virtually no wear, the Bose audio system and six-disc CD changer remain intact, and even the original branded floor mats are in place.

Of course, what makes the NSX so revered isn’t just its styling or rarity—it’s the way it drives. Under the rear hatch sits the 3.2-liter naturally aspirated V-6, delivering 290 horsepower to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. In the early 2000s, that meant Ferrari-like thrills without Ferrari-like maintenance bills. Today, it means an increasingly rare recipe: high-revving NA engine, stick shift, and a chassis engineered with Ayrton Senna’s fingerprints still in its DNA.

Bring a Trailer bidders clearly know what’s at stake. With nearly a week left on the clock, the price has already surged past $190,000. For collectors, this isn’t just another clean NSX—it’s as close as you can get to a showroom-fresh example, with provenance to match.

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a factory-perfect slice of Japan’s supercar heyday, this might be the one. Just don’t expect to steal it—rarity, condition, and nostalgia are a potent (and pricey) mix.

Source: Bring a Trailer

Auctions

$5.2 Million for a Maserati MC12 Stradale: The Trident Still Bites

Maserati has just reminded the world that it doesn’t do “ordinary.” At Broad Arrow’s Monterey Jet Center Auction this August, a 2005 Maserati MC12 Stradale went under the hammer for a wallet-bending, eye-watering, driveway-bragging $5.2 million – the highest price ever paid for a modern Maserati. That’s not just a record; that’s 37 percent more than the last benchmark. Somewhere in Modena, a Trident just got a little sharper.

Why all the fuss? Well, for starters, Maserati only built 50 of these beasts – 25 in 2004, 25 in 2005. The MC12 Stradale was born out of motorsport’s fire, a road-legal twin of the MC12 GT1 that tore through FIA GT racing like a V12 hurricane, scooping up 14 titles, 22 victories, and three Spa 24-hour wins between 2004 and 2010. In short: it’s not just a car, it’s a rolling trophy cabinet.

Under the elongated, shark-like bodywork sits a naturally aspirated 6.0-litre V12 belting out 630 horses at 7,500 rpm. In other words, it sounds like Zeus gargling thunderbolts and goes like it’s late for an apocalypse. The car’s paint job is a story in itself: the pure white body with blue accents is a respectful nod to Maserati’s Birdcage Type 61, a sports-racing icon from the late fifties. Two decades on, the MC12 still looks like it was dropped into the wrong century by mistake.

The record-breaking sale isn’t just a number; it’s a statement. Collectors aren’t just chasing speed and beauty anymore – they’re chasing authenticity. And the MC12 has it in spades: motorsport pedigree, brutal engineering, and an exclusivity count you can fit on two packs of playing cards.

Meanwhile, Maserati is busy proving it hasn’t lost its edge. Just as the MC12 once bridged track and road, the new MCXtrema is carrying the flame forward. Different car, same ethos: extreme, exclusive, unapologetically Maserati.

So, what does $5.2 million buy you these days? Not just a car. It buys you history, rarity, the roar of a V12 bred for battle, and the knowledge that even 20 years on, Maserati can still make the world stop, stare, and bid like there’s no tomorrow.

The Trident, it seems, is sharper than ever.

Source: Maserati; Photos: Andrew Miterko

Auctions

Ferrari F50: Ralph Lauren’s Yellow Unicorn Shatters Records

This past weekend, someone with a very large wallet and an even larger sense of taste spent $9.24 million on a Ferrari F50. Yes, that’s right — nearly four million more than what these cars typically command. You could call it madness, but we call it inevitability.

Because this isn’t just any F50. This is the fashion-forward unicorn once owned by Ralph Lauren — a man who, when he wasn’t redefining American prep, was amassing one of the most jaw-droppingly valuable Ferrari collections on Earth.

And what a spec it is. Out of the 349 F50s ever built, just 55 were tailored for the American market. And of those, only two were painted in Giallo Modena yellow — this being one of them. So yes, rarity cranked up to 11.

Lauren eventually let go of the car back in 2003, and since then it’s spent most of its life in hiding. In fact, the last time it showed its face in public was in 2009, before disappearing into the quiet suburbs of Virginia. Cue this auction, and the world finally remembered just how intoxicating the F50 really is.

In preparation for its big debut, Ferrari Central Florida gave it a fresh dose of TLC in late 2024: new fuel tank, brakes, and rubber. And it’s got the Ferrari Classiche certification, because obviously. Despite being almost 30 years old, the odometer reads just 8,690 kilometers. In Ferrari-speak, that’s barely run in.

It wasn’t always like this, of course. For years the F50 lived in the shadow of its lairy older brother, the F40, and its futuristic younger sibling, the Enzo. Critics once moaned about its looks, its lack of a turbocharged punch, or the fact that it felt too much like a race car on the road. Today, those same critics are probably kicking themselves, because values are now skyrocketing faster than the rev counter on its 4.7-litre naturally aspirated V12 — an engine with genuine Formula 1 DNA.

For context, the previous record for an F50 was a mere $5.5 million, set earlier this year by an example with just 2,174 kilometers on the clock. This new sale obliterates that, and suddenly the F50 isn’t the “forgotten middle child” of Ferrari hypercars anymore. It’s the one everyone wants.

So, what have we learned? Simple: if you’ve got an F50 sitting quietly in your garage, congratulations — you’re sitting on a gold mine. If you don’t… well, best start designing polo shirts.

Source: RM Sotheby’s