I had a round trip I had to do from Nice to Zürich at some point before end of November, so last Sunday morning I left Nice early in the morning and drove towards Zürich but with a stop in Milan first. I had a good reason for that stop. The Duemila Ruote (Italian for two thousand wheels) auction by RM Sotheby’s with a total of 817 lots – cars, boats, motorcycles, bicycles, engines, spare sparts, collectibles – that will go into the history as one of the greatest auctions ever. Held during the same weekend as Milano AutoClassica this auction was like a dream come true for any petrolhead. More than 400 cars were auctioned, many iconic models likes Maserati MC12, Porsche 959 Komfort, Porsche 993 RS, Ferrari F40, Ferrari 275 GTB, Bugatti EB110, Mille Miglia Lancia from 1937, Alfa Romeo 6C from 1938 … The list of cars was insane.
The story behind Duemila Ruote is that there was an Italian business man named Luigi Compiano who decided to invest the money he had loaned for his companies in cars and other means of transport, as well as some spare parts as well (because you never know when you might need an extra Ferrari engine or some new rims for the Porsche, right?). Not just any spare parts though. This collection had for example a Ferrari 250 GTE engine, a 250 GT SWB Replica alloy body and a lot more stuff.
Luigi’s hoarding hobby was kind of illegal though. Do not get me wrong, hoarding beautiful cars is a hobby I have full respect for. Nothing wrong with that, who would not want an F40 959 MC12 and 993 RS in their garage if it was possible. But how you get up to more than 400 cars is to me a mystery and actually makes the man behind this collection very fascinating – I do not know him, but pretty sure it is an interesting person we are talking about. When he was not able to pay off his 14 million euros tax debts the Italian Government confiscated his collection, properties and other assets. Duemila Ruote was with that said a bankruptcy sale but a very successful one, that brought in 51,263 million euros in total.
The whole story is so absurd that is was difficult to believe it, especially when walking around in the hall where a total of 423 cars were on display together with all the other lots – 155 motorcycles, 55 boats, and 140 bicycles. “Where did he keep all these? How big was his garage?!”
3 days, 30 total hours spent auctioneering, and 817 lots sold in total.
I do not understand how anyone who clearly has a love for cars can let their cars get in this condition though. Many were covered in dust, and that is not the proper way to treat a gorgeous car, but on the other hand if you have more than 400 in the garage – where do you even start?
This was not a happy ending to Luigi’s story but you have to give him credit for his ability to choose what cars to buy for his collection, because there were some true gems up for grabs. Some of my personal favourites were the Porsche 959 ‘Komfort’ (sold for €1.008.000), Porsche 993 RS (sold for €341.600), Lancia-Ferrari LC2 Group C (sold for €851.200) and of course both the Ferrari F40 (sold for €1.030.400) and Maserati MC12 (sold for €3.024.000). The most expensive car sold during the weekend was the 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C Alloy for €3.416.000. The 1974 Porsche 911 S 2.7 rally look car was also very nice. It was basically just eye candy everywhere. Not all the greatest cars are in my photo gallery, but many of my personal favourites are. From the Milano AutoClassica cars I fell in love with the Lancia 037 that was on display by Lancia Classics – dream car!
Lucky to have seen the Duemila Ruote collection is probably the right way to describe the feelings afterwards. Really happy that I made that stop because it was a day filled with the most incredible car porn I have seen in a while, and many cars I will probably never get the opportunity to see again.
So Luigi, RM Sotheby’s and Milano AutoClassica – thank you.
Duemila Ruote lots and results: www.rmsothebys.com/tv16/duemila-ruote/results
8 comments
Too much awesomeness. 400 cars – it’s not about driving them anymore, it’s more about just owning and collecting them – totally different view on cars. Not sure that’s a good thing.
I can understand collecting (…hoarding ;-) ) if you really enjoy your cars and drive them also. If you treat yourself with your dream cars and buy cars you love to drive, this makes perfect sense (400 is too much though ;-) ). What I personally find more difficult to understand are the people who just collect cars, keep them in a garage for 2-5-10-20-50 years (read: as long as it takes before the prices have gone up so much that they make a huge profit), sell them later, but never ever enjoyed them during the time they owned them. Or of course I understand the financial part of it, because some model prices have gone high in the past years. And the people who bought those cars a long time ago, and managed to keep them low mileage, can now become millionaires in a day. That is of course amazing, yet as a person who LOVES to drive I would struggle SO MUCH to have a car in my garage and never drive it… It would feel completely wrong. Who am I saving it for? Who knows if 50 years from now these type of cars are even allowed on public streets, what if the time to drive and enjoy them is in fact now and not 50 years later? In a nutshell, why save the AMAZING fun for someone else?! Maybe I am too selfish to understand ;-)
Someone said “not driving a car to keep it’s mileage low is the same as not make love to your girlfriend so she is more valuable for her next boyfriend”.
I think people who are collecting cars without driving, just do not enjoy driving or they have other, less valuable, probably more modern cars to drive too.
We had this discussion on one car forum about status of petrol cars after some many years, and we come to conclusion that it will be similar to riding a horse now. You can do that as a hobby if you like to and can afford, but it’s not so common as it was some 100 years ago. I am not into riding a horses, but probably that can be addictive too, and who knows, maybe even better than driving cars :)
“not driving a car to keep it’s mileage low is the same as not make love to your girlfriend so she is more valuable for her next boyfriend” <- Haha, exactly! No but really I know people who collect cars (...and do not drive all of them), so I don't want to sound too judgmental. People do whatever they want in life - their money, their cars, their decisions :-) - but for me it would be a struggle to not go out for a night drive in an MC12 F40 or whatever insane ride I had in my garage... Sure you would be taking out a car from your collection that is worth a huge amount of money. There is also (always) the risk you might crash it, and you would cry for a few weeks because some cars simply can not be replaced. But that is a risk I would personally take - it is a bit like love isn't it, either you go all in and risk getting your heart broken really badly, or you hold back and might miss out on something that could have been the greatest experience of your life. But I agree there are different types of people and collectors - some are really in the business just for the money, not for the passion.
So all or nothing? ;)
I think it’s possible to find less valuable car which can give similar feelings as mentioned supercars. And also company is important too. I mean, I would prefer driving at night with some 5 friends around the city in 5 bmw convertibles to driving alone in F40. Of course driving F40 in good company would be better ;)
I am completely different I want to be alone haha – the F40, a mountain road, just before sunrise, my dog in the passenger seat… Just us three and an empty road ahead ;-) ;-)
Completely different – I hate waking up early, prefer sunset :D
Never mind my previous comment, somehow I switched sunrise with sunset in my mind as not native english speaker. Sunrise rules. Sunset sometimes :) Love some stanceworks.com pics of cars made in “golden hour of car photographers” – one hour after sunset.