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Gary Cooper's 1935 Duesenberg SSJ fetches record price at Pebble Beach

The 1935 Duesenberg SSJ formerly owned by Gary Cooper sold for a jaw-dropping $22 million over the weekend at the Gooding & Co. Pebble Beach auction, setting a record for the most valuable pre-war car ever sold at auction. It also appears to have become the most expensive American collector car ever sold at auction, eclipsing the very first Shelby Cobra ever made, which sold for $13.75 million in 2016. The Duesenberg was also the lone American-made entrant in the list of top 10 sellers, which was crowded with the names Ferrari and Porsche. You have to go all the way down the list to No. 21 to find the next American car: a 1930 Packard 734 Speedster Phaeton, which sold for a mere $1.127 million. All told, Gooding & Co. said it realized more than $116.5 million in auction sales over the weekend, with a whopping 25 cars sold for north of $1 million, an 84 percent sales rate and an average transaction price of $947,174. Clearly this is how the other half 1 percent lives. Gooding & Co. said there were five world-record sales at the auction. Joining the Duesenberg were a 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II, which sold for $5.005 million; a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France Berlinetta, $6.6 million; a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC Speciale, $3.41 million; and a one-of-two 1966 Ferrari Dino Berlinetta GT, $3.08 million. Oh, and that 1969 Ford Bronco test vehicle we told you about? The one that was rebadged by Holman & Moody as a Bronco Hunter? It sold for $121,000, which was well below the expected range of $180,000 to $220,000. Perhaps it was the presence of all those gorgeous Porsche Spyders and Ferraris that meant collectors weren't interested in boxy, utilitarian off-roaders. View 24 Photos Gooding and Co. had expected the convertible Duesenberg coupe to go for more than $10 million. It was one of only two of its kind built by Duesenberg — the other having gone to Clark Gable — with a specially shortened, 125-inch wheelbase and a supercharged straight-eight with double overhead cams, able to produce around 400 horsepower and a top speed of 140 miles per hour. It features a lightweight open-roadster bobtail body produced by LaGrande out of Connersville, Ind. The car was also owned at one point by race driver Briggs Cunningham.

LaFerrari Spider among Maranello's future product plans

Niche though its products may be, Ferrari typically rolls out a new model every year. 2009, for example, saw the introduction of the California. In 2010 came the 458 Italia, followed by the 458 Spider in 2011. In 2012 we greeted the FF, and in 2013 both the F12 Berlinetta and 458 Speciale. This year the hyper-exotic LaFerrari was joined by the California T, and you can bet that Maranello will keep up that pace by rolling out new versions of and replacements for each of these models in succession.
Among the plans which Car and Driver reports Ferrari has afoot will be an open-top LaFerrari Spider - something which the Prancing Horse marque hasn't done at the top of its range since the F50, which came exclusively with a removable hardtop. The 6.3-liter hybrid V12 will likely carry over unchanged, as will most of the other parameters, but for the joy of experiencing 1,000 horsepower with the wind in your hair - and the exclusivity of being one of the just 50 owners - we're told to expect a price tag roughly double that of the existing $1.35 million coupe.
Of course, Ferrari has more plans than simply chopping the roof off its hybrid hypercar. In Geneva next March, the House that Enzo Built is tipped to introduce a Modificato version of the 458 with a twin-turbo V8 producing around 670 horsepower - over one hundred horses more than in the new California T. A refresh for the all-wheel-drive FF is also said to be underway for 2016, when it will receive a less awkward roofline and the possible addition of a V8 base version alongside the V12 that will remain naturally aspirated. As it will in the updated F12 due the following year.

Autoblog Podcast #397

Episode #397 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Seyth Miersma talk about the leadership change at Ferrari, the Mercedes-AMG GT, and we give a report on the Long-Term Garage. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #397:
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