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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.

Ford set to target pre-school market with next F-150 variant

How do you build a strong group of loyalists from the next generation of American drivers? You start em' young. Ford has taken that lesson to heart, as we can see in the first batch of images of the company's new entry to the pre-school market, the Power Wheels F-150. This particular example was caught returning from testing around Ford's base of operations in Dearborn, MI – covered in tiny little bits of camouflage, too. Now, this could very well end up being a collaboration between Power Wheels and Ford. Then again, it could just be some bored engineers that decided to troll the local congregation of spy photographers, who earlier today captured images of the next Focus RS and SVT Mustang. Whatever it is, it's pretty darn cool. Take a look up top for images of the new Power Wheels F-150.

Galpin Auto Sports and Fisker turn the Mustang into a Rocket in LA [w/video]

Galpin Auto Sport and Henrik Fisker made big promises about the Rocket before its debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show today, calling it the "ultimate American muscle car." Now that this 725-horsepower carbon-fiber Ford Mustang has officially been revealed, we've now got a chance to see if their vision backs up all the bluster. The Rocket is based off the latest 2015 Mustang, but the entire exterior design has been substantially reworked by Fisker. "This is a project born out of passion, it's a dream come true, to have the opportunity to 'touch' a Mustang and apply my design ideas to it," he says in the model's announcement. The biggest changes come up front, where Fisker has added a gaping hexagonal grille with a polished bar running and two nearly hidden driving lights at the top corners. Long nostrils run down each side of the hood, taking their inspiration from the 1968 Shelby GT500. The Rocket's design also emphasizes its scalloped sides, which run back to functional ducts at the rear to cool the Brembo Grand Turismo brakes. When checking out the Rocket from the rear, it's easy to spot the wider fenders that are beautifully blended into the integrated spoiler. The interior has been left mostly alone beyond some eye-grabbing red leather and carbon-fiber trim. Under the hood, Galpin spokesperson Nathan Hoyt has confirmed to Autoblog that the Rocket employs a 5.0-liter V8 with a Whipple supercharger which can be called to attention with a six-speed manual gearbox. It took only a few months for the vehicle to go from conception to reality. Fisker showed Galpin President Beau Boeckmann early sketches at this year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, and the two parties went from there. "When Henrik showed me his ideas, I got chills - it's literally the most beautiful Mustang I have ever seen," says Boeckmann in the company's release. Production is set to begin in December, with deliveries starting in early 2015. There's no set production total in mind for now, but Hoyt tells Autoblog that the price will be "just over $100,000." Scroll down to read all of the details about Fisker and Galpin's Rocket.