RM Sotheby’s Milan 2025 sale pulled back the curtain on the Lake Como Car Week with a fascinating sale that highlighted the tightrope-walk nature of auction results.
Held in a disused factory in Milan – admittedly one beloved of many Italian fashion brands – an hour away from Como, the location might have deterred some floating overseas customers, but it was a sale that had some fantastic highs but some difficult lows and no-sales; at the time of writing, no sell-through rate had been released.
While the record result for the love it/hate it Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary is to be celebrated (see further below), the night’s big takeaway was the 1997 Porsche 993 GT2 R (pictured below), sold at no reserve well below low estimate.
Originally estimated at €500k-€700k, this particular example is a racing car and part of a wider group of air-cooled and water-cooled 911s that all struggled on the night. We’ve seen 993 GT2s sell for seven figures in the not-too-recent past, so how did this one limp to just €201,250?
Look beyond the headlines and there is both precedent and reasoning. The first is that this is a full-bore racing car, rather than a road machine; it its largely the road models that attract those seven-figure scores. Racing cars are always a double-edged sword – you have to have the right people in the room, and clearly a drizzly Thursday in Milan was not that place. The potential for sale-rate misery has led to some auctioneers, most notably Iconic, to separate out its competition cars from its road cars for its UK Race Retro and Silverstone Classics sales.
Look beyond the shock-horror headlines and this wasn’t a pristine example, either. Not only was it in need of restoration, but it had been re-shelled after a big crash at Assen in 1999. It later had another front bulkhead welded in; the ensuing work hadn’t been completed. Further to that, the motor wasn’t the original and, as quoted directly from the catalogue, it was “fitted with an engine of unknown type and origin”.
Social media appeared to be frothing over this result, but this was always going to be a problem car – the question must be asked as to why it was included in such a high-profile sale, and why it had such a lofty estimate, given its history. While crash damage is to be expected for racing cars – and, like it or not, in some cases it is part of the bidding appeal – those cars tend to have distinguished competition careers from a big name and a big win. This example didn’t really have any of that.
Has the tide turned away from the 993 GT2? It’s too early to say. A road-going RHD example has gone unsold at a leading UK dealer for several months, and another white GT2 racing car without much of a competition career has gone unsold twice this year, with two different auctioneers, on both sides of the Atlantic. However, it does represent arguably the ultimate development of the 911 in turbocharged, rear-wheel-drive, road-going form, and is suitably rare, and the road cars are more usable, more of the time, which goes some way to explain the price delta.
As for no reserve? It’s a great ‘come to me’ for buyers, but it should be deployed with caution: either use it to simply get rid of a car, or use it on something on which everything stacks up and there’s a ready buying public. Anything else is simply too much of a risk.
On to happier news for RM – the spectacular result for the above 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary. Still wearing its original Nero over Beige colour combination, and boasting just 12,433km, it had been in solo Italian ownership since 2004. Estimated at €450k-€650k, it truly smashed that to reach a record €1.13m.
The sale was also successful for its other big-hitting Lamborghinis: a 2010 Reventón Roadster sold for €1.58m against a €1.3m-€1.6m estimate, while a 1971 Miura P400 SV (pictured above) sold for €3,942,500 against a €3.2m estimate; a US-spec car that has won concours events and recently starred in a Chris Harris video.
Elsewhere, there were some big cars that went home from RM Sotheby’s Milan 2025 sale with their vendors, most notably Alfa Romeos. The 1932 Alfa 8C Lungo Cabriolet by Pinin Farina was bid to €3.1m against a €3.5m-€4.5m estimate, and a Zagato-bodied 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C Gran Sport Spider Series IV was bid to €1m against a €1.3m-€1.5m estimate.
Of the five Ferraris offered, four sold, led by the above 1989 F40, which went for €2,817,500 against a €2.4m-€2.8m estimate, while a 1962 250 GT Cabriolet Series II sold for €1.13m (est €1m-€1.5m), a 1972 365 GTB/4 Daytona sold for €539,735 (est €500k-€700k) ) and a 1995 F355 Berlinetta formerly owned by Michele Alboreto sold for €166,750 (est €150k-€190k). Meanwhile, a 1969 Ferrari 365 GTC estimated at €650k-€750k didn’t sell at €550k high bid.
In the land of the Three-Pointed Star, just two out of the five Mercedes-Benzes found new homes. A 1954 300 SL Gullwing sold for €1,298,750 (pictured above) against an €1.15m-€1.3m estimate, but a 1962 300 SL Roadster (est €1.8m-€2.2m) and a 1956 300 SL Gullwing (est €1.8m-€2.2m) were both bid to €1.5m and didn’t sell.
The two other cars were roofed and drop-top versions of the CLK DTM respectively; in the end the rarer 2006 Roadster sold for €370,625 against a €375k-€425k estimate.
It wasn’t just the racing Porsches that struggled. Most of the racing cars failed to find homes, including the above 2008 Aston Martin DBR9 GT1, which was bid to €1.1m against a €1.5m-€1.8m estimate. While it was the last built by Prodrive, its racing career was short and fairly unmemorable before it had a huge accident and was sidelined, so the pre-sale estimate could have been a little bit fanciful.
Elsewhere, an ex-David Coulthard/Mika Häkkinen 2001 McLaren MP4-16, a 1955 Abarth 207 A Spyder and a 1964 Abarth-Simca 2000 Corsa all failed to sell, but a 2007 Aston Martin DBRS9 sold for €286,250 against a €260k-€290k estimate. Along with the six racing 911s that didn’t sell, surely it’s time to question the wisdom of combing road cars with race cars for auction line-ups?
On the subject of Aston Martins, there were some estimate-busting results to celebrate at RM Sotheby’s Milan 2025 sale. The 1965 Aston Martin DB Short-Chassis Volante (pictured above) sold for €770k against a €675k-€725k estimate, while a 1985 Aston Martin V8 Vantage recently celebrated by sister magazine Octane sold for €280,625 against a €165k-€200k estimate.
Finally for one of the more controversial cars prior to the auction taking place – the above 1987 Porsche 959 ‘Spyder’. Crafted out of a crashed 959 by an independent coachbuilder in period (we go into its history more here), it drew the ire of social media users, but on the night it settled on €1,298,750 against a €1.1m-€1.5m estimate. The big question is now whether to keep it as it is, as a unique example of 1980s-90s excess, or to restore it to its original form? With normal 959s with their headlining intact going for not a great deal more than this result, it’ll be fascinating to see how things pan out.
Further details
For more on RM Sotheby’s Milan 2025 sale, head here.
