- Eleven incredibly special cars will be auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum starting in February 2025.
- Michael Schumacher’s rookie season F1 car is here and isn’t even close to the top of the list.
- The funds will go to IMS Museum improvements.
It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is America’s Vatican of speed. As such, when such a place decides to auction off some of its museum collection, the cars are not so much collector’s items as they are holy relics. As part of a refurbishment process, the IMS Museum intends to refocus specifically on vehicles that are directly linked to the Indy 500, and that means that some truly special machines are going under the hammer.
1907 Itala 120 HP Works Racing Car.
The list stretches to 11 cars, spread out over three different RM Sotheby’s auctions beginning February of next year in Stuttgart. It’s an incredibly widespread collection of racing machines, the oldest being a 1907 Itala 120 HP that has been part of the museum’s collection for almost 60 years. Said to be one of three survivors, it’s expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million.
Spirit of America Sonic 1.
Not particularly interested in Brass Era board-track racers? Perhaps we can tempt you with literally the fastest car in the world in 1965. The Spirit of America Sonic 1 carried Land Speed Record icon Craig Breedlove to an incredible, then-record 600.601 mph in November of ’65. At a time when nothing seemed impossible, even the dream of landing on the moon, it’s both a piece of history and a relic of the space race past.
1966 Ford GT40.
Other rarities include a supercharged 1930 Bugatti Type 35, a couple of pre–World War I Mercedes (one of which has a 17.3-liter racing engine), and a Ford GT40 that was campaigned at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans by Holman-Moody.
With expected values approaching or exceeding the eight-figure mark, there’s also the stunning 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS XP-64, a tube-frame, magnesium-bodied endurance racer designed by Zora Arkus-Duntov to take the fight to the likes of the Jaguar D-type. It raced only once.
1964 Ferrari 250 LM.
Overshadowing a Benetton F1 car from Michael Schumacher’s 1991 rookie season on this list takes a very special machine, yet there is not one but two cars here that do just that.
1991 Benetton B191 Formula 1 car.
The first of them is, as you might expect, a Ferrari: the actual 1964 Ferrari 250 LM that won the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans with racers Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt at the wheel. This is at least a $30 million car, basically as if a Rembrandt was also a race winner.
1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R.
Yet the IMS Museum is offering something that will top even that, an automotive Da Vinci, if you will. It’s a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R streamliner, one of the Silver Arrows racers as driven by heroes like Sir Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio. The estimate on this one is expected to be more than double that for the Ferrari.
Outright estimate valuations aren’t everything when it comes to auctions, and in fact it’s the quirky-but-affordable cars that are often the best to find. In this case, however, every dollar that’s squeezed out of this collection is going right back into running a museum that’s open to the public, one that’s at the heart of a truly iconic racetrack.
Formula 1, even in the U.S. is the sport of kings, with ticket prices to match. Indy is for the everyman. These 11 cars may be the rarest of the rare, but their auction means nothing but good things for the heartland’s temple of racing.
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.
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