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RM Sotheby's 2015 Monterey auction sets records

RM Sotheby's wrapped up three days of beautiful cars crossing the block during Monterey Car Week with a company record of $172.7 million in vehicles sold. The first day's Pinnacle Portfolio collection alone brought in $75.4 million, a new high for a one-day, single-vendor auction. While nothing ever topped the $17.6 million 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, the hammer continued to fall on some very expensive vehicles each day. Expected to clear over $11 million, the sale of a 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione 'Tour de France' easily managed that with a final price of $13.2 million. Multiple bidders on the phone and in the room desperately wanted this famous racer, and it drove the price up. To make this thoroughbred worth the lavish amount, the coupe won the 1956 Tour de France series of events and was among seven with this body by Scaglietti. Many of the top sellers came from the first night's Pinnacle Portfolio, but records continued to be broken over the weekend. Notably, a 1953 Jaguar C-Type Works Lightweight brought $13.2 million to make it the most expensive Jag ever at auction. Also among RM Sotheby's top sellers were a 1950 Ferrari 275S/340 America Barchetta at $7.975 million and a 1952 Jaguar XK120 Supersonic for $2,062,500. Take a look at a few of these special vehicles in the gallery above. HISTORIC FERRARI 250 GT 'TOUR DE FRANCE' LEADS THIRD NIGHT OF RECORD SALES AT RM SOTHEBY'S MONTEREY World's largest collector car auction house concludes three day event with more than $172.7 million in auction and post-auction sales MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA (August 15, 2015) - A historic 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione 'Tour de France' set a new auction record for the model tonight, selling for an outstanding $13.2 million before another packed house at RM Sotheby's Monterey event. Spurring a lively bidding contest between multiple collectors in the room and on the telephones, the influential Ferrari is the actual car that instituted the 'Tour de France' nomenclature following its overall victory at that legendary race in 1956. The fifth of only seven Scaglietti-bodied first-series competition berlinettas, it was sold new to the Marquis Alfonso de Portago, the flamboyant and daring Spanish driver, who, joined by his close friend Ed Nelson, piloted to car to first place overall at the 1956 Tour de France Auto.

Ferrari stock demand exceeding supply

As with the Ferrari cars, so it is with shares in the company's initial public offering: When Ferrari has a limited quantity of something to sell, demand far outstrips supply. Investors told banks weeks ago that bids for the $1 billion in stock – up to 18.89 million shares – would exceed the number of shares available over the entire expected range of $48 to $52. Ten percent of the company is going on the block' Bloomberg reports that the books close on the IPO on Monday at 4:00 pm. The final price will be set on Tuesday, and trading will begin Wednesday under the ticker symbol RACE on the New York Stock Exchange. Piero Ferrari, the son of Enzo Ferrari, will hold onto the ten-percent stake he currently has in the company. Fiat Chrysler will disburse the final 80 percent to its investors sometime in 2016. In combination with spinning Ferrari off from its parent company next year, the share sale is expected to put $4 billion into Fiat Chrysler coffers, which will be used to help fuel the growth of Alfa Romeo, Jeep, and Maserati. Assuming all goes to plan, Bloomberg says Ferrari will be valued at roughly $12 billion, a number $1 billion greater than the valuation Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne put on Ferrari earlier this year and higher than the brand's own internal assessment. Related Video:

Ferrari believes F1 title is still possible

Ferrari believes the changing shape of the Formula 1 championship battle, with points leader Nico Rosberg hitting a difficult patch, means its own title hopes are far from over. Despite more frustrations at the Monaco Grand Prix, where a poor qualifying showing left its drivers unable to fight for the win, both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen remain within striking distance of the leading Mercedes driver. Raikkonen is 45 points behind Rosberg - and only five behind Daniel Ricciardo - while Vettel is just one point further back. With the title momentum appearing to have shifted in recent weeks as Rosberg's winning streak has come to an end, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene believes the story of the championship this year has yet to be settled, as he predicted some 'interesting' times ahead. When asked if he feared the title was slipping away, he said: "No way. You saw Ricciardo here was quite good, and Hamilton is coming back. "So what we have to do is to keep our concentration, to keep focus, concentrate and look forward. This championship is going to be quite interesting I think." Qualifying frustration Arrivabene thinks that key to Ferrari's campaign going forward is in getting to the bottom of what is going wrong with qualifying, as again the team was slower in Q3 than in Q1. "I don't want to find any excuses, but we were not good enough in Barcelona in Q3 and it has happened also here - and we paid the price during the race," added Arrivabene. "It was a heavy price to pay, but I take the lesson that we need to really understand where the problem is. "If you compare Q1, it was more or less similar. Here in Q1 we were 1m14.1s and were slower in Q3. So there is the problem that we have to look for."Related Video: This article by Jonathan Noble originally appeared on Motorsport.com. Image Credit: Motorsport.com Motorsports Ferrari F1 motorsport.com