Judd Tully looks at the California car auctions this August for clues to the upcoming autumn sales. He finds the same pattern of top prices for unique and untouched works. All three auctions, Gooding, RM and Bonhams & Butterfield made big sales:

Gooding & Co.

• Three cars sold for over $6 million, topped by an exotic and fearsomely fast 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione (estimate on request) at $7,260,000, the most expensive lot of the season. Not far behind was the oxblood-colored cover lot, a 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza with coachwork by Brianza that is considered to be one of the most significant prewar sports racing machines ever made. Estimated at $6.5-8.5 million, it sold for a record $6,710,000.

RM Auctions

• Sixteen of RM’s entries fetched a million dollars or more, topped by the breathtaking and streamlined French-bred 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C Lago Speciale Teardrop Coupe with coachwork by Figoni et Falaschi, which finished at $4,620,000 against a $3.5-4.5 million estimate, and a 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Berlinetta (est. $5-6 million, and one of only seven examples), which made the same sum.

Bonhams & Butterfield

• a race-campaigned 1972-73 Porsche 917 Interserie Spyder, boasting a 12-cylinder, air-cooled engine at over 630 horsepower, fetching a whopping $3,965,000 (no estimate was published). At Mecum Auctions in Monterey, a superb 1967 ex-de-Lorenzo-race-team-prepared Chevrolet Corvette L88 convertible sporting 430 horsepower sold for $1,250,000 against another unpublished estimate.

$175 Million California Car Auctions Offer a Test Drive of the Art Market (ArtInfo.com)