Good morning. This is the first Collector Car Market Brief from Modern Car Collector: the results, the prices that moved, and what's crossing the block, in about four minutes. Thanks for being here from day one.
Top sale: the Superbird that sold on proof
1970 Plymouth Superbird · $275,400 with fees ($255,000 hammer) · Fall Carlisle, Oct. 1–2
The Superbird topped Carlisle's fall sale in Pennsylvania, and why it got there matters more than the number. It came with unrestored metal and a numbers-matching drivetrain, and that kind of evidence is what buyers paid for all weekend. Each of the five six-figure lots brought a different kind of proof: a numbered production run (a 4,183-mile 2023 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet America Edition, $202,000 hammer), a documented SEMA build (the "Conviction Cuda," $159,300), a build sheet and certification (a 1969 Camaro Z/28 RS, $140,400), and a body that can't be faked (a 1963 split-window Corvette, $100,000 hammer).
One caution: the listing says the Superbird has a dealer-installed 440 Six Pack, but it doesn't document it. Carlisle's lot descriptions come from consignors and aren't verified by the house.
Prices that moved
▲ Ferrari Monza SP2: the floor rose, the record didn't repeat. A one-owner, 16-mile 2021 SP2 sold for $4,955,000 at Broad Arrow Amelia Island in March. That's about 95% above the $2,536,250 an SP2 brought in Abu Dhabi three months earlier. Since then, two SP2s have failed to sell: one at a $2.6 million high bid (SBX Cars, April) and one at a reported €2.8 million bid (Car & Classic, March). Every public Monza sale since 2023 has cleared Ferrari's original price of about $1.6–$2 million. Our read: the move to roughly $2.5–$3.2 million looks like it will last. The $5 million car is a ceiling, not a comparable. The full sales history →
◆ Boss 429 Mustang: a $121,000 spread in one week. In January, a 1970 car described as original made $440,000 at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale. A week earlier, a 1969 sold for $319,000 at Mecum Kissimmee. Most of that gap comes down to documentation, starting with the KK number that ties the VIN to the Kar Kraft conversion. A car that can't make that link trades at a discount until someone explains the gap. How to check a KK number →
▼ The middle of the market is still soft. At Carlisle, only 191 of 415 lots posted a sale, about 46%. The median sale was $15,000, and the five six-figure cars made up about 19% of the roughly $4.42 million in posted sales. Strong money at the top and thin bidding in the middle has been the pattern for most of 2026.
Crossing the block
Today, Fri. Oct. 9 · Broad Arrow, Zoute Concours Auction (Knokke-Heist, Belgium). About 70 cars, led by a 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari (est. €4–5 million), a 2015 McLaren P1 (€1.4–1.8 million) and a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing (€1.7–2 million). The one to watch is the ex-Ferdinand Piëch 2000 BMW M5 "W10" prototype, which was fitted with a Volkswagen W10 engine (€250,000–350,000). A provenance car like that has no comparable, so the room will set the price.
Sun. Oct. 11 · Bonhams, The Zoute Sale. 66 lots. The headliner is a 1970 Lamborghini Miura P400 S, chassis 4578, offered without reserve at an estimate of €1.6–2 million. Also in the sale: a 1965 AC Cobra 289 (€700,000–900,000) and a 1989 Countach 25th Anniversary (€500,000–600,000). With no reserve, the Miura will sell at whatever the room bids, which makes it the cleanest data point of the weekend.
Online through Oct. 14 · Broad Arrow, Global Icons: Zoute Online. It includes a 2016 Bentley Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase used by Queen Elizabeth II (est. €400,000–450,000).
Results pending · RM Sotheby's, Hershey (Oct. 7–8). RM's 20th year at the AACA Fall Meet. Its headliner, a 1934 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Berline by Murphy (est. $900,000–1.2 million), crossed the block last night. We'll have the result and the full recap Monday.
On the calendar: RM Sotheby's London (Oct. 31). Daxecker's 83-car Mercedes collection at no reserve (Nov. 7). Julien's Batman Returns Batmobile (Nov. 23).
One thing worth watching
Will Gen X pay for its childhood? On Nov. 23, Julien's Auctions will offer the screen-used hero Batmobile from 1992's Batman Returns at an estimate of $5–7 million. It's the car's first time at auction. A sale in that range would make it the most expensive Batmobile ever sold at auction, beating the $4.62 million the 1966 TV car brought in 2013.
The mechanicals don't matter much here. It's a fiberglass body on two spliced Impala frames, with a Chevy V8. The value is in the provenance, including black paint that's reportedly untouched since filming wrapped. The real question is whether collectors now in their mid-40s to early 50s will spend serious money on the movie cars they grew up with. A strong result would tell you the market for late-'80s and early-'90s nostalgia is open at the top. That will matter well beyond the Batcave. Our full take →
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— The Modern Car Collector team
Estimates are pre-sale and exclude buyer's premium unless noted. Sold prices include fees unless marked as hammer.