By Andrew Riedell
Last year, collector car sales were strong overall, with an especially robust showing at the top. The top 10 public sales in 2025 grossed $240 million, roughly doubling 2024’s $122m. Looking at data that tracks back about 15 years, these top 10 slot into the all-time public sales ranking between spots #2 and #66, with no adjustment for inflation. Impressively, the 2025 top five make up a third of the all-time top 15.
Last year added seven entries to the all-time top 50. That puts 2025 well ahead of 2024 (three spots) and makes it the largest contributor since 2016, which holds seven spots as well, while 2015 leads with eight. Because this all-time list is not adjusted for inflation, 2025 – despite big numbers – falls short of 2015/16’s heights, at least at the top of the market.
The leading sale of 2025 was a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Stromlinienwagen. In February, chassis #00009/54 became the second-most-expensive public sale of all time at just over $53m. The car came out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection alongside several other notable cars, four of which ended up as the second, eighth, 17th, and 19th-highest sales of the year.
The W 196 R is part of a golden era of Mercedes-Benz racing history, and many anticipated an impressive result. The landmark offering – it had been 12 years since the previous public sale of a W 196 R – was one of the stories of 2025. RM Sotheby’s dedicated an entire auction for the occasion.
Looking down the year’s top 25 sales reveals an expansion of the themes I discussed in my Monterey auction week recap (dR, Nov 2025). Some winds are shifting (rising market dominance from near-modern and modern supercars), and some things never change (Ferrari reinforcing its unrivaled position at the top).
Ferrari claimed 14 of the top 25 spots last year; the next-most prolific make was McLaren with three. Those 14 Ferraris spanned from 1948 to 2025, essentially the manufacturer’s entire history, and covered every decade except the 1980s. Collector appetite for Ferraris across the board remains insatiable.
Some older models have nevertheless retreated from highs established a decade ago. For an extreme example, 2025’s 12th-highest sale, a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione for $9.5m, sold for roughly half the price paid for the same example in 2017. However, much of the money fading from some of the classics is simply transferring to newer Ferrari models like the F50, built 1995-1998.
The F50, which grabbed the #14 spot with a $9.2m sale, straddles the overlap between the old news – Ferrari’s perennial market Lead – and the new news, the rising prominence of near-modern and modern supercars. My Monterey recap focused on ‘near-modern’ supercars, which I defined as 1980-2010, but for the full-year review, I must broaden the scope to more recent supercars as well. Much, much more recent.
Nine of the top 25 sales featured supercars from 1993 or newer, a remarkable share. It was recently reported that in 2020, cars realizing seven figures or more at auction were, on average, from 1972. But by 2025, that average model year had shot to 1984. There’s no doubt that modern supercars played a major role in dragging that average up 12 years in such a short time.
The top modern supercar sale (and most popular story) was the 2025 Ferrari Daytona SP3 #599+1, offered with proceeds going to charity. Charity lots tend to be fun, light affairs, where serious bidding yields to exuberant, often competitive, displays of charitable giving. Many expected the SP3 to sell over market, but few predicted the final $26m. For comparison, another SP3 – offered without a philanthropic angle – snuck on the 2025 leaderboard at spot #25, selling for $6.7m – one quarter the price.
image by Edward Jones
If the sale of #599+1 doesn’t count, we don’t need to look far down for the $25.3m buy of a 1994 McLaren F1. The first F1 publicly offered in more than four years, the result set a new model record and further established the F1 as the ‘250 GTO’ of modern supercars. Backed by landmark performance, a 24 Hours of Le Mans overall win, rarity, and a number of unique characteristics, the F1 is a legend that has cemented mythical status for its creator, Gordon Murray.
Murray appears again in our final highlight of 2025. His own, nascent firm, Gordon Murray Automotive, announced a run of five S1 LM supercars – essentially reboots of the McLaren F1 LM, a rarer, higher-performance version of the standard F1. The first example, or rather its build slot, was auctioned in November. Despite the model not existing yet and GMA having delivered its first car ever only in 2024, the S1 LM sold for $20.6m and set a record for the most expensive (non-charity) new car ever sold.
image by Khris Bharath
On one level, this result was another chapter in the automotive coronation of Gordon Murray – such is his reputation that a build slot for one of his creations commands a $20m commitment. But taking a look at the bigger picture, this sale spoke loudly about the modern supercar market as a whole. If you needed further evidence that enormous collector capital is looking at this segment of cars, this was it.
*Please note that the information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research or consult with a financial professional before making investment decisions.
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Images: Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, RM Sotheby's
