The auctions during Car Week suggest that Hollywood has not lost its luster.

Remember the movie Sylvia Scarlett?

Dave Faries here, looking at the finer points of…of…OK, I admit I have never heard of the 1935 film starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant—and likely few of you have, either. But it is pretty big star power for something long ago forgotten.

For a moment in 2010, however, the movie took center stage during Car Week. Or rather, what amounts to a prop from the comedy. A 1928 Mercedes S26/180 Boattail Speedster used in Sylvia Scarlett sold at the Gooding & Company auction in Pebble Beach for $3.7 million.

That’s a pretty solid figure, but one not even close to top dollar for movie cars sold during Car Week. The RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey has had a strong run. In 2010 a 1954 Ferrari 375 from Sophia Loren’s La fortuna di essere donna hammered at $4.6 million. That same year, the famed Aston Martin DB5 from the James Bond classic Goldfinger changed hands for $6.4 million—a comparative bargain, considering the villainous 1956 Ferrari 250 GT from The Love Bug raked in $6.7 million two years later.

It was the Steve McQueen classic Le Mans, however, that sent bids soaring. Sotheby’s sold a modified 1968 Ford GT40 from the movie for $11 million in 2012. It was a Car Week movie car record that stood until 2019, when a 1970 Porsche 917K used as a camera car gaveled at $14 million during the Gooding & Company auction.

Those are obviously strong numbers, reflecting an attachment to cars that starred on the silver screen. Of course, there have been other sets of Hollywood wheels sold during Car Week, including a 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona from Redline 7000—remember that one?—that went for $7.25 million at Mecum Auctions’ 2009 event. A few years ago, Mecum introduced another famed movie car, the 1968 Ford Mustang driven by McQueen in Bullitt, although they sent it to Kissimmee for auction. 

On Friday, Aug. 16 at 10am, Mecum plans to pull off another surprise reveal. All we know is what they told us: “It may well be the single most recognizable vehicle ever to dominate both the silver screen and the race track.”

This year, Bonhams is bringing the 1979 Porsche 928 featured in the movie Risky Business, the 1983 vehicle that made Tom Cruise a star, to the auction block at The Quail in Carmel Valley.

I’ve at least seen that film. Once. A long time ago. As for Sylvia Scarlett, maybe I’ll get around to it.

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