Bonhams’s Second Miami Auction Brings In $12.6 Million

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri may have been the big winner at this year’s Miami Grand Prix, but Bonhams didn’t exactly fare shabbily.

The auction house held its second annual Miami sale on Saturday night at the Miami International Autodrome, just prior to the first American date on the Formula 1 calendar. Robb Report was on hand for the boisterous event, which brought in over $12.6 million, despite no one taking home the headline lot.

As with the one last year, the auction was held on the Miami track in front of the winner’s podium, where Piastri would be presented with his fourth Grand Prix trophy of the season on Sunday evening. Bids were taken over the phone and online, but only the more than 250 people in attendance the night prior got to see the actual cars driven onto center stage before bidding commenced.

The 2009 Brawn BGP001 was the big talking point heading into this year’s edition of the Miami Auction, which is a collaboration between Bonhams and South Florida Motorsports. The F1 car is one of only three chassis that Brawn GP used to win the most unexpected constructors’ and drivers’ championships in the sport’s history—and the first of those to be offered for sale. The vehicle carried a $4.5 million to $6.5 million estimate heading into the auction, but didn’t sell after bidding failed to meet the reserve.

One of the other big cars on offer, a 1990 Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer’s Classic Turbo services, did successfully cross the auction block, though. The restomod was the first of Singer’s Classic Turbo restoration services to ever go up for auction. Collectors tend to favor vehicles that are as original as possible, but this heavily upgraded air-cooled 964-generation example is anything but, despite taking visual cues from the 1970s-era Porsche 930, the marque’s first turbocharged production 911. It sold for $1.68 million, including the buyer’s premium, which was just shy of the presale, low-end estimate of $1.75 million.

“It’s amazing to see market changes,” Louis Frankel, the Bonhams consignment specialist who heads the Miami Auction, told Robb Report before the sale. “But I think it comes back to, you know, collectors are going back to things they want to drive, and they love that personalization.”

Another car that generated plenty of excitement on Saturday was a 1994 Bugatti EB100 GT. A number of attendees got out of their seats to take pictures and shoot video of the silver supercar as it was driven out. Bonhams could not reveal what the final price of the vehicle was, but a presale estimate of $1.45 million to $1.65 million, suggests the number had plenty of zeros at the end of it.

Other noteworthy sales included the only  2019 Ford GT Carbon Series finished in Epic Orange, which commanded $828,000, and a 1971 Alfa Romeo GTA-R restomod from Alfaholics, which, like the Singer, was the first sold at auction, going for $392,000. Uncharacteristic of such auctions, the Bonhams event was not dominated by Ferraris, but a 2005 Superamerica went for $403,200, a 2014 458 Italia for $257,600, and a 1991 Testarosa for $156,800.

The cars weren’t the only items that enthusiasts could bid on, though. A selection of F1 automobilia was also offered, including Charles Leclerc’s 2020 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Turkish Grand Prix helmet, which sold for $57,600, and Fernando Alonso’s 2004 Renault helmet, which sold for $38,400. There was a 2025 Silverstone British Grand Prix experience with Sir Jackie Stewart that went for $80,000. All proceeds from that sale will be donated to his charity, Race Against Dementia.