A 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe sold for $42,905,000 in Monterey this August, instantly becoming the most valuable American car ever sold at auction and setting the tone for a California Car Week that pushed combined sales across five auction houses past $755 million. Gooding Christie’s, which handled the Shelby sale, confirmed the record in its own post-sale release, noting the price beat the previous American-car record, a $22 million Duesenberg SSJ from 2018, by roughly 95 percent.

A Weekend Stacked With Eight-Figure Cars

The Cobra Daytona wasn’t an outlier so much as the headline act in a week full of them. Across the five houses that sold cars during Car Week, the top ten results all cleared $11 million apiece, and RM Sotheby’s alone reported six lots that topped $10 million, according to its own press release. Add in the $40 million charity sale of a Ferrari Luce “Tailor Made” for the Ferrari Foundation and RM’s $34,655,000 McLaren F1 GTR, plus Gooding’s Shelby and its $18.7 million 1963 Ferrari 250 P, and the week produced roughly eleven separate sales landing in eight-figure territory before you even finish counting.

RM Sotheby’s alone closed at $380 million in total sales, a record for the 29-year-old sale, moving 171 of 194 lots for an 88 percent sell-through rate. Gooding Christie’s added another $159 million on 158 of 168 lots, a 94 percent sell-through rate. Broad Arrow, Mecum, and Bonhams filled out the rest of the week’s total near $756 million, a figure compiled from each house’s individual results.

Records Beyond the Headline Number

RM’s release also cites 38 existing world auction records broken across the sale and nine new benchmark prices set for cars with no prior public auction history, with bidders registered from 39 countries. Gooding Christie’s president David Gooding called the Shelby’s price a defining moment for the marque outright, saying in the company’s release that the Daytona Coupe “became the most valuable American car of all time by a 95% increase over the previous record.” Clark Gable’s own 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe added another data point to the week, selling for $9,080,000 at RM Sotheby’s.

Key Points

• A 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe sold for $42,905,000, the highest price ever paid for an American car at auction.
• Combined Car Week sales across five auction houses topped $755 million, a new record for the event.
• RM Sotheby’s alone generated $380 million, moving 171 of 194 lots at an 88 percent sell-through rate.
• Roughly eleven individual cars sold for eight figures or more across the week’s combined results.
• Auction houses reported 38 broken world records plus nine new model benchmark prices.