Drive the dream: five thrilling cars from Gooding Christie’s first auction in Europe

Drawn by the allure of high-octane thrills and classic designs, car enthusiasts from across the world gather each year in Paris for Rétromobile, Europe’s leading indoor automotive show.

This year, for its 50th anniversary, Gooding Christie’s has become the show’s official partner, and on 29 January will hold its first auction of collector cars on the continent.

‘Rêtromobile is essentially Art Basel for the car world,’ explains Rupert Banner, senior specialist and head of sale at Gooding Christie’s in New York. ‘It’s a wonderful convergence of manufacturers, dealers, restorers, collectors and enthusiasts.’

Gooding Christie’s was formed at the beginning of 2025, after Christie’s acquired the leading car auction house Gooding & Company to bridge the worlds of art, luxury and collector cars. ‘At the top end, the markets are becoming more intertwined, and fine cars are going from strength to strength,’ says Banner.

The first Gooding Christie’s sale took place in March 2025 at Amelia Island in Florida, and realised more than $67 million. The top lot was a 1955 Ferrari 375 MM Berlinetta, which made $9,465,000.

The following August, at Pebble Beach in California, a second auction realised over $128 million. The top lot, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider Competizione made $25.3 million, setting a new world record at auction for the California Spider model, and becoming the most valuable car ever to be auctioned by Gooding Christie’s since inception. By the end of the year, the prices achieved by Gooding Christie’s had broken more than a dozen world records.

What does Banner suggest are the most important things for newcomers to the category to consider? ‘As with art, watches or wine, collectors prize rarity, provenance and condition. Then there are factors like mileage and exhibition history to take into account. We’re also seeing a growth in nostalgic cars from the 1980s and 1990s — the sorts of machines people had posters of on their bedroom walls as teenagers.’

The upcoming sale includes 85 cars, spanning 120 years of automotive history, from iconic pieces of early-20th-century design to cutting-edge, track-only hypercars. Here, Banner outlines five of his favourites.

A 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO: the rarest of Ferrari’s modern supercar lineage

In 1985, a Sicilian doctor named Vincenzo Garraffa placed an order with Ferrari’s official dealership in Rome for a 288 GTO — a new, landmark car designed to deliver competition-level performance in a form suited to the road.

The model had been announced by Enzo Ferrari in 1983, then unveiled at the following year’s Geneva Motor Show. Internally, it was the first Ferrari to feature a twin-turbo engine, which delivered previously unseen levels of exhilarating power. Externally, its appearance was radically aggressive: flared arches, aerodynamic ducting and a distinctive rear grille were sculpted from Kevlar and carbon fibre and styled by Pininfarina.

Dr Garraffa was fortunate to acquire one, since the model also heralded Ferrari’s return to low-volume production: just 272 would ever be constructed over three years at its Maranello headquarters. Such was the demand for the 288 GTO that production contracts began to change hands before cars had even been delivered — often multiple times and irrespective of cost. As a result, the 288 GTO is seen as the springboard for supercar mania.

Whether the doctor knew this or not, he made the unusual decision to place the car in storage for nine years. He then sold it to a former Formula One team principal who did the same. Today, its odometer reveals just over 1,500 kilometres of driving.

In 2024, following an inspection by Ferrari, the car was issued a ‘Classiche Red Book’, which confirms that it is in the same specification and condition in which it left the factory more than 40 years ago. The interior is free from creases, the tyres are original, and the wax coating on its undercarriage remains intact.

‘Great performance cars of this era were bought by people who wanted to go fast and have a lot of fun. It wasn’t really until the end of the decade that collectors realised the potential value in mothballing them,’ says Banner. ‘To have a pristine example with such low mileage, only two owners and the condition rubber-stamped by Ferrari, is the essence of collectability.

‘It’s one of the finest examples of a model that ushered in Ferrari’s modern era of high-performance road-going machines, and stands among the most significant supercars ever built.’

A 1920 Ballot 3/8 LC: a pioneering race icon that won the Italian Grand Prix

In 1921, Jules Goux cruised to victory at the Italian Grand Prix with an average speed of 144 kilometres per hour — an incredible pace for the time.

He was piloting one of four 3/8 LC cars created in 1919 by Ernest-Maurice Ballot, who had been building engines since 1905 and made a fortune supplying them for the French war effort. Turning his attention to racing, Ballot enlisted the help of Ernest Henry, a Swiss engineer who had designed the first engine to combine twin camshafts and four valves per cylinder. This innovation had led Robert Peugeot’s racing team to victory at the French Grand Prix in 1912 and 1913 — and ultimately revolutionised the sport.

The initial Ballot, the 5/8 LC, was created in complete secrecy in just 104 days, and unveiled at the 1919 Indianapolis 500 with a top speed of nearly 200 kilometres per hour. After a rule change that limited engine size to three litres, the 3/8 LC was developed, debuting at the same event the following year. Despite the engine’s incredible power, mechanical failures prevented all three fielded 3/8 LC cars from achieving a podium place. In 1921, however, two Ballots came second and third in the French Grand Prix, then one romped to victory in Italy.

‘We know that this particular car is the winning 3/8 LC because of a unique feature of the body,’ explains Banner. ‘Each car had a ride-along mechanic, who had to wrap their arm around the driver to save space. A hole customised to the length of their reach was cut into the side of each car, providing a handle for them to hold onto when taking tight bends. The position of the hole on this chassis aligns with the victorious car in photographs of the race.’

Shortly after, further rule changes limited the size of Grand Prix engines to two litres, rendering the 3/8 LC obsolete. This car was sold to the celebrated English driver Sir Malcolm Campbell, breaker of multiple land speed records, in 1923. In 1927, it passed to Jack Dunfee, one of the wealthy British ‘Bentley Boys’, who achieved 11 wins in 38 races behind its wheel.

In 1933, the car was purchased by one of the leading female racing drivers of the era, the Australian Joan Richmond. After changing hands several more times, it then entered the garage of celebrated Welsh nuclear physicist Michael Crowley-Milling, remaining in his family for 74 years.

It sold once more to the current owner, who meticulously restored it and researched the accompanying two-volume book, Ballot. Both were unveiled at Rétromobile Paris in 2019. Since then, it has toured the concours of Villa d’Este and Pebble Beach, and even climbed the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This is the first time it has been offered at auction.

‘This car isn’t just testament to Henry’s brilliance, but a profoundly important piece of motor-racing history,’ says Banner. ‘Of the other three versions, one was crashed during testing and another is in a private collection, while the third is in the Musée National de l’Automobile in Mulhouse, France. This version, though, is considered the most original.’

A 2018 Ferrari FXX K Evo hypercar developed by the carmaker’s exclusive XX Programme

In 2005, Ferrari invited a handful of its most devoted clients to become test drivers on its factory tracks. Using the same technology employed by its Formula One division, engineers gathered real-time data, which helped to shape future innovation. They named this experimental and ultra-exclusive research-and-development initiative the XX Programme.

‘It was an invitation to be part of the Ferrari family,’ says Banner. ‘Top customers were offered the opportunity to buy new track cars that Ferrari would store and maintain, which they could race with other owners at meets around the world, from Monaco to Japan. The most extreme car born from the programme is the FXX K Evo.’

First released in 2017, this track-only car is one of the most technically sophisticated Ferrari prototypes ever made. It features a hybrid engine that delivers over 1,000 brake horsepower, achieving a top speed of almost 250 miles per hour, going from 0 to 60 in just 2.5 seconds.

Consistent with the programme’s discretion, the exact number of FXX K Evo cars in existence has never been disclosed by Ferrari, but it’s thought to be around 40 — the vast majority of which began life as the earlier FXX K model, and were subsequently upgraded.

This car is one of only a few built from the ground up with the Evo specification. It’s never been raced, remaining in factory-born condition, showing just 95 kilometres on the clock — all of which were logged during maintenance laps of Ferrari’s private Fiorano circuit in Maranello. Despite this, in July 2025, the car was extensively serviced by Ferrari at a cost of more than €145,000.

‘The auction of this car offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire an essentially new example of one of the rarest and most advanced models in Ferrari’s history,’ Banner says. ‘Its next caretaker can also expect a warm welcome into Ferrari’s XX Programme.’

A 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS Teardop Coupé: one of the most iconic French automobiles of all time

‘The Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS is one of the most legendary cars to come out of pre-war France,’ says Banner. ‘This example, dressed in incomparable Goutte d’Eau, or “Teardrop”, coachwork, is a rolling sculpture and one of the great achievements from this golden age of industry and design.’

The T150-C-SS was the result of a collaboration between Anthony Lago and Joseph Figoni, both Italian-born émigrés who shaped the landscape of Parisian automotive design in the 1930s.

In 1933, Lago — who had established himself in the motor trade in London— bought the ailing French automaker Talbot-Darracq S.A., aiming to rehabilitate France’s standing in the sophisticated European luxury car market. In 1934, Lago debuted the T150 prototype at the Paris Salon, then two years later unveiled the T150-C-SS, his ultimate road-going sports car, with an eye-catching bare-chassis price of 78,000 francs.

Only a handful of the model T150-C-SS were manufactured, between 1937 and 1939, and each one was intended to be dressed in bespoke coachwork by some of Europe’s leading builders — none more remarkable than Joseph Figoni.

Figoni had established his own coach-building atelier in Paris in 1923. During the following decade, he earned a reputation for bold experimentation with form, proportion and aerodynamics, notably his signature voluminous pontoon fenders. Figoni’s triumph, though, was the Teardrop — a striking form that represents the peak of 1930s French automotive design.

Around a dozen Teardrops were made for the T150-C-SS chassis, each with a number of unique elements. This example is widely considered one of the most distinctive and beautiful.

It was completed in May 1938 for Mr Touissaint, a suitably glamorous Belgian casino director. In 1939, it was exhibited several times, including at Brussels Concours d’Elégance, before vanishing from view following Germany’s invasion of Belgium.

The car resurfaced in the 1950s, passing to another Belgian family, who stored it partially disassembled at their private villa. When it was acquired by American collectors Bill Johnston and Ron Elenbaas in the 2000s, the majority of the wooden framework had survived, and Figoni’s coachwork was in such superb condition that it only needed cleaning and refinishing.

In 2009, the fully restored car debuted at Pebble Beach, where it won three major awards: First in Class, the J.B. and Dorothy Nethercutt Most Elegant Closed Car Trophy, and the ArtCenter College of Design Award. The following year, it also won the Breitling Watch Award for the Car of Timeless Beauty at Amelia Island, then Best in Class and Best of Show at Meadow Brook. Since 2013, it has been in a private Swiss collection, unseen by the public.

‘When you think of pre-war concours, Figoni et Falaschi’s Teardrop is the car you picture. It’s simply a masterpiece,’ says Banner. ‘The opportunity to acquire a genuine example, distinguished by such beauty and a decorated career, is incredibly rare. To acquire it in Paris, where it shaped the future of automotive style, is rarer still.’

A 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta that participated in Ferrari’s 50th and 70th anniversary celebrations

Few cars are as legendary as Ferrari’s 250 series, produced in a number of variants between 1952 and 1964. Five of them are among the top 15 most expensive cars ever to sell at auction.

One of the most iconic releases was the 250 GT Short Wheelbase Berlinetta, which was unveiled at the 1959 Paris Salon de l’Automobile in the Grand Palais. The car’s technical specification signalled a new level of engineering ambition: four-wheel Dunlop disc brakes; revised suspension; a thoroughbred, three-litre V12 engine; and a new body styled by Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti. With a level of performance previously unknown on the track or road, it quickly established itself as the era’s premier Grand Tourer.

The 250 GT SWB Berlinetta was constructed in small, hand-finished batches, with each car offered in several levels of competition specification, including higher-tuned engines and lightweight aluminium panels. Produced only between 1960 and 1962, the design was also in a constant state of evolution as elements such as the windows and grilles were tweaked to individual customers’ preferences.

This example was completed in October 1960, making it a particularly early and rare configuration. In 1962, it was acquired by the Geneva-based banker Armand Boller, who promptly entered it into one of Europe’s most storied events, the Ollon-Villars Hill Climb, where it placed fifth in class. The following year, Boller sold the car to hotelier Walter Ringgenberg of Bern, who raced it in several Swiss hill climbs, including Mitholz-Kandersteg, where it secured third in class, followed by second in class at Sierre-Montana-Crans.

The car then passed to the renowned American Ferrari dealer and racer Bob Grossman, who acquired it through the Swiss garage of Formula One driver Jo Siffert and his manager Paul Blancpain. Grossman entered it in the 1966 Mount Equinox Hill Climb in Vermont, before selling it the following year to racing driver Dudley Cunningham, who exhibited it at the 5th Annual Ferrari Club of America National Meet, held in 1968 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In 1975, the car entered the collection of fellow club member Jim Riff. Following his meticulous restoration, it became a fixture on the concours circuit, winning awards at the club’s national meet in 1976, 1978 and 1979. It also featured on the front cover of the book Ferrari 250GT SWB by Ken Gross, who would go on to become the director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

In 1997, the car was selected to participate in Ferrari’s 50th anniversary celebrations in Rome and Maranello. Two decades later, it was exhibited again at Ferrari’s 70th anniversary celebrations in Fiorano. ‘Ferrari would only showcase the best of the best at these events,’ explains Banner. ‘In terms of both performance and style, the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta embodies everything Ferrari stood for in the 1960s. This compelling example has fantastic authenticity and provenance from being raced, displayed and cherished.’

All lots offered in the Rétromobile Paris Auction will be on view in Pavilion 7.1 at Rétromobile Paris, Porte de Versailles, 26-29 January 2026

Explore Automobiles, Cars, Motorcycles and Automobilia at Gooding Christie’s