The Ten Most Theoretically Valuable Cars In The World
Every car in the world is for sale; you just have to offer the owner enough money. These ten classics chosen by Jalopnik readers are what they think would be the most expensive cars ever sold, if anyone went out and bought them.
Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
If you don't want to click through the gallery you can see the post in a single page right here.
Why it'd be so expensive: It is the most beautiful and most powerful road-going Mercedes Benz built before the World War when we killed a bunch of Nazis. Ralph Lauren owns the only one.
Photo Credit: Mercedes Benz
9.) Ayrton Senna's McLaren MP4/4
Suggested By: Kate's Dirty Sister
Why it'd be so expensive: Single seaters rarely set any records at car auctions, but having the greatest car driven by one of Formula One's greatest drivers would certainly be worth a couple dozen million dollars, no?
Photo Credit: Pascal Rondeau /Allsport
8.) The first Shelby cobra
Suggested By: daender
Why it'd be so expensive: The great chicken farmer/Le Mans winner passed away this year, and there's certainly someone out there willing to buy the genesis of his most popular achievement, the Shelby Cobra. Offers have been popping up in the eight figures already, and they're bound to rise.
Why it'd be so expensive: This is the car that should have won the greatest victory for an American race car of all time, the 1966 Le Mans victory over Ferrari. Miles was stripped of the triple crown of Sebring-Daytona-Le Mans by a technicality, getting second place by less than 30 feet. The car, though, remains absolutely legendary.
Photo Credit: Ford
6.) James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder
Suggested By: jay_lutz, Jon.poehlman
Why it'd be so expensive: Known as "Little Bastard," this is the car that James Dean got himself killed in. If the remains of the car could be found/pieced together, it would be a very expensive piece of memorabilia to a very morbid fan.
Photo Credit: Motor Authority
5.) 1936 Duesenberg SSJ Speedster
Suggested By: two2tone
Why it'd be so expensive: The J-series Duesenbergs were perhaps the greatest American cars ever built, better certainly than nearly every car the Europeans tried to hammer together in the '30s. The greatest of all of these Dueseys were the SSJs, and the greatest of those were the roadsters. They only built two of them and they went to Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. If that's not the best of the best of the best, sir, I don't know what is.
Photo Credit: Special Interest Autos
4.) 1907 Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost
Suggested By: rawtoast
Why it'd be so expensive: Cars used to be really terrible machines. They'd break your arms when you'd crank them to start, they were loud, and rough, and just awful. Rolls-Royces, however, were smooth, and peerlessly well-built, and the car that managing director Claude Johnson used to demonstrate just how good their cars were was this "silver Ghost" and it practically established the company itself. It was insured for $35 million back in 2005. Today it is certainly above $50M.
Photo Credit: Malcolma
3.) The Andy Warhol BMW M1
Why it'd be so expensive: Most of Warhol's great works were silkscreens. There are a bunch of those things floating around to the tune of a couple dozen million dollars. Warhol only made one of these M1s, so you can bet that even though it is not from the most cherished moment in his career, it would certainly be worth massive sums in the art world alone. Couple that with genuinely awesome race history and you have one of the most valuable cars ever made.
Photo Credit: BMW
2.) The Moon Buggy
Suggested By: Diamond Dustin
Why it'd be so expensive: It would take a lot of gas money for the Saturn V to fly up and pick this thing up off the moon, and the owner would want to make some money off the investment. It'd be natural that this thing, fresh with moon dirt on its treads, would be more expensive than just about any other four-wheeled conveyance known to man.
Photo Credit: NASA
1.) Bugatti Type 41 Royale
Suggested By: rawtoast, Yann Jules
Why it'd be so expensive: Bugattis were the greatest cars ever built. The six Royales were the greatest Bugattis ever built. No Royale has exchanged hands in the past three decades and that was before the car market crash in 1989. Back in the '80s, one went for under $9 million. Today, getting the most desirable car ever built would cost more than your wildest dreams.
If you don't have tens of billions of dollars in the bank, don't even look at this thing.
Photo Credit: Alden Jewell