Pagani Zonda Roadster. Aston Martin One-77. Jaguar XJ220. Jaguar XJ200 race car. These cars and more are all going to be offered at auction and you ought to know about them.
Look, am I going to buy any of these cars? No. No I will not. I can’t street-park them in front of my apartment. Also they’re likely going to be far too expensive. But that doesn’t mean I can’t provide some important consumer advice to someone who might be able to get their hands on them, so here are the lots I’d be watching come RM Sotheby’s auction next month on November 30th in Abu Dhabi.
2017 Pagani Zonda Aether
If you’ve been keeping score, you probably know that the Pagani Zonda officially went out of production in 2013. That being said, the company has been happy to rummage through the parts they’ve got left and put one together for you if you put the right number of zeroes on a check for Mr. Pagani. This 2017 example is one of those cars. With a six-speed manual sending 760 horsepower through the rear axle and a massive oval-shaped intake looming large above the head of whoever is behind the wheel, the Zonda Aether is no plush toy. Whoever manages to put together the estimated $4.5-5.5 million necessary to take this car home better be alert because this thing looks deadly.
2011 Aston Martin One-77 (No Reserve)
I never understood why these things got forgotten. The One-77 is an extremely limited production (the 77 stands for how many they made) naturally-aspirated supercar in the vein of the SLR McLaren (except, you know, attractive). It’s got some spectacular carbon-fiber bracing under the hood along with its 750 horsepower 7.3 liter V12, and it sounds like this. But somehow we don’t talk about it much. Maybe that’s why this one is being offered without reserve. If you’re lucky, you just might be able to drive home in it later next month for a song if you play your cards right. Just don’t crash.
1993 Jaguar XJ220 (No Reserve)
It’s true that the XJ220 wasn’t what Jaguar wanted it to be. Instead of a V12 mounted behind the driver, there’s a V6 from an Austin Metro. Okay, it’s not from just any Austin Metro but it wasn’t what buyers were promised. The result was a car that wore gorgeous ‘90s lines (and some of the greatest movable headlights fitted to a production car) around an engine that underwhelmed buyers. That doesn’t bother me, though. You can do things like rip massive burnouts in them even without the V12 originally promised, even if it’ll cost you more than $7000 for new rubber. If that’s not exciting enough there’s always the...
1993 Jaguar XJ220 C
This car was one of two XJ220s run at Le Mans in 1993. While the other car (#50) managed to win the race, both cars ended up disqualified for lack of catalytic converters. That doesn’t make this car any less of a beauty though, combining the everything great about the road car above with a giant wing and Le Mans pedigree. One of four race-spec XJ220s in existence, this car is all but sure to make a big impression come auction day.
These are just four of the cars up for sale at the end of next month in Abu Dhabi. Have a look at the rest of the lots here and let the class know in the comments if there’s any others you think deserve some attention too.