Two cars driven by Formula 1 star Michael Schumacher are on the docket for Bonhams Les Grandes Marques à Paris collector car auction, which is scheduled for February 3 in the French capital.
One of the ex-Schumacher cars was driven in a racing competition, though not in F1. Instead, it is the 2010 Tesla Roadster that Schumacher drove in the Race of Champions competition that year. The other ex-Schumacher car also is a 2010 model, a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG station wagon that was his first company car while driving for the Mercedes F1 team.
“Not many people can say that they have followed in the tire tracks of a true motorsport legend but there are two opportunities to do so at our Paris sale,” said Philip Kantor, chairman of Bonhams Motoring division. “Both cars are unmissable for any motorsport enthusiast or collector.”
According to Bonhams, Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel were teammates for the 2010 Race of Champions, an event that featured championship driver from around the world. All drove Tesla Roadsters equipped with roll cages, carbon-fiber racing seats, and other special equipment for the track.
“Following the event, the current vendor and sole owner acquired the Roadster from the Tesla dealership in Monaco, still in race configuration, with the left rear wing signed by three of the competing Race of Champions drivers including (rally champion Sebastien) Loeb,” Bonhams reports. “The French-registered Tesla has covered fewer than 15,000 kilometers from new.”
Tesla Roadsters have become collector cars on their own and even without celebrity history and Bonhams expects the car to sell for €135,000 to €200,000 ($153,115 to $226,840).
Also on the Paris docket for Bonhams is a group of 23 cars consigned as “The Property from the Collection of a Gentleman Driver.” Bonhams says each of the cars is a period or replica racing car.
Among those cars is a 1988 Audi 200 Turbo Quattro Nardo 6000 “speed record car,” the sole survivor of three produced. Bonhams says the cars were built under the direction of Ferdinand Piech, at the time the chairman of the Volkswagen Group, and were done to NASCAR regulations, albeit with Kevlar fenders, aluminum roof and doors and other weight-reducing parts. Engines were Audi’s 2.2-liter inline 5-cylinder tuned to 360 horsepower.
The car on offer reportedly set two world speed records at the Nardo track in Italy and was purchased from Audi by Sigi Brunn, one of the drivers. Bonhams expects the car to sell for as much as $567,100.
Also from the same collection is the 1991 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo II raced by Team Snobeck in the German Touring Car series and later in the Belgian Procar series. Bonhams expects a sales price as high as $450,000.
