Apex
Weekly.

Hennessey has revealed the Blackbird, a naturally aspirated hypercar with an Ilmor-developed 6.2-liter V8 making 800-850 hp past 9,000 rpm. Power goes to the rear wheels through a gated six-speed manual, targeting 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds and 220 mph flat out. Just 71 will be built at $2.5 million each, with two-thirds already allocated.

The Blackbird is Hennessey's third hypercar after the Venom GT and Venom F5, named after the Lockheed SR-71. Instead of chasing another top-speed record, it bets on driver engagement: no screens, no digital cluster, a large analog tachometer, exposed shift linkage and a traditional ignition key. The carbon-fiber chassis and body keep dry weight below 1,360 kg. Adaptive suspension, luggage room for two carry-ons and 800-mile-a-day comfort position it as a grand tourer, not a stripped track special. Public debut follows at The Quail on August 14 during Monterey Car Week, with customer deliveries slated for 2029-2030.

For drivers who cross Alpine passes for the shift, not the spec sheet, this is validation: even America's top-speed record chaser now says analog involvement beats horsepower wars.

Read the original at Carscoops →

Gooding & Christie's offers the 1968 Porsche 907 Langheck, chassis 907-005, at Pebble Beach on August 14-15 with a $4.5-5.5 million estimate. This is the car that won the 1968 Daytona 24 Hours after 673 laps — Porsche's first outright victory in a 24-hour race, leading a 1-2-3 works sweep. It is one of only two surviving 907 long-tail chassis.

Built for Ferdinand Piëch's works program, the 907 Langheck carried a 2.2-liter Type 771 flat-eight producing roughly 270 hp at nearly 9,000 rpm under bodywork with a 0.27 drag coefficient. At Daytona in February 1968, Vic Elford, Jochen Neerpasch and Rolf Stommelen drove No. 54 to overall victory, then the car finished 2nd at the Monza 1000 Km and ran Le Mans 1968. Sister chassis 907-008 was destroyed in testing at Weissach, while 907-005 passed through German, Swedish and American ownership before entering a major private Porsche collection in 2014. The current owner — widely reported to be Jerry Seinfeld — commissioned a decade-long restoration by Joe Cavaglieri, with the flat-eight rebuilt by Ed Pink Racing Engines, returning the car to its exact Daytona 1968 configuration.

Daytona 1968 is the moment Porsche went from class winner to outright winner — the direct line to the 917 and every Le Mans victory since. The foundation stone of Stuttgart's endurance mythology crossing the block.

Read the original at Gooding & Christie's →

Eccentrica has revealed the V12 Roadster, an open-top Lamborghini Diablo restomod limited to 19 units. Its re-engineered 5.7-liter naturally aspirated V12 makes 550 hp at 7,000 rpm, sent through a six-speed gated manual. 0-100 km/h in 3.8 seconds, 335 km/h top speed.

The Roadster is the follow-up to Eccentrica's 2024 V12 coupe, which sold for around $1.3 million, and makes its public debut on August 14 at The Quail during Monterey Car Week. Chopping the roof required a dedicated aerodynamic study plus carbon-fiber structural reinforcements, and each car uses more than 3,500 bespoke components. The body keeps the Diablo's proportions but adds a widened track, revised suspension, semi-active dampers, hydraulic steering, and modern Brembo brakes. Design comes from Milan studio Borromeo De Silva; development is led by Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini's former CTO. Founder Emanuel Colombini calls it 'more exposed, more immediate, more demanding — no roof, no filter.'

A naturally aspirated V12, a gated manual, hydraulic steering, and no roof is the purist pass-road recipe — engineered an hour from the Alps by the man who developed Lamborghini's greatest drivers' cars.

Read the original at Motor1 →

Clark Gable's bespoke 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe headlines RM Sotheby's Monterey sale on August 13, estimated at $5.75M-$8M. One of only 4 Rollston-bodied JN convertible coupes, restyled to Gable's own sketches by Bohman & Schwartz.

Gable ordered the car new in 1935, then had Pasadena coachbuilder Bohman & Schwartz rework it: extended hood, sharply raked windshield, concealed top and aviation-style cowl ventilators. It was his and Carole Lombard's touring car until her death in 1942, after which Gable sold it, unable to look at it again. Sam and Emily Mann bought it in 2005 and restored it to exact 1935 configuration; it won trophies at Pebble Beach 2007 and Best of Show at both Amelia Island and Meadow Brook in 2008. The car retains its original numbered J-560 bell housing and crosses the block Thursday as Lot 122 of RM Sotheby's Monterey Auction 2026.

Coachbuilt one-off grand tourers with airtight provenance are the blue-chip end of the collector market — exactly the segment Alpine concours like Villa d'Este celebrate. An $8M result would confirm prewar Hollywood provenance still outruns market softness.

Read the original at RM Sotheby's →

Marc Philipp Gemballa turns the Porsche 992 Turbo S into the Marsien GT: 830 hp and 687 lb-ft from a RUF-tuned twin-turbo flat-six, 0-62 mph in 2.4 seconds, 205 mph. Just 30 cars at 770,000 euros net, before taxes and before you supply the donor 911.

The Marsien GT is the road-going sibling of the off-road Marsien from 2021, but it shares only doors and roof with it. Every car is rebuilt with roughly 1,500 bespoke parts, including a carbon body of more than 100 individual pieces that cuts about 75 kg versus a stock 992 Turbo S. RUF Automobile handles the engine with revised variable-geometry turbos, new ECU mapping and gearbox calibration; a second stage beyond 900 hp is already in development. KW supplied a new double-wishbone front axle and DDC V5 adaptive dampers that adjust compression and rebound in about 0.02 seconds, with 100 mm ride height and a 60 mm nose lift. Akrapovic adds a full titanium quad exhaust, and active front-fender louvres plus a raised rear wing that doubles as an air brake handle the aero. It debuts at Pebble Beach on 13 August 2026; with donor car, taxes and average options, buyers land near one million euros.

This is a supercar built for real roads rather than lap times, with adaptive dampers and a 60 mm nose lift that actually matter on Alpine passes and hotel ramps.

Read the original at Top Gear →

Mecum brings a 1996 Ferrari F50 in Giallo Modena to Monterey on August 15 as Lot S123. One of just 31 factory yellow cars out of 349 built, No. 239, delivered new to Switzerland with 7,253 km showing. It follows the $12,210,000 F50 world record set at Kissimmee in January.

S/N 106690 keeps its original chassis, engine, gearbox and bodywork, with factory stampings still in place and the carbon weave visible through the paint. The 4.7-litre V12 makes 513 hp and drives through the original six-speed manual; the interior is Nero with bucket seats. Ferrari Classiche has certified the car and issued the Red Book. It comes with a three-piece Schedoni luggage set, the Barchetta-to-Berlinetta flight case, the emergency soft top, original books, and a set of TOD'S F50 driving boots. The benchmark is fresh: in January 2026 the ex-Ian Poulter, 252-mile F50 sold for $12,210,000 at Mecum Kissimmee, beating the ex-Ralph Lauren car's $9,245,000 from August 2025 by nearly $3 million.

This car spent its early life on Swiss roads, and the F50 is the last analogue Ferrari halo car built for exactly the kind of driving the Alps offer.

Read the original at Mecum Auctions →

Koenigsegg pulled the covers off the CCGT1 at Monterey on 13 August, a road-legal tribute to the 2007 CCGT that never got to race. The twin-turbo V8 makes 1,280 hp on pump fuel and 1,600 hp on E85, and all 70 cars were spoken for before the reveal.

It sits on the CC850 platform, but only the doors and the removable roof carry over. Everything else is new bodywork chasing 800 kg of downforce at 250 km/h, with a huge active rear wing that adjusts through 30 degrees, a reprofiled underfloor and active front flaps. The nine-speed Light Speed Transmission gains Koenigsegg Sequential Shift: a clutch pedal for take-off, then ignition-cut clutchless shifts, with the CC850's gated six-speed manual still on the options list. Koenigsegg also debuts Ghost Fibre, a white aramid-carbon weave, and its first factory track package with roll cage, slicks, air jacks and telemetry.

While everyone else adds hybrid mass and paddle-only gearboxes, Koenigsegg's headline feature is a clutch pedal - driver involvement is the luxury good now.

Read the original at Koenigsegg →

Hagerty expects the Monterey auction week to bring in 470 to 500 million dollars, against the all-time record of 471 million set in 2022. The split tells the real story: the Hagerty Supercar Index is up 30 percent over twelve months while the Blue Chip Index is down 2 percent.

Cars built from 1984 onwards are forecast to account for 60 percent of everything sold this week, a share that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Millennial and Gen Z buyers are bidding on the machines from their own bedroom walls rather than the 1950s and 1960s metal their parents chased, and the money is following them. Hagerty CEO McKeel Hagerty says strong bidding could produce the first half-billion-dollar auction week the collector world has seen. The traditional blue chips are not collapsing, but flat-to-negative is a very different curve from plus 30.

The collector market is not shrinking, it is changing hands - and the generation now writing the cheques grew up on F40 posters, not Testa Rossa race reports.

Read the original at CNBC →

Gordon Murray Special Vehicles unveiled the S1 at The Quail on 14 August. A 4.2-litre naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 revs to 12,100 rpm for 690 PS and 500 Nm, driving a six-speed manual. Under 997 kg, three seats, central driving position. All 64 cars are already spoken for.

The S1 is the road-focused derivative of the S1 LM Murray showed at the same event a year ago - a car built in five examples, one of which sold for over 20.6 million dollars in late 2025. The road car drops the rear wing, splitter and side skirts and wears an entirely new carbon body; only the roof and engine cover carry over. Ride height rises 10 mm, dampers are softer, the power steering is switchable and the diffuser runs active aero. Sixth gear is a long touring ratio.

690 PS from a naturally aspirated V12 with a manual gearbox and under a tonne is effectively a category of one in 2026 - every rival in this class runs a hybrid and a dual-clutch. Murray has admitted 64 units sits uncomfortably close to the T.50's run of 100 and justified it plainly: it is never going to happen again. GMSV has not published 0-100 or top speed figures.

Read the original at Top Gear →

Gooding Christie's sold Carroll Shelby's personal 1964 Cobra Daytona Coupe, chassis CSX2300, for around 39 million dollars at Pebble Beach on 14 August. The estimate was in excess of 25 million. It is now the most expensive American car ever sold at auction and the highest public result of 2026.

CSX2300 is the third of only six Daytona Coupes built, with a Ford 289 V8, T10 gearbox and an aluminium body hand-formed by Carrozzeria Gransport in Modena to Peter Brock's design. It debuted on the 1964 Tour de France Automobile with Bondurant and Neerpasch, took two stage wins, then ran Daytona, Sebring, the Nurburgring 1000 km and Reims in 1965 before a Japanese career with outright wins at Suzuka and Fuji. Shelby owned it from 1975 to 1998 - the only Daytona Coupe he ever kept.

The result clears the previous American record, the 22 million dollar Duesenberg SSJ from 2018, and beats the Ferrari 250 GTO Bianco Speciale that made 38.5 million at Mecum in January. The Daytona Coupe existed because the open Cobra lost to the 250 GTO on long straights, and Brock's Kamm tail was the answer that won Shelby American the 1965 FIA GT championship - the first for a US manufacturer. Documented works history plus provenance is currently beating everything else in the blue-chip market.

Read the original at The Gentleman Racer →

Spyker returned at The Quail with the C8 Preliator XXV Coupe, a hand-built aluminium hypercar limited to 25 cars. It pairs a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a real mechanical manual gearbox: no paddles, no automated substitute.

The V8 makes 800 hp and 1,000 Nm through a six-speed manual to the rear wheels, with a claimed top speed above 350 km/h. Every exterior panel is hand-shaped in aluminium by Coventry Prototype Panels in England over an all-new in-house spaceframe, and each car takes around 2,100 hours to build. The debut car is chassis 270, the last of 255 Spykers built since 2000, finished in Quail Green with rose-gold flake and rose-gold brightwork. No price has been announced; all 25 will be individually commissioned.

Spyker was bankrupt and gone before founder Victor Muller won the name back in October 2025. That a revived coachbuilder bets on hand-formed aluminium and a third pedal, while Koenigsegg and Ferrari move to shift-by-wire, makes this the analogue counter-argument of Monterey 2026.

Read the original at Carscoops →

A 1989 Porsche 959 Sport sold for 7,045,000 dollars at RM Sotheby's Monterey on 15 August 2026, a world record for the model. It came from the collection of former Formula 1 driver Nick Heidfeld with just 4,788 km from new.

Chassis WP0ZZZ95ZJS905013 is one of only 29 959 Sports built out of 292 production cars, one of eleven in Grand Prix White and one of two known with air conditioning. The Sport ran 508 hp from its 2.85-litre twin-turbo flat-six and shed 100 kg over the Komfort by deleting the adaptive suspension, stereo, air conditioning and passenger mirror. Three owners from new: delivered to South Korea in September 1989, bought by Heidfeld in 2007, sold on in 2022 after a 115,000 euro Porsche Classic overhaul. Estimated at 5 to 6 million dollars, it beat the previous 959 record, the Paris-Dakar car, by more than a million.

Analogue 1980s halo cars with delivery mileage and a named owner are still the one segment where estimates get blown apart, while broad blue-chip values sit flat. Provenance plus originality, not rarity alone, is what the top of the market pays for.

Read the original at RM Sotheby's →