Wondering what could be the most expensive car in the world in 2024? In order to crown this position at the top of the automotive world, it is necessary to make some explanation first. In terms of the world's single most expensive vehicle, the difference between the MSRP price tag and collectible value comes into play.
There's also a difference between a brand new, one-off production from a bespoke coachbuilder, the result of years of collaboration with a customer, and the most expensive car currently available to order. And of course, unknown private sales make any speculation about the world of billionaires making deals on yachts in Monaco out of reach of the general public.
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Among cars that could at least be somewhat certified, Rolls-Royce came out on top once again this year with a unique custom build called the La Rose Noire Droptail, rumored to cost over $32 million. This project took approximately four years to complete and is the first of four Droptails Rolls plans to build. Since then, two more models, the Arcadia and Amythest, have featured similar levels of customization and were estimated to cost $30 million each.
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Who Owns the World's Most Expensive Car?
Obviously Rolls and their customers prefer to remain somewhat anonymous, but La Rose Noire Droptail's details imply that they have a French family in the fashion industry. The Droptail range is based on Rolls-Royce's earlier Sweptail and Boat Tail models; The second of these broke the record as the world's most expensive car in 2021 with a price tag of $ 28 million. While that commission went to an unnamed businessman in the pearl industry, another Boat Tail is almost certainly owned by Beyonce and Jay-Z.
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In the years leading up to Rolls-Royce's special creations that set new standards for automotive prices, Bugatti regularly joins the fray with a series of special versions – La Voiture Noire cost $13.4 million, Chiron Profilee cost $10.8 million and the Centodieci is badged . For $9.0 million.
Other new cars this year have yet to eclipse such staggering numbers, or even come close to them. Each of Red Bull's RB17 track toys unveiled at Goodwood this summer is based on almost entirely legal Formula 1 racing car technology and will cost up to $6 million – while Lanzante plans to make around $350,000 worth of modifications to make the RB17 street legal. is planning. .
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Another street-oriented race car, Aston Martin's Valkyrie, starts at $3.2 million but is known to need serious maintenance to continue running. The Gordon Murray Automotive T.50S and Pagani Utopia, two hypercars that emphasize analog driving dynamics, cost $4.36 million and $3.4 million respectively, while Koenigsegg's world-beating Jesko Absolut costs $3.4 million. It starts.
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The Most Expensive Cars Sold at Auction
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No matter how outrageous the prices of special Rolls-Royces, Bugattis or Koenigseggs may seem, collector cars take these figures to a whole new level. Auction results often provide insight into the huge sums that the world's wealthiest enthusiasts and collectors will pay to own some of the greatest cars in history. An example of this is that Mercedes-Benz sold a vehicle called “Silver Arrow” from the company's museum for a very high price of 142 million dollars in 2022. The auction was courtesy of RM Sotheby's and took place in Stuttgart, with Mercedes-Benz donating the proceeds from the sale of one of only two existing 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupes to a new educational scholarship charity.
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The next five most valuable car auctions publicly known have all belonged to Ferraris in the last decade. RM Sotheby's also auctioned a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO by Scaglietti for $51,705,000 in November 2023, and a pair of 1962 GTOs (non-Scaglietti) in 2018 and 2014 for $48.4 million and $38.1 million, respectively . However, rumors abound that the 250 GTO was sold behind closed doors for $80 million in 2018.
As a result, the Uhlenhaut Coupe's final hammer price more than quadruples Rolls-Royce's most expensive offering to date, as befits a legitimate piece of automotive and motorsport history. Whether collectors will consider today's most expensive cars to be worth a similar investment 70 years from now remains a question; but 99.99 percent of enthusiasts on the planet definitely won't have to worry.
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