Sports Cars

From souped-up coupes to sleek, high-performance roadsters, sports cars have long captured the imagination of enthusiasts with throaty engines and breakneck accelerations.

In the United States, the 1918 Stutz Bear Cat paved the way for the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Corvette. In Britain, the old Triumph gave way to powerful Jaguar E-Type and exotic Lotus Esprit. In Continental Europe, Porsche, now a division of Volkswagen, is a marquee brand in the traditional sports car world and Ferrari filled Italy’s need for speed with price tags worthy of its high-octane reputation.

When it comes to sports cars, auctions feature old-school options that stir up an almost religious fervor among devotees with their classic approach to dominating the road, and state-of-the-art muscle cars with techno-wizardry that provides more than a few good reasons to get behind the wheel.

Quick Facts

• In February 2015, Artcurial auctioned off a collection of 60 cars, untouched for decades, discovered on a rural estate in Western France, including a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder and a 1956 Maserati A6G 2000
• In 2015, a 1925 Bugatti T13 found in a barn sold at auction for $950,000, more than triple the high estimate and more than double the highest price ever paid for the model
• When the hammer fell at a Dana Mecum auction in 2015, a 1988 Chevy Corvette Callaway coupe sold for $61,000