The 5 Most Expensive Cars Sold At The 2022 Monterey Auctions
Approximately $667 million in vehicle sales were made during the span of a few days
Related articles
During Monterey Car Week, two of the highest-profile events, The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering and the iconic Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, collectively present a field of well over 400 coveted automobiles representing a wide spectrum of time, design, power and provenance. And while some of the examples have been passed down through generations or obtained through private sales, many have crossed the public auction block.
This year, during Northern California’s roughly seven-day automotive maelstrom, five primary auction houses—RM Sotheby’s, Gooding & Company, Bonhams, Mecum and Broad Arrow—were, together, responsible for approximately $667 million in total sales, according to collector-market aggregator Classic.com.
“This year’s Monterey auctions were eagerly anticipated as a barometer of the state of the industry, particularly with respect to the impact from a potential recession, higher interest rates, war in the Ukraine and post-Covid behavioral shifts,” says Juan Diego Calle, car collector and co-founder of Classic.com. “During Monterey, it seemed as if all of those were non-issues. It was business as usual—booming, in fact.”
The report also reveals that a growing number of millennials are in the market, hoping to buy what inspired them in their formative years. This is evidenced by the fact that 28 percent of the 100 costliest cars sold in Monterey last week were from the 1980s and later.
“We’re clearly seeing a generational shift toward vehicles from the 80’s and 90’s, driven by a younger demographic of collectors and enthusiasts,” Calle says, also noting that the average amount paid for a vehicle was close to $850,000. “Surely there were prewar gems selling for record prices, but the large crowds came out to see more modern icons such as the Ferrari F40, F50, Porsche 959 and Carrera GT.”
The five that fetched top dollar, though, were all from last century—the most recent built in 1957—and all from the storied marques you would expect. Also no surprise is that they came from auction houses the likes of Gooding & Company and RM Sotheby’s, the latter responsible for not just the highest seller, but four out of the five. Who knows? One or more of these may be rolling onto the final fairway at Pebble Beach to compete for Best of Show when Monterey Car Week Gears up again next August.
1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider by Scaglietti—$11.27 Million
The 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider that crossed the block had raced in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Motorcar Studios, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.
The penultimate example of only 19 built, this 500 Testa Rossa was fit to comply with new-at-the-time FIA Appendix C regulations, hence the “TRC” moniker. Fit with a 190 hp four-cylinder engine developed by Aurelio Lampredi, and beautifully bodied by Carrozzeria Scaglietti, the car was raced by Richard Ginther and François Picard in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans but failed to finish. It did, however, go on to have various drivers on the podium 18 times through 1963, and racer Aston Gregory alone had 12 class wins behind the wheel. Last kept as part of the Oscar Davis Collection, the car had been returned to its matching-numbers state before selling through RM Sotheby’s for around $11.27 million on August 20.
1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C “Tulipwood” Torpedo by Nieuport-Astra—$13.33 Million
The one-of-a-kind 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C “Tulipwood” Torpedo by Nieuport-Astra. Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.
This revered vehicle is dressed in unusual coachwork to be sure, but also among the most beautiful, harkening back to a bygone age for not just the automobile, but watercraft and aviation as well. The car was a commission from André Dubonnet, of Dubonnet aperitif wealth and fame, who had been a combat pilot in World War I and wanted to incorporate innovative aircraft construction techniques and materials in a race car.
Dubonnet did so with the help of Nieuport-Astra, an aircraft builder in France who created this approximately 160-pound body with strips of mahogany (originally thought to be tulipwood) and a myriad aluminum rivets. The result looks as much maritime as motorsport, and Dubonnet raced it to a sixth-place finish at the 1924 Targa Florio. Six decades later, it completed an eight-month restoration and competed in the 1984 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it was recognized as the Most Significant Hispano-Suiza of the contest. Bidding reached around $13.3 million when the hammer finally dropped in Monterey on August 18.
1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster by Sindelfingen—$14.27 Million
Offered through RM Sotheby’s, this 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster by Sindelfingen has less than 13,000 miles on it. Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.
A ride worthy of royalty, this Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster, offered through RM Sotheby’s, was built for Afghanistan’s King Mohammad Zahir Shaw in 1937 and has since seen less than 13,000 miles on it over the course of just four subsequent owners. Among those stewards was Vernon Jarvis who, for three decades, included the car as part of his Early American Museum that was open to the public in Silver Springs, Fla.
The example features coachwork by the marque’s own team of artisans at Sindelfingen, Germany. In particular, it wears a low-door, long-tail design with a covered spare-tire compartment at the rear, one of only three known to still exist with this stylistic combination. But aside from its aesthetic rarity, the fact that it was a monarch’s automobile easily explains how it fetched the kingly sum of around 14.27 million on August 18.
1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante—$14.91 Million
This 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante is one of 17 built. Brian Henniker, courtesy of Gooding & Company.
Out of Gooding & Company’s $157,781,063 in total sales from the 130 lots purchased at its 2022 Pebble Beach Auctions, this 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante accounts for about $14,910,000 of that. And it’s no wonder. The car’s nomenclature alone makes it worthy of being hermetically encased and preserved for the ages. The original French marque’s magnum opus, the Type 57 model line was designed by founder Ettore Bugatti’s son Jean, who tragically died while testing the Type 57C Tank in 1939.
Only 17 examples of the Atalante were made, and this one was lowered and supercharged, or in French, Surbaissé and Compresseur (SC). Fit with a 200hp inline four-cylinder engine mated to a four-speed manual gearbox, the car has managed to keep the original chassis and body it was born with, making it one of the lynchpins of Bugatti’s legacy.
1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider—$31 Million
The 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider driven by Juan Manuel Fangio, Carroll Shelby and Phil Hill, among other racing greats. Patrick Ernzen, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.
The truly seductive draw of owning a collector car is becoming a part of its provenance, and the better its story the more intense the desire to become the next chapter. That’s why this 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider hammered for more than twice that of its next closest competitor. But then few machines have shared such a leading role with the biggest stars in motorsport at the time.
The Ferrari 410 Sport Spider is a model comprising only two cars, each developed to compete in the 1955 Carrera Panamericana. The contest, however, was called off after 83 people were killed at Le Mans in one of the most horrific racing accidents in history. So Juan Manuel Fangio was the first to take the reins of this Prancing Horse, chassis No.0598 CM, at the 1000 KM of Buenos Aires the next year. It soon came stateside, campaigned by John Edgar’s eponymous team and its wunderkind racer Carroll Shelby.
Although other icons of the track, like Phil Hill, Masten Gregory and Richie Ginther took turns behind the wheel, all adding exponentially to its value down the road, it was Shelby that made it the eight-figure Ferrari of today. Out of its 11 overall victories and 19 podium finishes, Shelby was the pilot for eight and 10 of those, respectively. Then, of course, there’s the indelible affirmation of its exclusivity, inscribed on the fuel tank by Shelby’s own hand: “Mr. Ferrari told me that this was the best Ferrari he ever built.” Say no more.
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Recommended for you
Rolls-Royce Debuted the New Phantom Scintilla at Monterey Car Week. Here’s Everything We Know.
Limited to 10 examples, each car has an interior defined by “painting with thread,” and a rumored price of around $2.6 million.
September 3, 2024
First Drive: This 1968 Mercedes-Benz ‘Pagoda’ SL Is an EV Restomod That’s Better Than the Original
Electrified by Everrati, the 230 SL hits 96 mph in 7.0 seconds and has a 320-mile range while staying true to the model’s original ethos.
By Tim Pitt
August 27, 2024
You may also like.
10/09/2024
You may also like.
This Collection of Lavish Private Estates Is Ready for Your Next European Vacation
From a contemporary château on the French Riviera to a palazzo on the shores of Lake Como.
Forget a resort. On your next European jaunt, you’ll have a slew of stylish estates where you can rest your head.
Luxury travel company Red Savannah just unveiled its Ultimate Estates collection, an assembly of private vacation rentals scattered across Italy, France, Greece, and Spain, to name a few. The 21 properties essentially function as a five-star hotel, with the added bonus of not having to share your space.
Want to stay in an English manor in the Cotswolds? How about a beach club-inspired villa in Ibiza? You can expect to find a minimum of six bedrooms no matter the booking, plus epic amenities like spas, private boats, gyms, tennis courts, wine cellars, and home movie theaters. In addition, each reservation comes with a full team of staff including chefs and a 24/7 concierge contact.
Red Savannah
“These highly experienced travel specialists act as personal travel assistants to organize bespoke itineraries, secure one-of-a-kind experiences, and ensure a flawless stay,” Red Savannah said in a statement. “Past arrangements have included delivering a Steinway grand piano by helicopter to Villa La Cassinella and arranging for a soprano from Milan’s La Scala to serenade guests during dinner on a wisteria-draped terrace overlooking Lake Como.”
For bigger parties and a glitzy beach-club vibe, look no further than the 10-bed Villa Xi on Ibiza. At the property—which is just down the road from the iconic Blue Marlin on Cala Jondal—you and your family can tuck your toes in a sandy bar area nestled underneath pine trees and, by night, hang by the palm-shaded Jacuzzi. The villa’s generous 10 acres offer up plenty of opportunities to stay active, from playing volleyball to swimming in the over-80-foot pool. The villa itself was recently completed in 2017 and is decked out with modern interiors that merge Scandinavian and Indonesian designs: Think en-suite bedrooms with Balinese-style showers and tropical shrubs.
Nestled in the heart of the French Riviera on the Cap d’Antibes, Red Savannah’s Domaine de la Garoupe is perfect for smaller groups perhaps seeking a respite from the famous Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. The château has nine total bedrooms, split between a main house (known as La Palombière) and two separate dwellings dubbed La Maison du Cap and La Petite Palombière. Altogether, the abode can sleep up to 18 guests and packs a ton of perks such as a private spa, a salon for hair and nail treatments, a gym, a wine cellar, and a 15-seat cinema. La Palombière acts as the property’s hub with a marble-clad kitchen, a drawing room overlooking the garden, and an outdoor swimming pool.
Red Savannah
If you’re looking for something with say, a tropical flair, the Ultimate Estates collection includes the Caribbean, too. There’s a massive 12-suite spread in Barbados planted right on the beach on the island’s northwest coast. The Great House, as it’s known, can sleep up to 30 people between its main digs, the Hillaby House, and two cottages. However, you’ll most likely spend a lot of time outdoors enjoying the alfresco perks. Chief among them is a beach bar with a pizza oven, a 33-foot motorboat, kayaks, and water toys.
As for any non-estate escapes, Red Savannah’s got you covered there, too. One of its newest itineraries will let you explore Marrakech just like Yves Saint Laurent, or you can opt for a litany of literary-themed activities in the brand’s In the Footsteps of the Great Detectives series.
You may also like.
10/09/2024
The 8 Best Watches of the U.S. Open, From Jannik Sinner’s Rolex to Serena Williams’s Audemars Piguet
From Federer’s Rolex Le Mans Daytona in Yellow Gold to Pegula’s De Bethune DB28XS Purple Rain, players past and present brought their A-game to the final Grand Slam of 2024.
Watches and tennis are a match made in heaven. It likely comes as no surprise that players past and present would have some major wrist game at the Grand Slams. Each year, the U.S. Open closes out the season with a bang, and everyone seems to pull out all the stops for the occasion. Fans have set a new record booking the infamous suites (which can cost up to $149,000), and luxury brands like Tiffany & Co. have firmly planted their presence on the grounds with pop-up activations. As a major sponsor, Rolex, of course, is omnipresent. Come August, Flushing Meadows is the place to see and be seen, and with the close ties between timepieces and tennis, the watch spotting never fails to disappoint on and off the court. Here are eight of the coolest watches we’ve seen at the 2024 U.S. Open.
Roger Federer in a Rolex Le Mans Daytona in Yellow Gold
Last year, Rolex dropped a watch that made major waves. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the beloved Daytona and the 100th anniversary of the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, the Crown unveiled a special edition model: the Cosmograph Daytona Celebrating 100 Years of Speed. Just shy of a year after its debut, Rolex announced it’d be discontinuing the model at Watches & Wonders 2024, while quietly replacing it with a yellow gold version. This illusive yellow-gold replacement has left much to the imagination, barring some texted contraband images we saw at Watches and Wonders in April, but now it’s plain as day. At the quarterfinal matches, Tennis legend and longtime Rolex collector Roger Federer was spotted wearing the coveted model.
Jessica Pegula in a De Bethune DB28XS Purple Rain
Number six ranked Jessica Pegula has held her own for the U.S.A in this year’s U.S. Open. The New York native has made it to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the second time in her career but is still yet to land a Grand Slam win. Off the court, it’s yet to be seen how deep Pegula’s watch collection goes, but one thing is for certain: She has a particular affinity for one brand, and it shows the young player has interesting taste in timepieces. Her brand of choice? De Bethune. Pegula has been spotted wearing various models from the brand, including the DB28xs Starry Seas. However, this year, she’s been rocking the DB28XS Purple Rain that debuted at Watches & Wonders earlier this spring.
Jannik Sinner in a Rolex Submariner Date
With major upsets for Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic early on in the tournament, this year’s U.S. Open is Jannik Sinner’s to win. The young Italian player is currently ranked number one in the world ahead of Djokovic, Alcaraz, and Alexander Zverevs. Luckily for Sinner, he has Rolex on his side. At last year’s U.S. Open, Coco Gauff won in women’s singles, proudly accepting her trophy with the discontinued Rolex ‘Red Grape’ on her wrist, so perhaps the luck will wear off on Jannik. Sinner has been a Rolex ambassador since 2020, and his current model of choice is a classic two-tone Submariner Date with a blue dial.
Andrey Rublev in a Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton Ceramic
Russian tennis pro Andrey Rublev was knocked out of this year’s U.S. Open in the round of 16 by the Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, who later went on to lose to American tennis star Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals. Despite the upset, Rublev came to the tournament with a major wrist flex. Back in 2021, Rublev became Bulgari’s first-ever tennis ambassador, and since then we’ve seen him sport a number of models from the Roman Maison. For this year’s Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows, he opted for a pretty unique iteration from one of Bulgari’s most beloved collections. In the past decade, the brand has become synonymous with its Octo Finissimo line thanks to models shattering a whopping nine world records. Withing the collection, Rublev chose a ceramic version with a skeletonized dial and a tourbillon.
Tommy Paul in a De Bethune DB28XS Starry Seas
Who knew that De Bethune’s unconventional designs would be so popular among tennis pros? American player Tommy Paul became an ambassador for the brand just last year, with the pair announcing their official partnership during the 2023 Wimbledon tournament. Paul got knocked out by number one ranked Sinner in the round of 16 at this year’s U.S. Open, but he did so in style, of course, rocking a model from De Bethune. The DB28XS Starry Seas appears to be one of his particular favorites, and for good reason. When the model debuted last spring, it marked the world’s first random guilloche pattern along with new sweet-spot sizing at 39 mm.
Naomi Osaka in a TAG Heuer Aquaracer Limited Edition Naomi Osaka
Like Alcaraz and Djokovic, the young Japanese tennis pro Naomi Osaka was upset in an early round at this year’s U.S. Open. Despite her run being short lived, she still had a chance to put her collaboratively designed timepiece on full display. The four-time Grand Slam winner has been a TAG Heuer ambassador since 2021. A year later, she partnered with the brand to co-design her own watch, resulting in the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Limited Edition Naomi Osaka. We know green dials have continued to be all the rage the past few years, and Osaka was early to catch on to the trend, which started gaining traction three years ago. For the customized Aquaracer bearing her name, she chose light green for the dial and a darker green for the rubber strap.
Donna Vekic in a F.P. Journe Elegante 40
Croatian tennis pro Donna Vekic may be a lesser known player on the circuit. Back in 2019, she notched her career-high singles ranking just cracking the top 20 in at number 19. That same year, she made it to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open. While she wasn’t as successful at this year’s tournament, losing to the Chinese player Zheng Qinwen in the round of 16, she certainly took her defeat in style. We’ve yet to see the full breath of Vekic’s watch collection, or perhaps she’s simply devoted to one brand—but a killer brand at that. She’s been spotted on countless occasions on and off the court wearing every color of the F.P. Journe Elegante 40 under the rainbow. At Flushing Meadows this year, she opted for the gorgeous turquoise blue version.
Serena Williams in an Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Blue Tourbillon
Like Federer, Serena Williams has been enjoying this year’s U.S. Open from the sidelines, cheering on the current players. It’s no secret Williams is a longtime ambassador and fan of Audemars Piguet, sporting countless models over the years from the tennis court to the red carpet and beyond. The former number one player and 23-time Grand Slam winner never ceases to keep us on our toes with which model from AP she’ll choose, sometimes opting for an ultra-sporty look and other times rocking a fully blinged out gem-set model. In the stands at Flushing Meadows, Williams chose the Code 11.59 Blue Tourbillon. The model came in 2022 featuring a fully blued-out design, from the ceramic mid-case to the hand-wound, open worked caliber 2948.
You may also like.
10/09/2024
Rolls-Royce Debuted the New Phantom Scintilla at Monterey Car Week. Here’s Everything We Know.
Limited to 10 examples, each car has an interior defined by “painting with thread,” and a rumored price of around $2.6 million.
Visitors to the fabled Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris might remember an exquisite marble sculpture standing proud at the top of the main Daru staircase. Named the Winged Victory of Samothrace, this eight-foot-tall headless goddess—with gossamer wings—dates to 190 B.C.
What has it got to do with Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom Scintilla Private Collection limousine, unveiled during this year’s Monterey Car Week? A lot, in fact. Rewind to 1910 and Rolls-Royce’s managing director at the time, Claude Johnson, who reportedly commissioned well-known sculptor Charles Sykes to create a hood ornament to define the new Rolls-Royce brand. Apparently, Johnson had seen the statue during a visit to the Louvre and fell in love with it.
While a change in direction saw Sykes create the Spirit of Ecstasy, inspired by Johnson’s former secretary, English actress and model Eleanor Thornton, the Louvre statue was always considered by Goodwood to be the original inspiration for its now iconic emblem.
So, when Rolls-Royce designers looked for a muse for a 10-car, Phantom-based Private Collection series to be called Scintilla—derived from the Latin word for “spark”—the marque went back to the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue and its Mediterranean roots.
You see that influence in the car’s Spirit of Ecstasy figurine which, for the first time, features a translucent white, marble-like ceramic coating. It also carries over in the car’s two-tone paintwork—Andalusian White for the upper body, and powdery Thracian Blue, inspired by the color of the Med, for the lower section. A subtle metallic flake in the paintwork is said to mimic the sparkle of sunlight off the water.
Yet as with most bespoke and special-edition Phantoms, it’s the interior where Rolls-Royce craftsmanship is truly exhibited. In this case, the theme is exquisite embroidery or, as the automaker calls it, “painting with thread.”
For Scintilla, the embroidery work involves over 850,000 individual stitches. And at night, illuminated perforations in the material give the doors a wave-like glow. In Phantom tradition, there’s a Starlight Headliner in the roof, but here, more than 1,500 fiber-optic illuminations twinkle in sequence to mimic silk billowing in a breeze.
The centerpiece of the interior is the Phantom’s dashboard gallery ahead of the front-seat passenger. Named “Celestial Pulse,” it comprises seven metal ribbons, each individually milled from solid aluminum and given the same finely grained ceramic finish as the Scintilla’s Spirit of Ecstasy.
Rolls-Royce will build only 10 examples of the Phantom Scintilla, which had its public debut at the Quail, a Motorsports Gathering on August 16. Of that already small number, three will come to North America and, like the other seven, have already been sold. While there’s no official word on pricing, the figure $3.8 million has been reported.
“With every collection, we aim to tell the story of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and provoke our clients’ imagination, letting them know our Bespoke designers’ artistry is greater than they can envision,” stated Martin Fritsches, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for the Americas, when asked for a comment by Robb Report. “We can’t think of a better way to tell this story than through the history of our idol, the Spirit of Ecstasy.”
You may also like.
10/09/2024
This Speedy 70-Foot Power Catamaran Is Designed to Cut Through Rough Waters
The 70-foot T-2000 Voyager can hit 60 mph in flat conditions, and then take waves up to 30 feet.
Back in April, Storm Kathleen slammed into the west coast of Ireland as a fearsome Force 10 gale, packing 112 kph winds and 15-foot waves. While locals sandbagged their homes and prepared for the worst, Frank Kowalski decided it was a swell day for a boat ride.
As owner of Safehaven Marine in County Cork, he’d just launched his brand-new, 70-foot T-2000 Voyager all-weather power catamaran. What Kathleen offered was a chance to put the new super-cat through its paces.
“We knew from scale-model tests that she should be able to tackle waves of more than 65 feet high,” Kowalski tells Robb Report. “But you never know until you’re out there. In the height of the storm, she just shrugged off the waves and weather and performed flawlessly.”
Evolved from Safehaven’s 75-foot XVS20 monohull launched in 2018, Kowalski used his expertise in building commercial, work-boat power catamarans to design the twin-hulled T-2000 Voyager to offer speed with stability.
“The stability in beam seas is what’s key here,” he says. “While we were out recently in a Force 8 with 40-plus knot winds and 12-foot seas, we were able to stop and leave the boat to drift while we retrieved a drone. It just took the waves on the beam with ease. In a monohull, it would have been rolling so badly you couldn’t have stood on the deck.”
Then there’s the sheer velocity that comes with twin, scalpel-thin hulls slicing through waves. With the T-2000’s pair of 1,550 hp MAN V12 diesels driving France Helices SD5 surface drives, the Safehaven can hit a top speed of 91 kph.
“It’s just the most amazing sight, standing on the stern, watching these huge roostertails behind,” Kowalski adds. “We’ve also incorporated retracting swim platforms so you can see the props spinning on the surface, plus valved exhausts that switch between silenced and straight-through. The noise from those V12s is sensational.”
While Safehaven has been building its Wildcat range of 40-, 53-, and 60-foot power cats for everything from oil-rig support, crew transfer, and even as a military cruiser for Britain’s Royal Navy, they were always pure, no-frills work boats. With this new T-2000, Kowalski is looking to appeal to private buyers searching for something a little different.
His hull No. 1 demonstrator boat has all-diamond-quilted marine leather, well-finished cabinetry, colored LED lighting, and below-deck accommodations for six in three cabins. Hull No. 2—already sold and due for completion in the next 18 months—will up the luxury factor.
“It’s going to a client in the Middle East who plans to use it for just himself and his wife,” says Kowalski. The client has specified a full-width owner’s suite with a central, king-size bed and oversized his-and-hers bathrooms and closets in each hull. “He also wants to go fast—very fast,” Kowalski continues. “So we’ll install twin 2,000 hp MAN V12s, again with surface drives, and a central hydrofoil to reduce drag. The plan is for it to hit a top speed in excess of 100 kph.”
The new T-2000 is also designed to go the distance. With the 10,977 kilogram tanks, it has a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles at 55.2 kph, and 1,700 nautical miles at 28 kph. Throttle back to 19 kph and range increases to 3,000-plus nautical miles.
Much of this is down to the yacht’s symmetrical, semi-wave-piercing hulls, made of a carbon-fibre-composite construction, with inverted lower bow sections and a double-chine arrangement that projects spray clear of the boat. The hydrofoil in mid position also means that, at speed in calmish seas, the T-2000 rides with half its hull length out of the water.
To eliminate waves slamming into the bridge deck windshield, Kowalski moved the pilothouse farther back. It also makes for a sleeker profile, giving the T-2000 the look of a single-hull sportsyacht.
As for creature comforts, the main, open-plan salon features an L-shaped Corian-topped galley, with a U-shaped dinette opposite. To enjoy the action, there are bucket-style, shock-absorbing seats for the captain and copilot, a wraparound sofa on the port side, and a single bucket seat to starboard.
The entire helm area gets flooded with light courtesy of the four-panel, angled windshield and quartet of fixed skylights above. To see the boat’s hydrofoil in action, the bridge has a glass panel in the floor that’s also designed for viewing marine life below at night. Most of the windows have half-inch-thick toughened panels to shrug off cascading water.
In finer weather than typically found on coastal Ireland, the T-2000 has a small flybridge with a helm station and sun-lounge area up top, plus a covered stern cockpit with sofas and table for alfresco dining.
This storm-tested, metallic-red demonstrator is available for around $5 million.
You may also like.
10/09/2024
Six Senses Are Suddenly Everywhere. Inside the Luxury Resort’s Growing Global Empire
With 26 properties now open, another 43 to come, and the U.S. square in its sights, the rapidly growing wellness-focused resort and hotel brand is now asking the hard questions
If someone hit you in the head (hard) just before the pandemic, and you’re only waking up now, in the middle of 2024, you’ll have noticed some changes. For instance, the global proliferation of Six Senses hotels and resorts.
Once a relatively quiet group of wellness-focused Asian resorts for in-the-know Europeans, Six Senses is now in the midst of a breakneck opening spree with the U.S. square in its sights. Since 2019—when hotel giant IHG dropped $440 million in cash to acquire the operator’s then 16 hotels and resorts from private equity group Pegasus Capital Advisors—it’s grown to 26 urban hotels and destination resorts in 21 countries across four continents. (Its Vana resort in India is one of Robb Report‘s 50 best luxury hotels in the world).
Blink again and that number may have doubled. By 2026, Six Senses, now the flagship brand of IHG’s luxury and lifestyle portfolio, hopes to have a shingle hanging in London, Bangkok, Dubai, Lisbon, Napa, and Tel Aviv. There are currently 43 Six Senses in the pipeline, which will extend Six Senses footprint from the Carolinas to Victoria Falls. Many of those new properties will come packed with branded residences.
So is Six Senses trying to conquer the world via ayurvedic medicine, longevity spa treatments, and mindfulness exercises?
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” admits CEO Neil Jacobs. “But the answer is no, and we have a real point of view on that.”
More on that point of view momentarily, but it’s worth pausing to note that despite his protestations, Jacobs comes to Six Senses with 14 years of experience with a hotel group that is arguable much more overtly interested in turning planet Earth into one massive 5-star hotel lobby: namely, the Four Seasons. As senior vice president of operations for the Four Seasons’s Asia Pacific region, he witnessed the company expand from roughly two dozen hotels into the 130-ish-address, Bill Gates– and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal–owned leviathan of luxury it is today. The Four Seasons’s stated goal is 200 hotels. But Jacobs tells Robb Report it’s neither his or IHG’s intention to turn Six Senses into the Michael Kors of opulent wellness resorts.
“We think less is more,” he says of that aforementioned point of view. “Our competitors are all about growth. With Six Senses the conversation is very much the opposite of that. You’ve got to be really careful about what you do and where you go. I mean, we started with eight resorts in 2012. Then there were 11, and we got rid of two or three. Today, there are 26. So we’ve only opened 18 in nearly 12 years, really.”
Still, the Bangkok-based company is hurtling toward 60-plus properties, a number Jacobs says he is “comfortable” with. What happens beyond that is stickier.
“We have four projects in Italy. We could do another five, but why?” says Jacobs. “Instead, let’s move to another country and spread, rather than just inundate the brand in one country, even though there’s places to do it. It’s a continual argument internally. We have some great places coming to Italy, but we don’t have Venice. So then my team says, ‘If we have a Venice deal, are you going to say, ‘Don’t do it?’ Good question. But the answer is, ‘maybe.’”
Whether it’s Six Senses, the Four Seasons, or Auberge (another brand that has seen a similarly rapid expansion), the answer to the question “When does quantity extinguish the spark of quality?” is worth at least a billion. But it’s also a problem that highlights the welcome fact that, despite the current slump, “luxury” is winning; it may have already won.
From fashion to travel, a growing share of businesses have repositioned themselves to serve the high-end consumer, as growing global wealth supports superior margins realized through the relative simplicity of a luxury rebrand. The affordable family resort of yesterday becomes the aspirational seaside playpen of today. As long as demand for luxury everything is here, deep-pocketed hotel groups will grow to meet it.
At the same time, the success of “luxury” creates a clear existential dilemma: If luxury becomes the standard setting, it is by definition no longer an indulgence, no longer a luxury. And as luxury becomes more gray and undifferentiated, the vague, eye-of-the-beholder quality that was once its strength, is now its liability.
It’s a problem that Jacobs feels that Six Senses was uniquely designed to address.
“That sixth sense in our name, we see it as intuition,” he says. “It’s interesting because one of our initiatives for this year in wellness is spiritual wellness. In the past, we’ve done a lot of yoga, we’ve done a lot of meditation, but we haven’t done a lot of overtly spiritual programs. We think the time is right.”
Those programs serving up, non-religious, lightly-woo spirituality on a silver platter roll out later this year and offer a key differentiator for the brand’s fastest growing customer base: Americans.
“Back in 2012, it was predominately a European customer, I’d say 85 percent,” says Jacobs. “There was no business coming from the U.S. Today, the U.S. is our number market, even though we don’t have anything open in the U.S.”
It’s not for lack of trying. Six Senses planned to open in Manhattan along the High Line in a doomed Bjarke Ingles–designed tower that was crushed by a Gambino crime family construction bribery scandal and the subsequent bankruptcy of its developer. Six Senses has since found a new site on 23rd St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves. in Chelsea, but is at least three years out.
It’s having a better, if not altogether easier, time with the 236-acre farm in Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. The site of a failed “secret hotel” project, Six Senses snatched up the land for $20.2 million in 2022, making it some of the only real estate the brand owns (as with many brands, outside investors typically carry the deeds). Although it would be the first five-star flag in the region, the project has faced community opposition that could scuttle yet another attempt to create a footprint in the U.S.
“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Del LaMagna, whose property shares a border with the site, told the Hudson Valley Pilot. “[IHG] decided they wanted to be here, they started hiring good local people to figure it out, but this whole idea of exclusive resorts for rich people just doesn’t work up here.”
That’s a matter of opinion, but Six Senses plans for the U.S. extend far beyond the town of Clinton. Besides urban hotels in New York, L.A., and Miami, it will open a series of resorts, starting with a 500-acre estate on the edge of Napa and a multi-island project off the coast of South Carolina spanning Hilton Head, Daufuskie, and Bay Point. The gargantuan scale of those properties will eventually facilitate the festivals and retreats that the brand has been recently investing in.
“It’s a lot of yoga, a lot of spirituality, a lot of fun, a dance, a lot of movement,” he says. “Those kinds of festivals resonate with people.”
So if you’re just waking up, welcome to a world where Six Senses is everywhere all at once. But Jacobs hopes that by selecting “extraordinary properties” and by “demonstrating our values in a highly meaningful way” that the resorts will fit into the ecosystem like redwoods in a pine forest. Call it a sixth sense.
You may also like.
10/09/2024
