Collector Car Market Brief: A $56,000 190SL Project Sold, an $88,000 Restored One Didn’t, and Zürich Lists a Sport quattro

Three auction developments from the past day share one trait: the price turns on a document or a modification that a buyer can test, not on condition alone. The Mercedes-Benz 190SL auction results from Bring a Trailer on October 20 and 21 split on exactly that point, and Broad Arrow’s Zürich lineup, announced October 21, includes an Audi Sport quattro and a Gumpert Apollo Sport whose estimates rest on thinner comparisons than the headline numbers suggest.

Below, what the auction houses and sale records state is kept apart from interpretation. Estimates are not results, and the Zürich lots have not yet sold.

A Non-Running 190SL Sold at $56,000. A Restored One Stopped at $88,000.

On Wednesday, October 21, a 1957 Mercedes-Benz 190SL sold on Bring a Trailer for $56,000 after 53 bids. It is a non-running project showing 79,000 miles. According to the listing, it was sold new by Waco Motors of Miami in December 1956, stayed with one Florida owner until his death in 1997, and went into storage until the selling dealer acquired it in 2018. It comes with the December 1956 invoice, the 1956 Florida title, owner’s manuals and correspondence. The listing also points to early-production details, including fender-mounted mirrors and rear-bumper reflectors that were phased out on later cars, and it discloses a damaged left front bumper corner and a drilled-out trunk lock. The seller is a dealer in Ormond Beach, Florida, and the condition statements are the seller’s.

A day earlier, on Tuesday, October 20, a 1962 190SL offered by a Bring a Trailer Local Partner on behalf of a family owner ended at a high bid of $88,000 with the reserve not met, after 31 bids. The listing describes a car inherited by the owner in 2015, with cosmetic restoration completed in 2025 and a mechanical refresh at The SL Werke Shop in Benicia, California, after 13 years of sitting. It has service records dating to 1963, Fire Engine Red paint over cream leather, and a removable hardtop with a sliding sunroof. It also has a replacement 1.9-liter short block fitted in 2011, aftermarket dual Weber 40 DCOE carburetors, a rolled odometer showing 63,000 miles with total mileage unknown, and, per the listing, no convertible top. In the comments the seller said an offer had been sent to the high bidder through Bring a Trailer’s offer system; whether a deal followed is not shown.

One cautious reading is that bidders who stopped at $88,000 weighed the replaced engine, aftermarket carburetors and missing soft top more heavily than the quality of the cosmetic work, while the earlier car’s paperwork and early details carried the day at a lower number. Nothing in the sale record confirms that, the cars differ in year and ownership, and two auctions are not a trend.

The wider record shows how car-by-car this segment is. Bring a Trailer’s 190SL results include sales of $55,500 (September 17, a 21-years-owned 1961 car, no reserve), $56,000 (September 18, a 38-years-owned 1961 car), $125,000 (September 10, a 1960 car, no reserve), $116,000 (October 2, a one-owner 1963 car, no reserve) and $210,000 (October 3, a 1961 car with SLR-style modifications, offered in Canada), while a 1961 car bid to $135,000 on October 12 did not sell. The results page does not show condition, so those figures are context rather than like-for-like comparables. For another documented example, see our report on a restored 1958 Mercedes-Benz 190SL.

Zürich’s Sport quattro Is Priced Against Cars Built for Racing

Broad Arrow’s second Zürich auction takes place on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 3 p.m. CET at The Dolder Grand, with previews on November 5 and 6. In its October 21 announcement, the house names a 1985 Audi Sport quattro estimated at CHF 680,000 to 780,000. The car shows 82,229 km from new, is finished in Tornadorot over a Quartz/Graphit interior, and is described as one of 214 short-wheelbase examples. The release gives no lot number, chassis number or ownership history, so the lot page is the first stop. The inaugural 2025 Zürich sale totaled more than CHF 22 million with an 87 percent sell-through, according to Broad Arrow.

The closest public comparables are two US-market cars RM Sotheby’s sold in 2025, and neither is a clean match. Arizona 2025 brought $758,500 for a 1984 car known as “The F40 Killer,” and Monterey 2025 brought $643,000 for a sister car, “The Red Devil.” RM’s catalog text says both were federalized in the mid-1980s and modified for racing, with Heinz Lehmann engine work that raised output to 435 horsepower, and both come from the Beddor family’s continuous ownership with hill-climb results. The Arizona car was also resprayed from Tornado Red to Alpine White. If the Zürich car is an unmodified road-specification example, those buyers paid for a competition history it lacks, and the estimate is a bet on originality. If it has been altered, that case weakens. The release does not say which.

One number to check before bidding: Broad Arrow calls the car one of 214 short-wheelbase Sport quattros, while RM’s catalog text for both 2025 cars says one of 164 road variants. The two figures may count different things, and the release does not explain, so ask which the lot’s documentation supports. We have covered similar mismatches in Three Cars Where One Number Won’t Line Up. Estimates here are in Swiss francs and the comparables in dollars, so convert at the sale date before comparing. Useful questions: whether chassis and body numbers match Audi records, whether the engine, turbocharger and control unit are original, whether the Tornadorot paint is original, and what supports the 82,229 km.

The Apollo Sport’s Only Verified Auction Comparable Didn’t Sell

Broad Arrow also lists a 2008 Gumpert Apollo Sport at CHF 450,000 to 650,000. The release describes one of 20 made, with a composite body and an MTM-tuned 4.2-liter Audi V8 reported at 710 horsepower, and gives no mileage, condition notes or lot number.

The only auction record I could verify is RM Sotheby’s Paris 2021, which offered an Apollo the catalog calls the 20th built, a factory demonstrator with about 15,800 km that was repaired after a 2013 crash at Monza, with rebuild invoices of €141,334.59 on file. RM estimated it at €220,000 to 260,000 (CHF 210,000 to 245,000), and it did not sell. That is one car, five years ago, with a repair history the Zürich car may not share, so it is not a verdict on the new estimate. But the Zürich low estimate of CHF 450,000 is about 1.8 times the top of that failed one, which means mileage, service records, documentation of the MTM work and the state of factory support after Gumpert’s insolvency will have to carry the lot. Both descriptions use the number 20, but one is a production figure and the other a build position, so confirm what the Zürich documentation supports.

What to Watch

Three results will settle these stories: whether the 1962 190SL’s high bidder accepts the seller’s offer, where the Sport quattro lands against the two modified RM cars on November 7, and whether the Apollo Sport sells at all, since its one verified comparable did not. For more on the Zürich lineup, see our Lot of the Day on the Monteverdi 375/4 limousine, the Nick Heidfeld BMW 3.0 CSL and our earlier brief on Ruf’s Project Dragon and two Zürich rarities. Broad Arrow’s sale earlier this month is covered in our Zoute market brief.