Wrigley Gum Heir’s Porsche and a Pristine Ferrari Spyder to Highlight Miami Car Auction

An exceptionally rare 1967 Ferrari 365 California Spyder by Pininfarina, the ninth of just 14 built, will highlight an auction of classic cars and other vehicles in Miami next month.

RM Sotheby’s will conduct a two-day auction from March 1-2 with 119 motor vehicle lots at the first ModaMiami extravaganza. On offer will be boats, motorcycles, and a plane, too.

The Spyder is in exceptionally original condition, with certification from Ferrari Classiche that it retains its matching-numbers chassis, engine, transmission, rear axle, and body. The car is chassis number 9935, completed in May 1967 and in the hands of two long-term owners (four owners total). It was specified with China Red paint and a white-leather interior that matched the Los Angeles-based first owner Nancy Tewksbury’s 275 GTS. The coachbuilt car was bought by Donald Grove, a Princeton physicist, in 1971. Grove restored the car and kept it for 27 years. The Spyder is estimated to achieve between US$4 million and US$4.5 million.

A 1929 Duesenberg with LeBaron coachwork was originally owned by the man who ran both the Wrigley’s gum company and the Chicago Cubs.x
RM Sotheby’s

Another notable car at the auction will be a 1929 Duesenberg Model J “Sweep Panel” dual-cowl phaeton with coachwork by LeBaron. The car’s original owner was Phillip K. Wrigley, who took over the famous chewing gum company (and the Chicago Cubs) from his father, William Wrigley, Jr. The younger Wrigley traveled to the Duesenberg factory in Indiana to see his car being built. It is chassis 2177 with engine J-121, originally with a Murphy body.

After a year and 10,400 miles, Wrigley decided he preferred the dual-cowl LeBaron phaeton body on a friend’s car better, and so he retained his original chassis but swapped on the LeBaron body. It was the kind of thing that was possible on cars with body-on-frame construction. The Duesenberg is estimated to achieve between US$2.65 million and US$2.85 million.

This 1966 Porsche 906 Carrera S achieved more class wins than any other 906.
RM Sotheby’s

From the racing side of things comes a 1966 Porsche 906 Carrera S with competition history, initially driven by first owner Josef “Sepp” Greger. The car ran to victory in the two-litre class at the European Hillclimb Championship in 1966 and the European Mountain Championship in 1968. Under new owners, it competed in other German races in 1971 and 1972, then went to Macau, where it also raced but did not finish. It took part in some 80 races (achieving more class wins than any other 906) and was even used briefly as a road car. Under New York owner Jean Goutal, who bought the car in 2003, it was finally fully restored by Porsche racing specialist Kevin Jeanette’s Gunnar Racing. After three years of work, the Carrera is now virtually as-delivered, with many period details. The estimate is between US$1.8 million and US$2.8 million.

Fancy a very original Cobra? This 1964 289 example has never been crashed or extensively modified.
RM Sotheby’s

Other special cars in the RM Sotheby’s Miami auction include:

— The 1964 289-powered Mark II AC Cobra is a late production model with rack-and-pinion steering and a pair of dual-barrel carburetors from the factory. The car retains its original engine, which offers 271 horsepower. Originally sold in Illinois and then Ohio, the car was on the cover of the first Cobra World Registry in 1974. The Cobra was repainted in the 1980s in its current classic blue with white stripes. After extensive service in 2022 by Cobra specialist Rare Drive in New Hampshire (including a rebuild of the brakes and suspension) it is ready for the road. The car has never been in an accident or had extensive modifications. It’s estimated at US$1.1 million to US$1.3 million.

— The 1929 De Havilland DH60GM Gipsy Moth is a restored airplane from the early days of aviation that was used in the making of the 1985 hit film Out of Africa. In keeping with that history, the plane’s sale benefits a rhinoceros sanctuary in Kenya. This all-metal Gipsy Moth was built under a De Havilland license in the U.S. in 1929. It was then shipped to the UK, where it was eventually registered G-AAMY to celebrate the career of British aviatrix Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in her own Gipsy Moth. In 1985, the plane was dismantled and shipped in two crates to Nairobi by way of Germany. It subsequently appeared in numerous scenes in Out of Africa , which starred Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and is based on the 1937 autobiography of that name by Isak Dinesen (a pseudonym for Karen Blixen). The plane has been regularly maintained and now has an uprated De Havilland Gypsy II engine that makes 135 horsepower, and is said to be eminently air-worthy. The plane is projected to bring US$140,000 to US$220,000.

Very few of these 27-foot 1941 Chris-Craft Model 115 Custom Runabouts were built, and “Runaway Jane” is the only survivor from that year. RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s

— The 27-foot 1941 Chris-Craft Model 115 Custom Runabout “Runaway Jane” is the only survivor of three of these triple-cockpit wooden boats built that year. It was restored by Michigan experts in 2002 and has been sympathetically maintained since then. Power now comes from an 8.2-liter Mercruiser V8 with more than 300 horsepower, considerably enlivening the original performance. Only 62 examples of this 27-foot craft were built over a 10-year period.The low estimate is US$175,000 and the high US$225,000.

A star of the hit film Out of Africa was this 1929 De Havilland DH60GM Gipsy Moth airplane
RM Sotheby’s

There are, of course, many other vehicles being sold, including a series of BMW M cars, and classic Mercedes, including examples of the 540K, the 770K, and the 300SL.

The hottest crypto trade has turned cold. Some investors are saying “told you so,” while others are doubling down.

It was the move to make for much of the year: Sell shares or borrow money, then plough the cash into bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies. Investors bid up shares of these “crypto-treasury” companies, seeing them as a way to turbocharge wagers on the volatile crypto market.

Michael Saylor pioneered the move in 2020 when he transformed a tiny software company, then called MicroStrategy , into a bitcoin whale now known as Strategy. But with bitcoin and ether prices now tumbling, so are shares in Strategy and its copycats. Strategy was worth around $128 billion at its peak in July; it is now worth about $70 billion.

The selloff is hitting big-name investors, including Peter Thiel, the famed venture capitalist who has backed multiple crypto-treasury companies, as well as individuals who followed evangelists into these stocks.

Saylor, for his part, has remained characteristically bullish, taking to social media to declare that bitcoin is on sale. Sceptics have been anticipating the pullback, given that crypto treasuries often trade at a premium to the underlying value of the tokens they hold.

“The whole concept makes no sense to me. You are just paying $2 for a one-dollar bill,” said Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets. “Eventually those premiums will compress.”

When they first appeared, crypto-treasury companies also gave institutional investors who previously couldn’t easily access crypto a way to invest. Crypto exchange-traded funds that became available over the past two years now offer the same solution.

BitMine Immersion Technologies , a big ether-treasury company backed by Thiel and run by veteran Wall Street strategist Tom Lee , is down more than 30% over the past month.

ETHZilla , which transformed itself from a biotech company to an ether treasury and counts Thiel as an investor, is down 23% in a month.

Crypto prices rallied for much of the year, driven by the crypto-friendly Trump administration. The frenzy around crypto treasuries further boosted token prices. But the bullish run abruptly ended on Oct. 10, when President Trump’s surprise tariff announcement against China triggered a selloff.

A record-long government shutdown and uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve monetary policy also have weighed on prices.

Bitcoin prices have fallen 15% in the past month. Strategy is off 26% over that same period, while Matthew Tuttle’s related ETF—MSTU—which aims for a return that is twice that of Strategy, has fallen 50%.

“Digital asset treasury companies are basically leveraged crypto assets, so when crypto falls, they will fall more,” Tuttle said. “Bitcoin has shown that it’s not going anywhere and that you get rewarded for buying the dips.”

At least one big-name investor is adjusting his portfolio after the tumble of these shares. Jim Chanos , who closed his hedge funds in 2023 but still trades his own money and advises clients, had been shorting Strategy and buying bitcoin, arguing that it made little sense for investors to pay up for Saylor’s company when they can buy bitcoin on their own. On Friday, he told clients it was time to unwind that trade.

Crypto-treasury stocks remain overpriced, he said in an interview on Sunday, partly because their shares retain a higher value than the crypto these companies hold, but the levels are no longer exorbitant. “The thesis has largely played out,” he wrote to clients.

Many of the companies that raised cash to buy cryptocurrencies are unlikely to face short-term crises as long as their crypto holdings retain value. Some have raised so much money that they are still sitting on a lot of cash they can use to buy crypto at lower prices or even acquire rivals.

But companies facing losses will find it challenging to sell new shares to buy more cryptocurrencies, analysts say, potentially putting pressure on crypto prices while raising questions about the business models of these companies.

“A lot of them are stuck,” said Matt Cole, the chief executive officer of Strive, a bitcoin-treasury company. Strive raised money earlier this year to buy bitcoin at an average price more than 10% above its current level.

Strive’s shares have tumbled 28% in the past month. He said Strive is well-positioned to “ride out the volatility” because it recently raised money with preferred shares instead of debt.

Cole Grinde, a 29-year-old investor in Seattle, purchased about $100,000 worth of BitMine at about $45 a share when it started stockpiling ether earlier this year. He has lost about $10,000 on the investment so far.

Nonetheless, Grinde, a beverage-industry salesman, says he’s increasing his stake. He sells BitMine options to help offset losses. He attributes his conviction in the company to the growing popularity of the Ethereum blockchain—the network that issues the ether token—and Lee’s influence.

“I think his network and his pizzazz have helped the stock skyrocket since he took over,” he said of Lee, who spent 15 years at JPMorgan Chase, is a managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors and a frequent business-television commentator.

Wrigley Gum Heir’s Porsche and a Pristine Ferrari Spyder to Highlight Miami Car Auction

Selloff in bitcoin and other digital tokens hits crypto-treasury companies.