Broad Arrow's Newport Debut Sold 57 of 65 Cars for $8.3 Million

Broad Arrow sold 57 of 65 lots for $8.3 million at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island on October 2, an 88 percent sell-through in its first sale as auction partner of the Audrain Newport Concours and Motor Week. The top lot was a 1914 Stutz 4E Bearcat, chassis 2250, at $1,875,000 against a $1,750,000 to $2,000,000 estimate. Broad Arrow reported bidders from 16 countries, with close to 40 percent of them buying at one of its sales for the first time.

Eight point three million is a modest figure next to Monterey or Amelia. The transport problem it creates is not modest, because of where the sale was and what sold.

The transport angle

Newport is not a regular enclosed lane. Aquidneck Island is reached by bridge, the Tennis Hall of Fame sits in a dense historic district on Bellevue Avenue, and nothing about that street was built for a 75-foot stinger-steer rig. Sales in this kind of venue are shuttle-then-load jobs: cars move short distances in a single-car enclosed trailer or on a flatbed to a staging yard with room to maneuver, and the long-haul trailer loads there. If a buyer has been quoted a curbside pickup at the venue address, that quote is describing something that will not happen, and the shuttle leg is usually where an unexpected charge appears later.

The second issue is the spread of the consignment. The published top ten runs from a 112-year-old brass-era Bearcat to a 2022 McLaren 765LT Spider at $516,500, with a 1970 Ferrari Dino 246 GT at $456,000, a 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG at $428,500 and a 2008 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione at $368,000 in between. Those cars do not share equipment. A pre-1915 car has wood-spoke wheels, no modern tie-down points and brakes on two wheels, so it is handled as a non-running load whether or not it runs: winch, soft straps at the axles, wheel chocks, and a driver who has done it before. The non-running vehicle guide covers what that looks like in practice. A 765LT Spider is the opposite problem, a liftgate load on clearance alone, which the liftgate versus ramp guide and our McLaren shipping page both spell out.

Third, declared values. A load that mixes a $1.875 million car with cars in the low six figures runs into per-vehicle cargo limits fast. Most enclosed certificates sit between $250,000 and $1,000,000 per vehicle, and the Bearcat clears that on its own. Enclosed shipping insurance covers how the tiers work and where an owner's own agreed-value policy has to carry the gap. Ask for the certificate of the carrier actually assigned, not the network's headline number.

Finally, timing. Early October is when Northeast enclosed capacity starts pointing south. Snowbird volume out of Boston, Greenwich and New York begins competing for the same trailers that would otherwise run a one-off Newport load, and 57 newly sold cars entered that window. Our snowbird guide and the Boston to Naples corridor describe how that seasonal flip changes lead times.

What to do about it

If you bought at Newport, book the long leg before you solve the shuttle. Enclosed slots out of southern New England in October fill against seasonal demand, not against auction demand, and waiting two weeks for the paperwork to clear usually costs a slot rather than saving one.

Ask three questions in the first call: where does the car get staged, who performs the shuttle, and what is the per-vehicle cargo limit on the certificate for the assigned carrier. The auction transport prep checklist has the condition-report and release-document sequence that keeps the truck from waiting on the auction house.

Overseas buyers, and 16 countries of bidders means there are some, should treat the release date as the start of an export sequence rather than a pickup date. Customs paperwork and the ocean booking come first, and the domestic leg to the port is the short part.

Prices above are Broad Arrow's published results including buyer's premium, not transport quotes. Shipping ranges from our own cost model are on the cost page.