It's a mini-disappointment.
The Matra MS 670 which won the 1972 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill stalled at 5 million euros with the hammer, or 6.9 million euros with costs.
The French house Artcurial had estimated it between 4 and 7.5 million euros.
Organized not at Porte de Versailles as initially planned due to the postponement of Retromobile to June, but in a lounge on the first floor of Artcurial headquarters, on the Champs-Elysées roundabout, the sale was held in a small committee, in due to the sanitary rules currently in force.
Several bidders on the phone and one person in the room competed for this centerpiece of French automotive heritage.
The auctions were slow to take shape, with bidders sometimes reflecting long seconds that seemed like an eternity before relaunching the auction.
However, this sale was one of the few, if not the only opportunity, to acquire a Matra victorious at Le Mans since the Romarantin brand only won three times (1972 to 1974) the Sarthoise event.
It is not impossible that the Matra suffered from appearing too soon - fifth lot - in the sale called "Parisienne 2021".
Perhaps the room hadn't had time to heat up yet?
"The Matra is joining a private collection and we will see it again on the track", assured Matthieu Lamoure, director of the Motorcars department of Artcurial.
Artcurial
As for the Group B vehicles from the Lohéac museum, they have kept all their promises.
The Peugeot 205 T16 was sold for 820,000 euros by hammer (977,440 € with costs).
For its part, the beastly Audi Quattro Sport S1 has become the most expensive rally car of all time with a hammer bid of 1,720,000 euros, 2,016,600 euros with fees.