Last December, an auction provided a rare opportunity for racing fans and cinema buffs to bid on Steve McQueen’s original Gulf livery racing suit worn in the movie “Le Mans.” In case you missed out or couldn’t afford the $800,000 price tag, a new opportunity to own a piece of motorsport history has arisen.

Thanks to Asif Kapadia’s successful documentary that revived Ayrton Senna awareness, and even mania, there’s a growing market for Senna related racing memorabilia. Up for auction at the Race Retro Sale of the Silverstone Auction in the UK are Ayrton Senna’s original 1991 Championship season Shoei full face helmet and racing suit.

The racing helmet bears Senna’s signature and is instantly recognizable by the Brazilian color theme adorned with Nacional, Boss, Marlboro, and Honda stickers, as well as a McLaren International authentication certificate. This special championship season Senna helmet is projected to sell for a staggering $66,000.

Senna’s race suit features the Brazilian flag as well as his name embroidered along the belt. Experts estimate that the race suit will sell for more than $31,000.

Despite the astronomical price tags, wealthy bidders may consider the helmet and suit a bargain considering Steve McQueen’s “Le Mans” racing suit went for more than $800,000.

The auction will take place on February 25th in the U.K.

GALLERY: Ayrton Senna Racing Helmet and Race Suit

There are only two Devon GTX supercars in the world. One of them was up for sale at the most recent Barrett-Jackson auction and it sold for a ticklishly low price.

The chromed-out version of the Dodge Viper that promised individuality to its lucky owner came to a hard halt when Dodge stopped producing the Viper in 2010, but with a half million-dollar price tag it’s tough to see what’s essentially the bling-bling edition of Dodge’s V10 tire shredder going very far. On the other hand, $220,000 might be a justifiable price for someone in the market for such cars, and that is what the GTX took on the auction block including buyers commission.

We had no way of guessing what the GTX would sell for just over a week ago when we reported that the car was going up for auction with no reserve, but the 60 percent discount it ended up selling for was far from our minds. Alas, such is life in the world of no-reserve auctions on items with extremely limited marketability.

GALLERY: 2009 Devon GTX

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]

The #40 of 40 Special Edition Lamborghini Diablo 6.0L VTs ever built will be going up for sale at the upcoming Scottsdale, Arizona Barrett-Jackson auction. Sporting only 12-miles on the odometer, this limited edition Diablo (the last of the final edition Diablos) is practically new.

The 6.0L VT SE Diablos featured a V12 powerplant with 550-hp, all-wheel-drive and a six-speed automatic transmission. It’s the last SE ever built and still has the original plastic covers on the seats. Since it was first bought, it has sat in a large climate-controlled collection on the West Coast. This particular Diablo’s exterior is Marrone Eklipsis with a Cocoa/Cream interior.

No reserve is set on this rare exotic.

GALLERY: 2001 Lamborghini Diablo Coupe

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]

Barrett-Jackson will be carrying on a tradition by selling the first Ford Shelby GT500 at the upcoming Scottsdale, Arizona auction on January 15-22, 2012.

In 2006, Ford sold its first Ford GT exotic supercar at a Barrett-Jackson auction and in 2007, the first Shelby GT500 was also auctioned off. The tradition continued in 2008 with the first Shelby GT500KR and in 2009 it was the first retail Shelby GT500 and two Mustang GT concept cars.

The new 2013 Shelby GT500 is a major upgrade to the GT500 line featuring a 5.8L V8 with 650-hp with a heavily updated chassis with excellent handling capabilities.

Five vintage Shelby vehicles will also be auctioned off at the same auction spanning from 1965 to 1969 model years.

[Source: Road & Track]

An iconic car from an iconic movie just sold for a pretty hefty price. The Delorean that was featured in the movie Back to the Future III (that’s the one where they travelled back to the Wild West) was auctioned off for $541,200.

The sale, which took place last weekend at the Icons of Hollywood auction in Beverly Hills, is only one of three Deloreans from the series remaining and the only one of those three held privately. The estimate on this car was $400,000 to $600,000, so its going price was no surprise to bidders. In actuality, if this car wasn’t a star, it would have only been worth about $30,000.

There’s no word if this Delorean is in working order, but we’re pretty sure that if it does run, the fabled flux capacitor won’t help you avoid present day traffic jams; Even if you do hit 88 miles per hour.

[Source: Jalopnik]

A rare combination of Hollywood and racing history, the Gulf livery racing suit that Steve McQueen wore for the movie Le Mans was sold in a California auction for a steep $800,000. After fees and taxes are taken into account, the total sum is actually $984,000.

With the exception of an automobile, this is the most expensive piece of racing memorabilia ever sold.

From the text of the Profiles in History auction catalog, “When principal filming of Le Mans was completed, Solar Productions donated this suit to the British newspaper, The Observer, for a special La Mans-themed contest in 1971.”

“By answering 3 Le Mans history questions correctly, 12 year-old Timothy Davies of Wolverhampton, England was chosen as the winner and presented with the suit by racing driver Richard ‘Dickie’ Attwood, winner of the 1970 Le Mans race and driver of the Porsche 917K Gulf car during driving sequences in the film.”

[Source: SpeedTV]

In light of talented racing driver Dan Wheldon’s tragic death, and the family he has left behind, fellow racing driver Graham Rahal first announced that he would auction off the helmet, gloves, and shoes worn during the Las Vegas 300 to raise money to help the Wheldon family through this difficult time.

Following Rahal by example, an outpouring of collective support from athletes, and Eric Gazin of Auction Cause, came together to create the Charity eBay Auction in memory of IZOD IndyCar Series Champion Dan Wheldon. 100 percent of all proceeds from this auction will be donated to the Dan Wheldon Family Trust Fund.

Launched October 24th, each item listed on the Dan Wheldon Memorial Auction will be open for bidding for approximately ten days. A particularly popular item on the list, a NASCAR helmet worn by Jimmie Johnson, is already up to $13,500!

Soon to follow, accomplished racing driver and star from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, Patrick Dempsey, will auction his Mazda racing suit as well. By following Graham Rahal’s twitter, you can keep track of more upcoming motorsport memorabilia soon to be available at the auction.

Athletes and celebrities are not the only people that can help. Eric Gazin encourages anyone to offer an item to the Dan Wheldon Memorial Auction, with any portion of the eventual selling price donated to the cause at the seller’s discretion.

Direct donations are available via the Dan Wheldon Family Trust fund at the Fifth Third Private Bank, 251 N. Illinois St., Suite 1000, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

Mitsubishi certainly had a great run with its sporty Eclipse model, but unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The last Eclipse ever produced will be auctioned off by Mecum as a 2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse Coupe SE with a 3.8L V6. It is a special-edition Eclipse custom built by Mitsubishi Motors North America to commemorate the Eclipse’s 22-year run and will be auctioned off September 15-18th, 2011 at the St. Charles Auction with all the proceeds being donated to Japan’s Red Cross earthquake relief.

The one-of-a-kind Eclipse features a Kalapana Black paint scheme on the outside, which was selected by Mitsubishi’s Facebook fans, 18-inch Dark Argent wheels, SE lower side graphics, sunroof, leather interior, a 650-watt Rockford Fosgate 9-speaker audio system with SiriusXM, hands-free Bluetooth, rearview camera and HID headlights.

“Our goal with this Mitsubishi Eclipse SE was to create a very special car that would best honor the closing of this vehicle families’ chapter, built at our Normal, Illinois facility,” said Greg Adams, VP Marketing & Product Planning at Mitsubishi Motors North America. “We believe this one-off 2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse SE will become a highly collectible automobile, and we are excited to work with Mecum Auctions to offer it to collectors at their high-energy events.”

The iconic Eclipse has sold over 980,000 cars since production started 22 years ago and makes the Eclipse the best-selling Japanese brand sports car in the last 20 years (if you consider the Eclipse a sports car that is.)

GALLERY: Last Production Mitsubishi Eclipse

The world’s oldest surviving production Bentley was sold through the Gooding & Company auction at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance for $962,500.

The 1921 3-liter chassis number 3 was sold 90 years ago to Noel Van Raalete, Bentley’s very first customer, for £1,150. The Bentley was a show-stopper, featuring ‘matching numbers’ with original aluminum coachwork and brass brightwork.

The 3-liter was a very well engineered vehicle that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans endureance races in 1924 and 1927.

“Pebble Beach is the ideal venue to showcase Bentley’s old and new,” said Chairman & Chief Executive, Wolfgang Durheimer. “On the same day that Gooding & Co. auctioned the world’s oldest surviving production Bentley, we hosted a private preview of the brand new model. During Monterey week, the enthusiasm for the evolution of the automobile is palpable.”

With the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance kicking off tomorrow in Monterey, California, hundreds of collectible cars will be up for sale.

There will be at least five auctions slated for this week, put on by Bonhams, Gooding & Company, Mecum, RM and Russo and Steele. Collector car insurance company Hagerty has compiled the estimated net worth of every car being auctioned this week at a whopping $230 million. Some of the highlighted collector cars include a 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza expected to fetch around $3 million and a 1957 Ferrari 250 TR Prototype that may break the overall record price of a car sold at auction, selling for around $13 million. Two cars formally owned by Steve McQueen will also go under the hammer, including one of his motorcycles.

Stay tuned for updates on the auction!

[Source: Hagerty]