IndyCars driven by Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti set to go up for auction

IndyCars driven by two former F1 World Champions will go under the hammer at RM Sotheby’s in October.

Auction house RM Sotheby’s are preparing what they describe as the “largest ever offering of open-wheel race cars”, titled ‘The House That Newman/Haas Racing Built”.

Images above, of the 1984 Lola-Cosworth 800, and below, of the 1993 Lola-Cosworth Ford T93/00, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

There will be 42 such lots on offer, eight of which contributed to championship-winning seasons, with the auction taking place at Newman/Haas Racing headquarters in Lincolnshire, Illinois on October 29.

Newman/Haas Racing won eight IndyCar/CART drivers’ titles between 1984 and 2007, the last four of those by Sebastian Bourdais in consecutive years.

Father-son duo Mario and Michael Andretti were their first two champions, in 1984 and 1991 respectively, followed by Nigel Mansell in 1993 and Cristiano da Matta in 2002.

The team folded just before the 2012 season. One of the two co-founders, actor Paul Newman, had died in 2008 and the other, Carl Haas – no relation to Gene – passed away in 2016.

Championship-winning cars driven by both Andrettis and Mansell are among those available at the auction.

Mario Andretti’s car is a 1984 Lola-Cosworth T800 and Michael Andretti’s a 1991 Lola-Chevrolet T91/00.

Mansell’s, in which he became the first driver to win a Formula 1 and IndyCar title back-to-back, was a Lola-Cosworth Ford T93/00.

“To offer these iconic machines at a time when IndyCar and Formula 1 are gaining fans around the world is incredible,” said Shelby Myers, global head of private sales at RM Sotheby’s.

“These cars represent some of the best eras of open-wheeled racing, all while being piloted by Formula 1 and IndyCar champions Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell.

“The global collector car market wins when storied cars like these become available to the public. With increasing interest in the sport globally, we can expect the market for former racing cars to continue to grow.”

Mansell’s former race cars in particular have been a prominent part of auctions organised by RM Sotheby’s this year.

In May, two of the Briton’s Formula 1 cars fetched almost £7million combined when they went up for auction in Monaco just before the grand prix in Monte Carlo.

The first of these cars was the 1991 Williams FW14, which perhaps most famously became a ‘taxi’ for Ayrton Senna to hitch a ride on at Silverstone that year after his McLaren had run out of fuel on the final lap.

That one made £3.45million at the auction, while a 1989 Ferrari 640 from the Mansell collection was sold for £3.51million.