MONTE CARLO — The unrestored, ex-Le Mans 24-Hour race Jaguar C-Type sports car attained $8.2 million at Bonhams’ Monaco Sale (Les Grandes Marques a Monaco) at the Fairmont Hotel May 13, leading the British auction house’s return to the French Riviera.

James Knight, International Group Director, Bonhams Motoring, said: “Bonhams’ return to Monaco featured a refined and elegant selection of magnificent collectors’ motor cars, achieving a total $15.3 million euros.”

“Following months of painstaking research, working with the best historians and notable marque specialists, Bonhams unraveled an intriguing mystery involving the unrestored Jaguar C-Type offered, correcting more than 60 years of accepted Jaguar history.”

Bonhams’ verification began with the accepted Jaguar belief that this was the works team car which substituted at the last moment as a Belgian Ecurie Francorchamps entry in the 1954 Le Mans 24-Hour race, combining that chassis with the bodywork from an earlier Belgian entry which finished at Le Mans the previous year. However, Bonhams’ specialist research confirmed otherwise.

“The Jaguar was not at all a combination of the chassis from one car, the body from another,” said James Knight. “On further inspection, we established that the it really is the 1953 Belgian-entered Le Mans car in toto, chassis number ‘XKC 047’ – still bearing its original, complete ‘K 1047’ body – but with its chassis number merely re-stamped ‘XKC 011’ by the factory before sale in January 1955.”

Chasing the Jaguar for top honors, the 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO Coupé, a model so desirable that before production had even begun, every single one had been sold – achieved just over $2 million.

For more information, www.bonhams.com.