Zoom, zoom, bang: Exotic Roglieri cars, others up for auction
A 2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series, among vehicles seized from the collection of jailed Albany loan broker Kris Roglieri, is available in this weekend's Saratoga Motorcar Auction, being held Sept. 19-20 at the Saratoga Casino Hotel. It is one of six former Roglieri exotics being sold as part of bankruptcy efforts to repay victims of what federal authorities allege was a multimillion-dolllar pattern of wire fraud. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
SARATOGA SPRINGS - The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ has as many angles as a geometry convention but the menace and roar of an enraged bull. It's long and wide enough for a new Honda Civic to fit within its outlines with about a foot to spare on all sides, except the Civic is 10 inches taller.
The Lambo SVJ is also, according to federal charges, among the ill-gotten gains of jailed Albany loan broker Kris Roglieri's multimillion-dollar fraud schemes. As part of efforts to repay Roglieri's creditors, it is one of six seized vehicles of his consigned by the bankruptcy trustee overseeing his case to the Saratoga Motorcar Auction. Being held Friday and Saturday on soccer fields on the grounds of the Saratoga Casino Hotel, the ninth annual event is the largest fundraiser of the year for the Saratoga Automobile Museum, which receives a 10% commission on every sale.
In last year's auction, two Roglieri cars fetched a combined $650,000, including one that was the second-most-expensive sale of the event. The 2024 total was $7.2 million, a record for the auction's first eight years. With a conservative estimated value of $10 million for the current vehicles and collectibles, the record is expected to be broken
Among the Roglieri cars due to be auctioned this weekend, one is an outlier: a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible, said to have the tallest tailfins on an American production vehicle at the time, rising almost 15 inches from the fender line. Painted what is called Seminole Red with a white folding top, the car has factory bucket seats, an option installed on only 7% of Biarritzes that year. Recent auction hammer prices have been from $150,000 to $300,000, according to Hagerty, a company that insures and provides valuations for classic and antique vehicles - though like all Roglieri cars in the auction, the Biarritz is being sold without reserve. Which means if you bid $19.99 and nobody else wants it more, which seems unlikely but still possible, it's yours.
A 2017 Ferrari 488 GTB Novitec N-Largo, also a Roglieri seizure, was a stablemate of a Novitec-modified former Roglieri car sold at the Saratoga Motorcar Auction last year for $341,000. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
The Caddy's five former garagemates at Roglieri's 10,000 square-foot former mansion on 14 acres in Queensbury, sold in July for $1.6 million as part of bankruptcy proceedings, are all rare European supercars, averaging 10 years old and less than 12,000 miles. The two expected to go for lower - make that "lower" - prices than the three most desirable: a 2017 Ferrari 488GTB, given a widebody conversion and performance upgrade by the Ferrari tuner Novitec and former Roglieri sibling of a 2014 model that sold at the Saratoga auction last year for $341,000; and the oldest non-Cadillac of the lots, a 2009 Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series, models of which averaged $326,000 at sales over the past year, according to a tracker at classic.com.
The three most exclusive being sold to pay back what attorneys involved in the Rioglieri case have estimated to be more than $125 million in misappropriated funds:
- 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale coupe, 1,300 produced worldwide in three model years, 600 horsepower, 0-to-60 mph in 2.8 seconds, $300,000 new, $865,000 average asking price this week on cars.com. Car and Driver verdict: "Yet another Italian masterpiece."
- 2020 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ coupe, 900 over four years, $600,000 new, $885,000 average on cars.com. Car and Driver verdict: "Looks as though it were chiseled out of a block of petrified cash, and it roars as if the exhaust were composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Shockingly impractical, spectacularly theatrical, it's altogether maniacal."
- 2014 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series, 350 over just one year of production, 662 horsepower, $275,000 new, $1 million average on cars.com. Car and Driver verdict: "More than doubling the posted speed through corners is almost boring in this car. Almost."
The whole auction, running noon to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, features about 250 vehicles, two 1960s Corvette engines and approximately 130 collectibles, from automotive-related neon and metal signs, including a 22-foot-wide porcelain Goodyear sign, a two-pump 1950s Mobil gas island, model cars, rusty oil cans, four glass 1900s Tiolene oil bottles in a metal carrier and a Coke machine that originally sold bottles for 10 cents.
Among the more unusual of the approximately 250 vehicles available in this weekend's auction is a 2009 Kombat, an armored vehicle made by a Russian company from GM components. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
Most of the vehicles are cars, with the reminder comprised of about 30 trucks, SUVs and vans, among them a 1962 Chevy Corvair pickup with a 164-cubic-inch engine beneath the bed, and approximately a dozen motorcycles and minibikes. Chevrolet is the maker most widely represented, with 42 lots, followed by 26 Fords and 22 Mercedes. Oddities include a 1961 Amphicar, the first and most successful mass-produced civilian amphibious car, and a 2009 Kombat, an armored SUV built mostly from GM components by a Russian company.
The oldest vehicle is a 1906 Cadillac K Runabout; the newest, all from 2024, are an electric Hummer H2, a Yamaha YZ 125 dirtbike and a Porsche 911T. Among the seeming eye-wideners being sold is a 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda 426 hemi convertible; with only 12 built that year, five of which were sent overseas, a 1971 'Cuda 426 sold at auction in 2014 for $3.78 million. But - insert sad-trombone sound - the one available in Saratoga this weekend is believed to have had its fabled hemi engine installed during a later upgrade and thus isn't as desirable.
The Aventador SVJ's 12-cyclinder engine develops 700 horsepower and can propel the car from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)
Superman had kryptonite, Achilles his heel. For the Aventador SVJ, the nemesis is not a $6,400 gas-guzzler tax or trying to fit more than two grocery bags in its trunk. It hates inclines. Speed bumps? Fuhgeddaboudit. The former Roglieri SVJ has an estimated top speed of 217 mph, which made it among the three fastest production cars in the world when new five years ago, rolling on tires that measure a combined 4 feet wide. But it could not be driven out of the display area of the auction on Thursday afternoon. The one egress that wouldn't risk scraping its carbon fiber front spoiler - estimated replacement cost: at least $5,000 - was blocked by a 1970s Cadillac.
The Saratoga Casino Hotel is at 342 Jefferson St. Spectator tickets for the auction cost $25 per day, with VIP and two-day packages available. Registering to bid costs $200. Details and a ticket link are at saratogaautoauction.org. The auction will be livestreamed on the Saratoga Automobile Museum's YouTube channel, youtube.com/@saratogaautomuseum
