RM Sotheby’s Director of Content, Greg MacLeman, is usually the one issuing the challenges for The Fantasy Garage. This time we turned the tables to give him an impossible problem: how to spend $10 million on just seven cars, when you have more than 160 of the world’s very best to choose from.  

Ten million dollars might seem like a lot of money, but when the auction catalogue in question includes automotive legends like the Ferrari F40 LM, Porsche 718 RS 60 Spyder, and a Pebble Beach-winning Mercedes-Benz 500 K Special Roadster—as MacLeman discovers—your credit card can quickly hit its limit. Read on to see his choices.  

1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale by Bertone $80,000 - $120,000 

There aren’t many cars that you could pull alongside a Ferrari 275 GTB at Cars and Coffee and not feel underdressed, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint Speciale is certainly one of them.  

It is without doubt one of the most striking and beautiful cars of the 1960s. From that aerodynamic front end to the svelte little cabin and gorgeous sloping rear deck, it’s the sort of car that draws admiring looks wherever it goes—the kind you can’t walk away from without turning back around.  

Ask any of your non-car friends what one’s worth and they’ll probably say a million bucks, which tells you everything you need to know; the fact that you can get behind the wheel for around $80,000 just blows my mind. Every serious collection should have one, which is why this gorgeous Bianco over two-tone blue example would be the first car in my fantasy garage.  

1952 Jaguar XK 120 Roadster $125,000 - $175,000 

Whether you’re driving down to Big Sur as the sun sets on Highway 1 or climbing the early morning back roads of the Hollywood hills after a night at the Chateau Marmont, I don’t think there’s another car that captures the carefree glamour of Los Angeles quite like a Jaguar XK 120. You might not look like Clark Gable, but you can certainly feel like him. 

It’s the colour of this particular car that caught my attention, being finished in rare Pastel Green over Suede Green—a sublime combination that you just have to experience in the metal. I’ve never seen another, which may help explain why this car has been such a hit on the concours circuit.  

I’m guilty of doing all sorts of mathematical acrobatics to explain a potential purchase to my better half, but for this XK 120 she needs to know only one thing: the lower estimate is less than the total cost of its six-year restoration. I’d be an idiot not to buy it! 

1995 BMW M3 Lightweight $150,000 - $200,000 

My first car was an E30 BMW and I still remember the feeling of closing the door, gripping the steering wheel, and looking down at that legendary roundel. I felt like I’d finally arrived, that my car would take me anywhere. Predictably, it was scrapped after less than a year, but despite that I had countless other E30s and E36s over the coming years—but never anything anywhere near as special as an M3 Lightweight.  

With its iconic Motorsport paint job, a limited production run of just 126, and endless appearances in video games of the era, it was nothing short of a unicorn and the sole object of my desires for several years. No matter how hard I try, I couldn’t resist the urge to buy one if given the chance.  

This particular car sounds like a honey, with just over 25,000 miles on the clock and an unbroken chain of provenance since it was first delivered to the States. Check out the image gallery and tell me you don’t know exactly what that interior smells like.  

1965 De Tomaso P70 by Fantuzzi $750,000 - $1,000,000 

Every collection needs something that will make people stop and stare, and nothing in the entire Monterey catalogue achieves it quite like the one-of-one De Tomaso P70. The lithe racer looks like a movie prop—the sort of acid-fuelled, space-age fever dream that may have come from the mind of George Barris—but it was in fact designed to take on Can-Am.  

The project was a joint endeavour between Carroll Shelby, Pete Brock, Alejandro de Tomaso, and coachbuilder Medardo Fantuzzi, and boasted a mid-engined layout, an adjustable rear aerofoil, and spectacular bodywork with a low, integrated windscreen. Partly due to the lack of a competitive 7-litre engine and no doubt influenced by Shelby being given the GT40 contract, nothing ever came of the P70 and the project was quietly shelved, and the car mothballed for decades.  

It was finally finished in 2013 before going on to steal the show at The Quail and Amelia Island, and you can see why. If you like a car that starts conversations and stops traffic, this is it.  

1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R NISMO 400R $900,000 - $1,100,000 

The Nissan Skyline GT-R NISMO 400R was never a poster pinup like the Ferrari F50, but it’s every inch as iconic to anyone who wasted their youth glued to the TV screen playing Gran Turismo on the PlayStation. Whether thundering around Laguna Seca or Bathhurst, the vibrant yellow Godzilla of the video game was nothing short of a grail, so incredible and so rare that some people didn’t even know it was real. But it was.  

Nissan originally planned on making 100 examples of the 400R to celebrate the Skyline’s outings at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the 395 brake-horsepower weapon was so expensive that just 44 were said to have been made, only 40 of which are accounted for. This car is one of the best, with a whisker over 7,000 kilometres on the clock.  

evo magazine’s Jethro Bovingdon perhaps best summed it up when he said: “It feels sensational, a compelling mix of heavyweight engineering and lithe responses with a unique soundtrack and a setup that requires work to understand but then offers rich reward.” 

1988 Porsche 911 TAG Turbo by Lanzante $1,800,000 - $2,100,000 

Like most of us I’m prone to the occasional automotive flight of fancy, and after an evening in the pub with my friends it only takes so long before we start talking about our dream cars. Most of the time it isn’t production models we lust after, but weird creations from the past like Ford’s Cosworth DFV-powered Supervan or Volkswagen’s W-12-engined Golf GTi. Dean Lanzante is obviously similarly afflicted, but where I can only dream, he gets things built. Enter stage left the Porsche 911 TAG Turbo.  

Porsche used to supply F1 engines to McLaren during the hugely successful Lauda and Prost years, and when the two firms eventually parted company at the end of 1987 the Germans sent the Brits a present—a 930-generation 911 fitted with the fabled 1.5-litre V-6 “TTE P01” engine that powered McLaren to dominance during the 1984 season. What became of that particular car I’m not sure, but fortunately for us Lanzante decided to recreate the magic. 

The firm built 11 cars based on 930 911 donors, each fitted with carbon body panels, a six-speed H-gate gearbox, and powered by an original TTE P01 engine that could be traced back to a particular race. The unit in this car drove Prost’s McLaren in no fewer than three grands prix in 1986—the year I was born—and 1987, which gives it a gravity and historical significance unmatched by other Porsche restorations. With 510 brake-horsepower on tap the car is capable of more than 200 mph. I can only imagine the sound that would make—but maybe you don’t have to? 

1955 Ferrari 375 Plus Spyder by Sutton $5,500,000 - $7,500,000 

I’ve managed to keep my powder relatively dry for my final car, and with the top five lots in the Monterey auction all filled by Ferraris, it’s no surprise that my last parking space will be taken by a Prancing Horse. But while the glamour of a 250 GT Cabriolet, the style of Ralph Lauren’s Ferrari F50, or the outright power of the GTC-specification Ferrari F40 LM are tempting, it’s the irresistible lure of the 375 Plus Spyder that would have me reaching for my wallet.  

When it comes to Southern California in the 1950s, I’m a hopeless romantic. There’s something about those Kodachrome photographs of cowboy hats and white t-shirts standing around Porsche 356 Speedsters and home-built specials that I find completely captivating, out in the desert pushing their cars to the edge. It’s a world that belonged to movie stars like Dean and Garner, and icons from the racing world like Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, and Dan Gurney.  

Among the cars that headlined the likes of Palm Springs and Paramount Ranch, big-banger sports racers like the Ferrari 375 Plus Spyder were the absolute kings. The model had won not only the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1954 but also the Carrera Panamericana, and with 372 brake-horsepower on tap the Ferrari was astoundingly fast. Little short of a factory-built hot rod, this particular car represented the very pinnacle of SoCal competition and was raced by all the aforementioned legends, including Jack McAfee. You can only imagine the noise it made being pushed to the limit by Gurney under the hot West Coast sun.  

The Ferrari 375 Plus Spyder burned short and bright during one of the most colourful and emotive periods of motorsport, and I can’t imagine the privilege of being able to return such a legendary racer to the track. To me, it’s much more than a car—it’s a time machine.