Good morning. It's Monday, which means somewhere out there a project car sat untouched all weekend while its owner "researched parts." We see you. The browser tabs count as progress.

Speaking of weekend events: Spain beat Argentina 1–0 in the World Cup final yesterday. Tough one for the country that gave us Fangio and Horacio Pagani — but Spain gave the world the SEAT Ibiza, so let's agree both nations have contributed to speed in their own way.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into

The Auction Desk: BaT’s 250,000th auction is a $6.825M Ferrari. Subtle.

One Big Story: Goodwood ran the world’s fastest argument and both sides won.

Engineer’s Corner: Why your car is secretly a magnet delivery vehicle.

Garage Economics: The $7 trillion magnet problem (and a save-the-date for November).

Let’s roll.

For its 250,000th listing, Bring a Trailer — a site literally named after dragging home junk — rolled out a 1985 Ferrari 288GTO. First one ever listed on the platform, Ferrari Classiche certified, one of the original 200 homologation cars, and bidding blew past $6.825 million before the hammer — the highest single bid in site history.

The symbolism is doing overtime here. The 288 GTO is the car Ferrari itself credits with inventing "supercar syndrome" —halo cars as assets, contracts flipped before delivery. In other words: BaT marked its milestone with the car that invented the exact buy-it-to-flip-it behavior that pays BaT's rent. That's not a birthday party. That's a mission statement.

Elsewhere in 2026's highlight reel: a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport at $4.4M in May, Ken Block's Escort Mk2, and — hold this thought for the Classifieds — a Jeep Cherokee somebody stuffed a Viper V10 into.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed wrapped its 2026 running, and the famous 1.16-mile hillclimb quietly settled the biggest fight in performance cars… by refusing to pick a winner.

Up the hill: Ford's electric demonstrator — three motors, roughly 1,400 horsepower, driven by Romain Dumas fresh off his sixth Pikes Peak "King of the Mountain" crown on the same platform — won the timed shoot-out and beat the fastest combustion car by more than four seconds. That's not a photo finish. That's a different area code. And yet the outright hill record survived again: 39.08 seconds, set in 2022 by the McMurtry Spéirling fan car. Electrons own the leaderboard; the all-time record still belongs to a vacuum cleaner with a seat.

Down in the paddock: the reveals told the opposite story. Pagani's Huayra 70 "Derecho" — open top, 852-hp V12, gated manual. Hennessey's Venom F5-M Roadster — hypercar power, three pedals. GMA's S1 LM — a five-off McLaren F1 tribute. And Ferrari gave a manual 12Cilindri its hillclimb debut. Ferrari. Manual. In 2026. Someone check on the marketing department; they've clearly lost a bet or found religion.

Why it matters to you:

Speed is becoming a commodity. When an electric crate of motors beats every combustion car by seconds, outright pace stops being the selling point. Any respectable EV now out-drags yesterday's supercars in the school pickup line.

Engagement is the new luxury. The gated manual — a feature that used to come free with every Civic — is now the crown jewel on seven-figure hypercars. Scarcity moved from horsepower to involvement.

Your garage math changes. The market is bifurcating: cheap speed (electric), expensive joy (manual, analog, loud). Guess which side of that trade the auction crowd from our first section is already positioned on.

The takeaway: The fastest thing on the hill had no engine, and the most coveted things on the hill had three pedals.The future is fast. The past is for sale — at a significant markup.

China's expanded rare-earth export restrictions are back in the news (details below in Garage Economics), so here's the 60-second engineering brief on why the entire industry is sweating:

Most modern EVs — and plenty of hybrids — use permanent-magnet motors. Inside, magnets made with rare-earth elements like neodymium create a fixed magnetic field, and spinning electromagnets chase it. It's elegant: compact, efficient, huge torque from zero RPM. The catch is in the name — you need the magnets, the good ones need rare earths, and the refining of those is overwhelmingly concentrated in one country.

The alternative is the induction motor (Tesla's original party trick, borrowed from Nikola Tesla himself): no permanent magnets, just electromagnets inducing current in a copper rotor. Cheaper materials, no rare-earth exposure — but bigger, and less efficient at cruise, which is why the industry drifted magnet-ward for range.

So the engineering trade is the tool-brand decision you already understand: permanent-magnet motors are the premium cordless setup — compact, efficient, expensive supply chain. Induction is the corded classic — heavier, thirstier, but nobody can embargo copper wire quite so easily. Expect automakers to start mixing both per axle, exactly like your garage mixes both per job.

The takeaway: The next range-and-price battle won't be won at the battery. It'll be won at the motor — and at the customs office.

The International Energy Agency now estimates China's expanded rare-earth export curbs put roughly $7 trillion in global downstream production at risk across autos, tech, defense, and energy. The US and China have a one-year truce delaying full implementation — which expires November 2026. That's not a cliff edge yet, but it's a cliff edge with a save-the-date.

For the ledger: If you run a shop or fleet, the exposure isn't just new EVs — it's every part with a motor in it. Window regulators, seat motors, power steering, alternators. Parts pricing on anything motorized deserves the same watchful eye you put on tires last issue. The theme of 2026's second half: the supply chain is the news.

Also in money news: Lucid spent the week denying reports it's weighing going private or Chapter 11 — a denial that somehow made the stock fall dramatically anyway, because nothing reassures investors like the phrase "we are not filing for bankruptcy." Meanwhile the Dodge Charger Daytona holds the title of America's slowest-selling new car — an electric muscle car arriving precisely as muscle-car buyers made their feelings about electrons extremely clear. Product planning is hard.Timing is harder.

The takeaway: Watch November. Every procurement manager in the industry already is.

Quick hits:

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