It's nice to own the Ferrari that belonged to Steve McQueen, but what about a Mercedes-Benz that belonged to a Saint?  The vehicle, which goes to auction on October 27th in Padua, Italy, belonged to Padre Pio, a monk who purportedly possessed supernatural powers. The car was a gift to him from an appreciative family who'd received a miracle.  Coys, the auctioneer, expects the price to exceed $266,000, the price received on eBay for a VW Golf that may or may not have belonged to Pope Benedict XVI.

No details have been released about the nature of Padre Pio's miracle.

--David Coggins

There are car auctions, and then there are car auctions, and the upcoming auction at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Mass., featuring vehicles from the The Frank Cooke Collection, is of the sort that makes avid collectors reach for their drool cups.

Cooke (1913-2005) was an optical engineering genius who worked on projects like NASA's Galileo probe and the Hubble telescope. His love of all things mechanical -- and especially his love of cars -- led him to create the legendary Vintage Garage at North Brookfield, "a true Aladdin's Cave reflecting the eclectic tastes of its owner," according to Malcolm Barber, CEO of the Bonhams & Butterfields auction house. On April 21, Bonhams and the Larz Anderson Museum will put on the block dozens of Mercedes-Benzes, Caddies, Pierce Arrows, Packards, Rolls-Royces (Cooke's special passion), and the show stopper -- one of the first three 1926 Type 39A supercharged Grand Prix Bugatti racing two-seaters (pictured).

As the Bonhams catalog has it: "The works team deployed by the world-famous Molsheim factory represented the creme de la creme during Bugatti's heyday in the 1920s. These cars established the halo under which Mr. Bugatti developed ingenious variations upon the basic high-performance theme to encourage enthusiastic private owners to step up to his sales counter and invest in Le Pur Sang -- 'The Pure Bloodline.' It is the works cars, driven by Bugatti's greatest drivers, upon which the Bugatti legend is based. Without doubt, it was in 1926 that Ettore Bugatti truly found his feet as a high-performance motor car manufacturer of International stature."

No doubt true, and impressive. But the real appeal of this car, and of so many others in the Cooke collection, is simply that they're sexy as hell.

The 39A is expected to fetch somewhere between $1.3 and $1.6 million, and frankly, we can't really think of too many better ways to spend a million-and-a-half bucks.

With 1,254 cars sold at this year's Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, at an average price of $87,001, one thing's for sure: The muscle car is back. Again.

Here are some of the highlights from the annual Arizona get-together:

1930 Duesenberg Model J

Once dubbed "the world's finest motor car," this Model J--with its original 265-horsepower, straight 8 engine and body--sold for $660,000. Bidders at Barrett-Jackson tend to like their cars like their thick cuts of porterhouse--very rare. This stately car is just that, winning several awards including the 2004 Grand Classic Award, National First Place from the Classic Car Club of America, and a first-place badge from the Antique Automobile Club of America.

1954 Dodge Firearrow "Dream"

Conceived by legendary American car designer Virgil Exner in 1954 as part of a four part series, the Firearrow II and IV "Dreams" are the only two convertible Firearrows in the world. The yellow Firearrow II was built on a shortened Dodge Chassis, and the bright red Firearrow IV, the last of the collection, is in its original condition. Both cars have received honors at Meadowbrook and Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. Sold for $1.1 million each.

1966 Shelby Cobra Supersnake

The ultimate muscle car, this Shelby Cobra Supersnake set a Barrett-Jackson record selling for $5.5 million. Designed for the personal use of racing and design legend Carroll Shelby, it's powered by a 427cid, 800 hp twin Paxton supercharged V8 engine with a super three-speed automatic transmission.

1967 Corvette Coupe

Restored in 2005 by Terry Michaelis with a L-36 427-hp engine, factory air conditioning, a telescopic steering column, and a M-21 close ration transmission, this 'vette is the last of the C-2 series and is an American classic, and a downright bargain at $151,250.

1971 Plymouth Barracuda

The fastest Hemi-powered 'Cuda in the world, this red monster has clocked speeds over 200 mph, blending modern performance with the gears of a seventies standout. Without questione of the must boss 'cudas around, leaving rubber patches at $588,500.

1978 N007 Tupolev

In 1961 the Russian government commissioned Andrei Tupolev, a Soviet aircraft designer, to build the N007, a top-secret rescue watercraft. The N007 Tupolev was used to rescue cosmonauts from the hazardous terrain of Siberia. Here in Scottsdale it sold for $187,000.

2003 CNN's "Warrior One" Hummer

This Hummer was used by CNN anchors covering the 2003 War in Iraq. The auction's proceeds of $1 million went to the Fisher House Foundation, a group that builds homes on the grounds of military and VA medical center.

If you have a spare $15 million or so lying around the house, you might want to head over to Paris this February and look into spending it on one of the rarest and most sought-after racing cars on the planet: a 1939 model Auto Union Type D.

On February 17, Christie's will be auctioning one of only three remaining Type Ds at the City of Light's international vintage car fair, Retromobile, and estimates for what the speedster might fetch range from $12 to $15 million. And no one is saying that bids won't go higher, of course.

(The car is on display today, January 25, in New York at the Audi Forum at Park and 47th.)

The car is sometimes referred to as "Hitler's race car," seeing as how the German Chancellor in 1933 offered 500,000 reichmarks to a company that could design a car that highlighted Teutonic prowess. Ferdinand Porsche, an engineer at a firm called Auto Union (today's Audi) managed to grab some of that dough to help build a revolutionary car he had designed.

Over the next several years, that car was tweaked until it emerged as the 1939 Auto Union D-Type. With a 460-horsepower twin-compressor engine, the D eventually won the Grand Prix in France and Yugoslavia before all the models headed east with the Red Army.

The rest, as they say, is history--and if Christie's has its way, history will again be made when the D goes on the block. It's expected to fetch a record auction price.