We're all accustomed to hearing about rare, exotic, and classic cars selling for ridiculously high prices at auction. It happens a few times a year and the amount of money people spend appears to only be increasing. That's because it is. According to specialty car insurance company Hagerty, $1.2 billion was spent in 2013 in North America alone on rare vintage classics. In 2014, that amount increased to $1.3 billion.

The collector's car market is clearly thriving, and at Monterey Car Week last August, $430 million was spent. That's nearly a third of the total amount spent all year. So which specific cars brought in so much cash? Examples include several vintage Ferraris, including a 1962 250 GTO that went for $38.115 million. In fact eight of the top 10 highest priced auction cars were vintage Ferraris. Hagerty also reports that the values for old Ferraris increased by 43 percent this past year alone. Two vintage Ford GT40s were also among the top ten most expensive classics sold at auction. Another Italian great that went for uber amounts of money was the one and only Lamborghini Countach.

The average auction price for one in 2014 was $736,599. If you're looking for an investment, the Countach is also a solid bet because Hagerty claims it has increased in auction value in 2014 by 175 percent. Yes. 175 percent. However, despite these record-setting numbers, Hagerty is predicting a market slowdown for 2015. Obviously we won't know for sure until this time next year, but what's pretty darn certain is that certain Italian classic exotics and the Ford GT40 will at the very least maintain their value, if not substantially increase in price.