Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans
99% of lots sell at a packed SWVA Drive-Through and the next day another large crowd spend £1.84m on 192 more classics at ACA
Both of the first two UK auctions of the new season, where most classics are started up and can be seen being driven past the rostrum, indicate continued health in demand for collector vehicles.
For there were new owners for 70 out of the 71 cars consigned by SWVA for their first Friday morning classics sale of the year just outside Poole and then ACA also successfully shifted 81% of the 237 classics in their catalogues, which sold out to another huge Saturday crowd on the outskirts of King’s Lynn. In two consecutive days shopping at geographically opposite ends of England, £2.28m had been poured into classic stock and an average of £8704 had been spent per car, £6225 at the Dorset sale and £9607 in Norfolk.
In the West country, the virtually sell-out prices were headed by a 1984 restored and still well presented Austin Mini Cooper 1275S with SW05 cam, logged at 82bhp on Tom Airey’s rolling road in September, which achieved £47,250 including 8% buyer’s premium, £24,250 more than the lower estimate! While right behind the S was a Ford AVO OC confirmed as genuine and the 413th made in 1972 Ford Escort RS1600 Mk1 with 1700cc BDA which also overtook its £35,000-38,000 guide price band to sell for £42,500.
Even resto projects pulled brave blokes, an Irish registered 1949 Bentley MkVI ‘No Reserver’ with working semaphors and valves radio pottered through the hall to fetch £22,032 and a dilapidated Canadian-spec 1968 Series 1.5 E Type Jag 4.2 2+2 FHC left hooker, but a manual with numbers still matching, made £15,120.
Even pre-WW2 classics, which can be less easy to rehome in an increasingly Modern Classics market, found new Buddies with £18,360 available for a quaint Austin 7 with Swallow Saloon coachwork of 1930 vintage, the 17th oldest Mk1 of the 30 known to the Swallow Register, and £11,340 was available for a 1934 A7 Brum Factory Saloon, both selling for more than their pre-sale estimates.
And there were buyers, too, for both American Classics from the immediate post-war period, a previously revived 1940 Packard 120 Eight in right-hand drive and Weddings White fetching £ 19,710, more than expected, and a Hershey-sourced 1947 Plymouth Special Deluxe cruised through to a £13,338 result, within forecast money.
The very next day at the ACA Drive-Through, Lewis Hamilton’s Dad Anthony was among another huge crowd of potential buyers for 237 cars, 4 2-wheelers, 1 cherished registration on retention and a Viennese Opera Carriage from the 1870/80s!
A 1957 190SL Merc in rhd without UK reg led the prices with a more than forecast £110,925 valuation by the next keeper and a 1995 Porsche 928GTS manual, one of 44 UK RHD examples, went for £50,400, £10,000 more than forecast. While a much stored, though running, driving and UK-supplied in RHD 1964 230SL auto for improvement still motored to a £43,050 conclusion, nearly £10,000 over the guide price band. Much more on what went for what and why in East Anglia in my next take on a market changes by the auction and never stays still for long.