Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans
Sale rates and attendances were high at Brooklands and King’s Lynn auctions
Whilst sale rates for the three major Monterey auctions had been within 82 to 88% this year, Historics also achieved an equally market-confidence boosting 83% under canvas at the Brooklands Museum, where 124 of the 150 classics had changed owners for £2.76m with premium by the Monday following the Saturday sale.
For a Bentley Special sourced from a 1934 Derby Bentley 3½ Saloon in 2013 and only recently transformed by coachbuilder Ian Pitney into an evocative looking Roadster with Monza tail and flight-inspiredwings post-sale sold for £142,400 to become the weekend’s top seller.
The second highest priced collector car to be hammed away, a Wildae Restorations open-topped 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I former Saloon, now Drophead, cost a buyer £135,300. While the other big ticket lots were Jaguars, a freshly Twyford serviced and always right-hand drive 1958 XK150S Drophead selling for £118,800, high estimate money, and a left to right converted 1964 E Type Series 1 3.8 Roadster for a within estimate £113,850. A declared to be non-running 1954 XK120 Drophead requiring mechanical and cosmetic work was taken on for £52,360, over £14,000 more than forecast.
There were buyers for eleven out of twelve of the Jaguars in the Historics catalogue – but then nineteen of the twenty-two Mercedes consigned also sold, a restored 1967 250SL lefty doing so for £71,280, more than £26,000 over estimate. But then a Ford Cortina Mk1 1500GT that had been driven an average of one mile per day since new in 1963 found another conservationist with £26,400, and a 2002 Cooper S employed by Madonna for whizzing around London was the subject of a two-bidder battle that ended in a £22,000 valuation.
One week later, and another 233 classics for all budgets came to market in King’s Lynn, where all but the seriously immobile restoration projects were driven past the ACA rostrum. By the end of the Saturday afternoon, and even before further conversions of provisionally recorded bids or any post-sales had been concluded, 171 lots had sold under the hammer during a 73% sold £1.44m Saturday afternoon’s shopping.
Although an only 300 miles from new this year BMW M4 GTS - one of only 30 UK-destined examples in high-fashion Black Satin with wheels in Orange – made a mid-estimate £137,500 with premium and a 2012 BMW 1M with 29,000 miles of fsh £50,138, a dusty UK RHD 1964 Jaguar E Type Series 1 4.2 OTS was the well supported Bank Holiday weekend sale’s star performer. Reportedly crunched at Snetterton in period and with 2805 recorded mileage, the started, but only part-done and never completed project was taken on by only the third owner for a mighty £115,000 with premium.
A fuller analysis of the wide range of cars and the latest prices paid for them in Norfolk will appear in my next Blog on this channel.