Latest Classic Car Auction Commentary: 30/09/2016

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Yet another ‘Barn Find’ E Type, this time an S3 V12 Roadster manual in right-hand drive from one family ownership since 1976, that had not been driven for more than 15 years, clearly appealed to one investor.  For the successful bidder was prepared to invest £61,050 - £20,000 more than the CCA pre-sale estimate - to secure what will be a major and costly Jaguar restoration project. By the end of the Saturday afternoon session at the Warwickshire Event Centre, such was the enthusiasm of shoppers that they snapped up 111 or 74% of the 150 classics in the pocket-sized catalogue for a cool £1.44m.

One of the highest fliers was an ex-Japan Lancia Delta Integrale, an Evo 2 on steroids with winged roof, a pair of Recaro buckets and ‘WRC’ registration, which made £40,150, top estimate money. A 1968 Jensen Interceptor Mk1 had returned from a nine year sentence in Belgium, where it had been subjected to a claimed to have been sympathetic restoration, achieved £29,920, the lower estimate figure, and a manual-shift 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 Gullwing flapped away for £25,300. After being put into storage with 8284 miles on the clock in 1995, an untouched for 21 years therefore and UK-spec 1978 Datsun 260Z came to market here to pick-up £24,750.

Bavarian BMWs pulled well with a forecast £48,400 forthcoming for a Birds of Iver left to right-hand drive converted 1988 E30 M3 Evo 2, number 276 of 500 produced and one of only 50 destined for UK-consumption, and £41,250, just over the guide, paid for a 1991 E30 M3 113,000 mile ‘original’. A 2002 Z3 M Japanese import left hooker with S54 M-Sport motor from the 446 M3 found a forecast £23,650 and a 1999 M3 Evo Imola GT2 Special Edition with £10,000 worth of bills sold for £20,350, just over the guide. A 1973 E9 3.0 CS lefty with non-functioning manual box made £18,920, while £7920 was exchanged for an lhd 1971 2002ii with round-lights, even with the stigma of having been a Category D Total Loser in 1990.

Highest priced Porsche to cross the block was a driven 92,000 miles by two owners since 1996 911 993 Carrera with Turbo-tail spoiler on BBS alloys sold for £28,600. Top Merc meanwhile was a £19,360 2006 SL500, reportedly driven a mere 4800 miles from new by two owners. A 1964 Ginetta G4R with factory hardtop, eligible for many major historic events and only recently rebuilt, raised a racey £34,100, and a 35 years stored 1946 MG TC with Stage 3 mods, the subject of a photo-recorded rebuild ten years ago, fetched £35,750. In a much younger classic car world, much of the older kit can me much harder to shift to a 1980s and newer audience, and yet a 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans did find a new owner here with £18,920 to spend.

Persuading the bath-starved to ‘Shower Electric’ in 1977, an ex-Southern Electricity Leyland Mini Van collected £12,230 and a 1962 Austin-badged Mini Pick-Up on most unlikely Minilites, fitted with 998cc engine and Cooper S discs, picked up £8800. A ‘No Reserve’ 1972 Alfa Romeo GT Junior project that had recently migrated from South Africa ‘sold strictly as seen’ for £6050.

Not too many over-printed pounds meanwhile were required to own several already collectible Japanese cars from the recent past - £6880 securing a one fast lady from new in 2003 Suburu Impreza WRX STI, £5060 a 255bhp 1995 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205 Japanese import, £2310 a Mitsubishi GTO Coupe that has been UK resident since 2003, and £1210 a 1994 Toyota Celica GT 16v Twin Cam.

A home grown 1957 Land Rover S1 with new MOT landed for £8470 could have been put to work as was or transformed into a Chelsea Tractor for several times the purchase price. Whereas a £5060 Morris Minor ‘Woody’ of 1966 vintage that had returned to the old country from sun-bleached Cyprus last year was much more Miss Marple?  Lots of movement in Warwickshire, where all tastes and budgets were well catered for, and an average of £12,993 was spent per classic bought.   

Latest Classic Car Auction Commentary: 27/09/2016

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

The 1959 Morgan Plus 4 ‘YOM 798’ - driven by original owners Brian Harper and Peter Astbury on several RAC Rallies and an overall winner of many Nationals in period - fetched £29,700, top estimate money, during a 79% sold £1.31 Wednesday afternoon at Brightwells, an average of £10,796 spent per classic.

The TR3 2-litre powered Malvern-born warrior had been in receipt of a chassis transplant at the Malvern factory in the early 1960s, but had disappeared off the Morgan Club radar for many decades before being repainted in an inappropriate yellow at some time and repatriated in 2015. An apparently well preserved Ford 1600-engined 4/4 Mog in the sale, driven only 13,700 largely local miles since new in 1978 by three guardians, was also well bought for £17,600.

The highest priced of the 121 cars that were hammered away from the 153 offered was a claimed to be unrestored 1978 Aston Martin V8 S3 from nearly 10 years in storage. One of 184 to S-spec with ‘Stage 1’ tuning mods, but an auto with some bubbling going on beneath the screen surrounding Orchard Green paintwork, the 38 year old from Newport Pagnell sold for £82,500, £12,500 more than had been forecast. A £6200 below lower estimate £63,800 meanwhile was accepted for a three-owner 1999 Bentley Azure with weighty electric hood and less than 28,000 miles on the clock.

Of the several barns full of projects seeking buyers with strong imaginations, a reputedly 1939 Monte Carlo Rally exercised and immensely long late model Alvis Speed 25 SC Sports-Saloon by Charlesworth, that had snoozed in a heated garage in Norrkoping, central Sweden, for the last 36 years, but had no documents, was bravely taken on for £31,900, within the guide price band.

A previously Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust displayed Daimler Century Six with a mere 8250 mileage since new in 1996 picked up £27,500 from the next owner-chauffeur, and a multi-award winning 1972 Volvo P1800 ES manual, which had invoices for more than £40,000 on file, recovered £20,240 of it from the buyer, less the Herefordshire firm’s charges of course. The 5th from last GT6 built by Triumph in 1973, which had taken over three years to restore to concours winning standard 14 years ago, was still in excellent nick and fully deserving of £15,620 from the next showman. While a 1968 Ford Cortina 1600E S1 4-Door with rather unlikely twin Webers in a detailed engine bay was also as sharp underneath as it was top-side, and was knocked down for a less than estimated £12,320 including charges.

By far the most unusual items to crossing the auction block here though were a Berkeley Caravans of Biggleswade made 328cc two-stroke powered Micro-Sports, and the one and only 4-Door Saloon to emerge from the Murad Machine Tool Co of Aylesbury. Even though it had gathered dust for many seasons, the 1957 Berkeley SE328 4-Wheeler Sports (even more plug-fouling492cc versions competed in the sub-500cc class of the Liege-Brescia-Liege Rally and the 750GT category of the 1958 Monza 12 Hour) encouraged bidding interest from as far away from Leominster as Australia until sold for £7700. After 52 years of dilapidation, the 1948 Murad Prototype meanwhile could only muster £1320 from someone who will need to re-unite the unique property with its equally unique in-house produced 1496cc in-line four, which is somewhere out there!

The previous weekend, and such is the pulling power of collections, where everything for sale may often be sold ‘Without Reserve’ for whatever is bid, 100% of the contents of the Normandy Tank Museum at Catz were successfully dispersed by Artcurial for 3.71m euros (£3.19m). The next day, in London’s West End, Bonhams sold 99% of lots from the late Robert White’s Collection for £3m to benefit Dorset charities.

And during the Saturday afternoon following the Brightwells sale, where 26 cars were unreserved on this occasion, 28 ‘No Reserve’ cars had also been consigned by CCA for their latest fixture at the Warwickshire Event Centre sale beside the Fosse Way just outside Leamington Spa, where the Silverstone Auctions subsidiary sold 111 of the 150 cars in their catalogue for £1.44m, the sale rate therefore also being a market-encouraging 74% with an average of £12,993 spent per classic bought. More analysis of the movers and prices paid for them in Warwickshire should be in my ‘something for the weekend’ commentary.

Latest Classic Car Auction Commentary: 13/09/2016

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

More than £36m was spent on classics at Goodwood and Battersea, where world shattering prices were paid for Porsches

“Genuinely never raced or rallied”, the 1956 Porsche 550/1500 4-Cam Rennsport chassis 0090 with 2-Seater Sports-Race Spyder coachwork by Wendler, an unmolested time machine never offered publicly for sale, fetched a model world record £4,593,500 with premium in the Bonhams auction tent during a 70% sold £14.5m Saturday afternoon session at the Goodwood Revival. An ultra-rare civilian Porsche 4x4 meanwhile, one of only 71 Type 597 Jagdwagen made in 1957, came to market all the way from Japan to pick up £175,100 beside the historic Sussex racing circuit.

Although parked right alongside the seats, the ex-Sir Max Aitken 1965 Ferrari 275GT, restored in the 1990s and with Classiche certification, had ‘withdrawn’ on the screen, having been sold just before the auction for £1,500,000 and, before the speakers had cooled down and the Doom Bar Tent was rocking outside, £603,333.33 was paid for the 1950 Frazer-Nash Le Mans Rep raced round Goodwood by owner-driver Roy Salvadori in 1952.

The ex-Margaret King (widow of Scottish racing motorcyclist Alistair King) 1964 Aston Martin DB5 and a freshly restored 1967 DB6 Vantage upgraded to 4.2 cost new owners £455,100 apiece, the lower estimate for the 5 and £105k more than the top estimate for the 6. Nearly £100,000 more than forecast was forthcoming for a 1971 Ferrari Dino 246GT in right-hand drive that had been driven only 25,253 miles since new in 1971 and which sold for 299,420. The more than guide price £253,500 paid for an XK Engineering restored 1962 Jaguar E Type S1 ‘Flat Floor’ 3.8 Roadster was another milestone result in the current market.

A much travelled 1985 MG Metro 6R4 Group B in Rothmans colours, which had been rolled at Prescott long, long ago and, in later life, had scored a class win on the 1998 Targa Tasmania, made a within estimate £113,500. While I cannot recall a 1972 Lotus Elite Series 2 Climax - not a race car with some period event history, but one of 23 Super 95 standard road cars that is believed to have been the 1962 Earls Court Motor Show stand car – selling for £103,420 with premium.

Earlier in the week, although a 1960 Aston Martin DB4GT sold for a results topping £2,408,000 during the RM Sotheby’s Wednesday evening sale at London’s Battersea Evolution, where although 65 or 76% of the 85 cars that crossed the stage did sell for £21.65m, Porsches again wrote the headlines with some way, way, way over high estimate sums bid for a pack of 911s.

For entirely due to ‘a need to outbid a nearly as determined rival’ by one winning contestant with apparently unlimited resources, one of about 57 road-going 993 GT2s driven 12,730k by one vendor owner made a more than double estimate £1,848,000. Just as remarkable was the £974,400 with premium that was required to win the keys of a 1993 911 Turbo S Lightweight, one of 86 made with 6303k under-wheel, that had been guided at £210,000-250,000.  And how about the £716,800 result of a 1993 Carrera RS 3.8, one of 55 with 16,652k exposure to wear and tear?

UK or even Global Porsche market-defining? I think not. More likely, these mega-Porsche prices will be mere blips on the trading screens, albeit extremely large ones, and not, I suspect, turbocharged price lines now heading steeply upwards into we know not where. We shall see.

Meanwhile, all the deals on wheels have been done and the final sums can now be computed for the annual Californian sales in the Dis-US.  For my steam-driven abacas maths indicate that of the 1250 or so classic automobiles to cross the block in 5 auctions within 4 days, circa 720 of them will have eventually changed hands, that’s an overall sale rate of 57.5%. For although RM Sotheby’s, Gooding and Bonhams sold 82, 83 and 88% of the contents of their respective catalogues, due to the much lower hit rates achieved at Mecum and Rosso & Steele, the overall trading stat that matters fell this year.

While the rather Rio Grand looking sales total of $344.24m with premium was actually less than the $394m spent on the Monterey Peninsula in 2015, and considerably below the $454m record gross invested in the same bull pens at the same gigs in 2014, many of the individual prices paid this August and the charted appreciation for some of the rolling assets were nonetheless stellar.

Take the Le Mans winning Ecurie Ecosse D Type Jaguar, for instance, for which $21.78m (£16.55m) was handed over at RM Sotheby’, and which last sold at auction at Christies in London in 1999 for £1.71m ($2.81m). The latest auction buyer’s valuation was £14,846,300 more than the last one and the average annual growth over the last 17 years has been £873,312pa!

And then there was the 1904 and London to Brighton Run eligible Mercedes-Simplex, which went for $2.81m (£2.13m) under the Bonhams gavel at The Quail, but which previously changed guardians at a Brooks London in 1999 for £265k ($427k). That’s £1.87m more than the same Veteran fetched 16 years with annual growth of £116,675. Money, in any currency, is worth much less than it used to be, of course. But, even so (and so far), the at times bumpy ride for those who have had the nerve to hang on has been hugely rewarding.

More recently still, 1 August – 4 September, Auctions American attracted 85,000 enthusiasts (considerably more than for any flawed Presidential Candidate Rally) to their Auburn Fall Collector Car Weekend, during which bidders from 45 of the States and 12 overseas countries bought 578 or 69% of the 843 largely US automobiles for $20.7m (£15.73).

Local produced Duesenbergs took the top steps of the AA podium with a 1931 Model J Convertible Sedan selling for $880,000 (£669k) and a 1933 Model J Sunroof Berline by Franay for $715,000 (£543k). A 1931 Cadillac V12 Convertible Coupe by Fleetwood was hammered away for $368,500 (£280k) and a Mechanimals ‘Wendell’ The Mechanical Elephant strutted across the arena flaw during primetime Saturday to collect $275,000 (£209k) to buy books for hospitalised kids in North East Indiana.     

Overall this year, and on both sides of the Atlantic Pond and the slightly more English Channel, transacted prices of the high valued classics has risen by 3.71%, say Historic Automobile Group International, whose number crunchers have recorded an advance of 1.46% in their HAGI Top Index advance in August trades and an increase in values established by buyers of 11.97% over the last twelve months.

The top performing marque in 2016 so far has been Ferrari with a gain of 1.30% in prices paid for Ferraris in August and 6.15% growth in the HAGI F this year so far. By contrast, the most recent and wild bidding for some Porsche models in Battersea Park has as yet to influence the HAGI P, which went up a modest 1.13% in August, but has declined for the year to date by 1.51%. Whereas though Merc prices slipped back ‘statistically’, by 0.05% last month, the HAGI MBCI has recorded a collector M-B price rise of 5.83% in 2016 to the end of August.

Latest Classic Car Auction Commentary: 02/09/2016

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

After 171 classics sell in one day in Norfolk, three more auctions take place simultaneously this Saturday at Beaulieu, Blenheim and Chantilly

UK supplied 1973 Porsche 911E with 2.4T motor was one of 171 of 230 classics sold by ACA in 71% sold under the hammer for £53,550 during what amounted to a £1.5m+ so far Bank Holiday weekend drive-through at King’s Lynn, where a log stalled 1964 Jaguar E Type S1 4.2 OTS restoration project headlined when taken on for £115,500. Other valuations set by buyers in public auction ranged from the £19,800 handed over for a 1947 Rover 12 Tourer for four last refreshed in 2012, via the £13,125 result of a 2015 completed Morris Mini 850 Deluxe from 1960 to the premium £137,530 paid for a 2016 vintage BMW M4 GTS, one of thirty assigned to the UK market with all options bar carbon wheels.

There will be three more significant barometer readings for the current climate for the collector vehicle sector this weekend with simultaneous sales taking place in Bonhams marquees on both sides of the English Channel border at Chateau Chantilly, near Paris, and during the Saturday of International Beaulieu Autojumble weekend at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire’s New Forest, where another 143 cars and 43 classic bikes and projects confront reality.  Whilst the same day at the same time, several counties north within the light and airy tented Silverstone Auctions corale in the grounds of Palatial Blenheim at Woodstock, Oxfordshire, a further 68 auction cars undergo buyer testing during the three-day Salon Prive Concours, where the well-dressed parade their automotive finery in front of detail-obsessed judges.

The way of the supercar obsessed new world was underlined by star billing at Silverstone’s Salon Prive auction being awarded to a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster, one of 500 of the fastest Lambo open-top model yet with all of 59k of delivery mileage and an estimated £480,000-520,000 on the screen. Will this, the latest iteration of previous Superveloce licence-losers be a “sure fire classic of the future” as the auctioneers predicted in their preview copy? Only your time (and other investors’ money) will tell, of course.    

According to the HAGI-F current market monitoring stats, Ferrari Prancing Horses continue to out-run Lamborghini Bulls and other contenders for a share of any big bucks that are avoiding unprofitable interest rates and are not being gambled on the usual hot property or undervalued equity alternatives. Incredibly now 34 years young, a claimed by Silverstone to be “incredibly original” Ferrari 512BBi that has been driven a mere 9000 miles from new in 1982 was predicted to cost a brave new jockey £200,000-230,000. With just 1977 miles from new of exposure to the real world of the stone chip lottery, a 1998 550 Maranello was pre-sale estimated at £180,000-220,000, more than three times the going rate of a terraced house in the forgotten back-streets of our three-tier economy. Whilst a far less exposed £75,000-85,000 of a successful bidder’s money meanwhile was predicted for a 3983 miler since 1989 348TS.

A right-hand drive and still futuristic looking 43 year old Citroen DS Super 5 meanwhile - displayed on a plinth with a mirror to show off its normally unseen undergarments - was super-stunning and had more than a trophy cabinet’s worth of concours awards won in eight European countries to prove it. With only one previous owner on file, the CEO of the supplying Citroen dealership, the 1973 style icon in Blanc Meije with still original Red Targa upholstered armchairs was pitched at Francophiles with £75,000-85,000 to invest.

Having checked out the metal being hammered away (or not) at two out of the three auction venues, and after logging the ‘live action’ at the Beaulieu one for the umpteenth time, I shall, of course, report back on what some of you are buying and for how much,  plus what you’re not, in my next transmission. There are only another four sales next week, RM Sotheby’s Battersea Park Wednesday, DVCA Athelhampton House Thursday, when Coys debut Fontwell House sale also takes place, with the Bonhams Goodwood Revival Sale on the Saturday. With so much auto-commuting to do around the auctions circuit, circa 40,000pa, I am now on my seventh consecutive Honda CRV!

Latest Classic Car Auction Commentary: 30/08/2016

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.

Latest Classic Car Auction Commentary: 26/08/2016

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Although less cars were auctioned, a higher proportion sell for record money in the Californian sales

Although over $50m (£38m) less was invested in collector cars during the six annual sales that took place in California last weekend than in 2015, a bullish $283m (£215m) was nonetheless spent on classic automobiles at the three major auctions where full results have been published. Two much more carefree years ago, $464m (over £350m) poured into these, the highest profile auctions on the global calendar.

In Presidential election year, the Ecurie Ecosse 1956 Le Mans winning Jaguar D Type XKD 501 purred across the RM Sotheby’s stage at the Portola Hotel in Monterey into the record books, topping this year’s prices at $21,780,000 with premium and smashing the previous record for a British car sold at auction by $7m. An Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato was sold by the same auction firm in December 2015 in New York for $14.3m (£10.68m).

Bidding for a 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Touring Spider from the Mann Collection, the first Alfa 2.9 to be offered for public sale this century, commenced at $14m and quickly jumped in $500,000 increments before selling for $19,800,000 (£15.05m), a new auction benchmark for any pre-WW2 car. The previous record holder was a Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster sold in August 2012 for $11.77m (£8.95m).

The very first Shelby Cobra - constructed by Carroll Shelby in 1962, since when chassis CSX 2000 had been in his care - faced a battery of camera flashes and generated loud applause when driven across the block by Shelby’s grandson, Aaron Shelby. Bidding for the Carroll Hall Shelby Trust entered icon climbed to a suitably awesome $13, 750,000 with premium, a new benchmark price for an all-American classic. During the same auction weekend four years ago, the previous title holder, a 1968 Ford GT40 Gulf Mirage, was sold by RM Sotheby’s for $11m (£8.36m).   

Although sale venue construction work enforced a smaller offering this year, and there were 50 fewer entries in two glossy catalogues, 82% of them did sell for $118m (£90m) and 21 lots achieved those magic million-dollar-plus results. Among them, five Ferraris with top ten valuations led by a 1956 250GT Berlinetta Competizione Tour de France sold for $5.72m (£4.35m) and a 1955 750 Monza Spider for $5.23m (£3.97m).

Gooding meanwhile actually sold $700,000 more of their clients’ cars this year than last, shifting 115 or 83% of the 138 cars for $130m (£99m) during a two-day company record breaker, during which 26 cars sold for more $1m apiece and four of them fetched over $10m. The average of $1,128,606 spent per car was fairly awesome too.

New auction records were established in their official Pebble Beach sales for various Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Porsche, Packard and Maserati models, among them the $18,150,000 (£13.79m) results topping 1959 Ferrari 250GT LWB California Spider Competizione.  In second place, a 1960 250-GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione realised $13,500,000 (£1,026,000) and a 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza was third, having clocked $11,990,000 (£9.11m). Gooding also claim that the $10,400,000 paid for a 1932 Bugatti was the highest price ever achieved for a Bugatti sold at auction. While the 1979 Porsche 935, sold for $4,840,000, was driven by Paul Newman at the 1979 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Bonhams achieved an 88% sell-through rate for the 115 cars crossing the block at Quail Lodge, Carmel, their 19TH such gig in Monterey Car Week, when $34.8m (£26.4m) was spent and several new world auction prices were paid, led by the 1931 Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix Racer with Lord Howe provenance sold for $4m (£3.04m). The first 2014 Ferrari LeFerrari head-turner to be offered in public sale pranced to a £3,685,000 (£2.8m) performance and a London to Brighton Run run 1904 Mercedes-Simplex 28-32hp Rear-Entrance Tonneau for five was applauded for establishing a $2,805,000 (£2.13m) world record for the model. Another much more unlikely record buster was a 1955 Lamborghini DL25 Tractor which pulled a far from agricultural $110,000 (£83,600).

Qualifying for the $1m+ Bonhams Club were a 1985 Ferrari 288GTO purchased for $2,112,000 (£1.61), a 2015 McLaren P1 for $2,090,000 (£1.59m), a 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America for $1,402,500 (£1.07m) and a 1989 F40 for $1,155,000 (£877,800). And an ocean away from their comfort zone, French Group B cars found interested parties and buyers with $198,000 (£150,480 and lower estimate money) for a 4wd 1984 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, one of the 200 made to make up the homologation numbers, and a way over guide price $132,000 (£100,320) for a 2wd 1983 Renault 5 Turbo 2 (£100,320). 

In the epicentre of by far the largest marketplace, three out of six of the sale rates were high and there was no shortage of record breaking prices paid, while the old car world continues to rotate at much the same speed as before.