BMW record buster, final Healey 3000 and 2CV twinny star at NEC sale

Statistically rare Motorsport 286bhp M635 CSi manual driven 15,300 miles by two owners from new in 1985 - one of an unprecedented 25 BMWs consigned by CCA for their two-day sale in Birmingham - had been guided at £40,000-50,000, but fetched a record £100,100 with premium.

Richard Hudson-Evans

A 1985 BMW 635 E24 CSI auto with 28 MOT certificates meanwhile also went for more than double the £14,000 lower estimate, selling for £31,900, as did a 1989 635 CSI Highline auto with a forecast £8,000-10,000 on the screen, which sold for £19,250 during the two day auction at the Practical Classics and Classic Car mags backed exhibition at the NEC.

One of the last Austin-Healey 3000 Mk3 BJ8s to leave the BMC production line in 1967, when it was first registered to the Donald Healey Motor Co, had been freshly restored and motored strongly to achieve a £96,800 result in Brum, where buyers spent £2.45m including 10% premium (CCA’s highest sale total yet) on 145 access-able classics, 73% of the 198 that packed the CCA show stand.

Among headliner valuations, a just over top estimate £68,200 was needed to bag a Sahara-traversing 1965 Citroen 2CV Sahara with twin 425cc twins driving all four wheels. Up to £60,000 had been suggested for a right-hand drive 1973 Porsche 911 2.4E Targa with £22k’s worth of Tuthill bills on file that realised an air-cool £95,150 – while a forecast £49,500 was forthcoming for a right-winged 1990 Porsche 928 GT manual with less than 26,000 mileage. A one family owned 2009 Ford Focus RS with just 45 miles of depreciation in seven years beat the auctioneers’ top estimate figure by £5000 to sell for £40,920.

Such was the magnetic force of a £20,000-25,000 1960 190SL Merc left hooker for restoration that 24 telephone bidders contested the position of project manager, a post that was only filled when Jonathan Humbert’s very active gavel fell at £67,000 and the winner paid £73,700 with premium.

The mortal remains of a brace of E Type Jags were also much picked over by fans of the Garage Found who had come to the NEC show to salivate over such challenges. No dreamer however was prepared to match the £38,000-44,000 being sought for a very early 1962 S1 3.8 RHD FHC without chassis plate, but with Heritage Certificate confirmed number. Although even with the triple negatives of being an auto, a 2+2 and a lefty, a said to be (mostly) complete and rust-scabby 1968 Series 1½ 4.2 Coupe did still collect £13,750 with premium from one brave investor.

Among technically interesting rare breeds to come to auction market at the show, a 797 miles since 1992 Panther Solo S2 Coupe with Sierra Cosworth motor and four-wheel drive, one of only around 25 built, sold for £18,700 and £14,300 was accepted for the believed to be 1988 Cirrus prototype of only three of the Gold Motor Company’s space-framed GTs with 200bhp Rover V8 and Ferguson 4WD.

More contemporary ‘Modern Classics’ also changed registered keepers here. A 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX-STI with high rise rear spoiler and calipers in gold, driven only 12,000 speed camera dodging miles by one ‘self restrained private owner’ apparently, raised the necessary £15,500. A 2000 vintage Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition with 66k on the trip meanwhile had been only Traffic Lights GP raced in Japan until 2015 before selling on a Saturday afternoon in Birmingham for £13,970. And finally, Ferrari 1 teamster Kimi Raikkonen’s first single seater, a Formula Renault run by Haywood Racing in the winter of 1999, was auctioned again, this time selling for a more than top estimate £29,700.

Although most of the latest HAGI Indices, which monitor transactions of all kinds, recorded falls by the end of March trading with their Ferrari, Porsche and Top Car Prices Indices therefore all being in negative territory for the first quarter of 2017, there were still buyers for three quarters of all classics auctioned at the CCA PC CC Resto Show sale, where some mega-prices were paid and a record gross was achieved for the house and fixture.

On the new car side of the forecourt meanwhile, the SMMT have also logged their largest stat for a single month’s yet with new car sales in the UK up by 8.5% in March, when Jaguar Land Rover sold 31,767 vehicles, one every 30 seconds, and JLR sales were up by 26% on those achieved in March 2016 pre-Brexit!

Re-bodied Ferrari sells for £594k to benefit East Anglian Air Ambulance

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Having started life as a standard 1964 Ferrari 330GT, a 2+2 in right-hand drive was re-bodied in the Modena workshops of Giorgio Neri (the ‘Ne’ of the former Nembo) as a Nembo Spyder and was sold by H&H in their latest auction at Duxford for a deservedly applauded £530,000 under the hammer to benefit East Anglian Air Ambulance. The Ferrari had been generously consigned for sale at ‘No Reserve’ to raise funds for his local Air Ambulance service by the late Richard Allen, former Chairman of the Ferrari OC.

Reckoned to have been worth somewhere between £500k and £1m before the auction, the final Nembo Spider, more of a unique ‘Continuation’ edition that had been restrospectively created, but the only RHD example and the only one with 4-litre V12 powered one, was therefore valued in public at £596,250 with 12.5% premium. Although this one-off beauty does not have – nor never will be issued with – the official stamp of factory approval, Ferrari Classiche Certification, which has become value-enhancing in the dispersal market and may well become essential for a Ferrari to sell at all in any politician-induced downwave in the unpredictable future.

A headlining Ferrari quartet performed well in the cavernous Imperial War Museum at the former WW2 airfield beside the M11 in Cambridgeshire. For a 1958 250GT Pininfarina Fixed Head donor that had also been retrospectively re-bodied in aluminium as an utterly convincing California Spyder LWB with the preferred enclosed-headlamps (in period, underpinned by the same Tipo 508D chassis as the 250GT PF Coupe donor) was hammered away by house founder Simon Hope for £505,000, which was accepted by the Lancashire vendor and his family in the seats who had been hoping for more. For the £568,250 with premium paid by the next keeper was less than the £600,000-800,000 pre-sale estimate and the likely net return even more so of course.

Another nicely shot big-screen video-introduced 1965 330GT - one of the 453 of the rather understated, but V12-powered 2+2s that offer a Prancing Horse ride for a more reasonable sum that an only 2-seater Ferrari – was provisionally bid to £175,000, again £25,000 below forecast. Although this ‘live’ high bid was speedily accepted by the auctioneers and the same vendor as the Californian Evocazione afterwards, and ‘184 YUD’ duly appeared among published gross prices on the Warrington firm’s website having changed hands for £196,875 with premium.

And then a formerly David Beckham owned 2001 Ferrari 360Spyder with the F1 marketed electrohydraulic manual transmission (that means ‘paddleshift’ in place of ye olde gear-lever, which is likely to be less troublesome in the real world down the road) came to market at Duxford. With only 7800 miles of recorded play on the clock, and in celeb-shades matching Nero with full Sabbia leather, yet another Beckham-mobile was provisionally bid to £80,000, but also converted into a £90,000 on-line published result, comfortably within the guide price band for all concerned.

By the end of the 5 hour 25 minute sale, 31 classics were sold ‘under the hammer’, including all 6 ‘No Reserve’ Armstrong Siddeleys, and 26% of the 117 cars offered had been hammered to a for the most part well attended room plus telephone contestants and worldwide-web players participating on up to four time consuming internet-platforms. By the time the giant hangar was emptied  however, the Northern firm’s back-office team successfully converted another 47 of the ‘provisionals’ into changes of ownership and the sale stats rose therefore to 78 sold, a 67% sale rate, and the sale total to more than £4.5m.

And after nearly paperless H&H sales at Donington, that are geared to the ‘Pop and Emerging Classics’ market, many consumers who made often long and costly journeys to Duxford (most of whom are not yet ready to fully embrace a digital future on i-phones and tablets) told me that they welcomed the retention of a traditional printed catalogue (plus the lighter and handy pocket-sized catalogue-lettes) at this ‘Selected Status’ fixture. Long may such comfort blankets from the old world be available to those members of the dinosaur club who still prefer their newspapers and magazines to be in print!

1957 Jag Mk1 3.4 with Monte history made nearly £190k at Goodwood

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Richard Hudson-Evans

The Goodwood Members Meeting sale saw a number of milestone auction prices paid led by a JD Classics restored 1957 Jaguar Mk1 3.4 Saloon that was driven on the Monte Carlo and Tulip Rallies in period, much viewed by Goodwood punters (snapped above), and which Bonhams sold for £189,660 , nearly £90,000 more than the top estimate.

An Alan Mann Racing BTC and ETC campaigned 1968 Escort Mk1 Twin Cam with works Ford registration ‘XOO 347F’ and a Richardson, rather than Cosworth FVA under its gold painted bonnet broke the £200k barrier to sell for £203,100. Whilst an Impreza 22B-STi displayed by Subaru on their 1997 Tokyo Motor Show stand, the first prototype for their 1988 WRC Type 22B with only 51k on the odo, topped the £200k barrier to make a record-setting £113,500 (plus additional import duties and VAT on everything if it were to become resident within the tax guzzling EU).

From the same deceased ownership as the Mk1 Jag headliner, a similarly JDC prepped Lola T70 Mk1 Spyder, originally raced round the Goodwood track outside the auction tent by David Hobbs in 1965 and subsequently twice a retrospective event winner at the Sussex circuit, also raised a racey £270,300. Captain Malcolm Campbell, who went on to become ‘the Fastest Man on Earth’ and was knighted for his speedy exploits, drove a 1913 Talbot 15hp with very pointy tail in the sale to a win at Brooklands in 1922. Ninety-five years later, the sole surviving Talbot Works Team car (seen below) fetched a very modern £169,500 including premium.

Mary Berry, late of the once Beeb screened Bake Off, was one of several celebs who visited the Bonhams tent to check out the 83 goodies, 78% of which sold for £5.59m. Although by far the longest lot on the menu was a stretched Cadillac presented to first owner, one Donald J Trump, at the 1988 Limo & Chauffeur Show in Atlantic City. Auctioned at ‘No Reserve’ and only expected to raise circa £10,000, the Hen Partymobile finally sold to a telephone contestant playing in Florida for a very Presidential £54,625!

But then £41,400 was handed over for the 1972 Rolls-Royce Corniche HJMPW Coupe that had been consigned by former Top Gear Musketeer and now Amazonian Motorist Show co-host James May. An Alvis TD21 auto with Drophead Coachwork by Park Ward was delivered to Brooklands of Bond Street in 1961 for first owner Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, the WW2 fighter ace whose bronze statue graces the Goodwood Flying Club lawn. Restored in the mid-noughties, ’27 CLF’ was landed by the next keeper for £91,100.

A previously 2500 hours ground-up rebuilt Bentley 3-Litre Red Label in the sale was almost certainly cosmetically much sharper than it would have been when brand new in 1924. Topped by Vanden Plas style body replicated by Hastings & Hardy with Alan Geator interior trim, the incredibly well detailed Speed Model Tourer was valued by the next owner at £281,500, within the guide band with premium. While XK Restorations of Eastbourne only completed their restoration of a rarer in right-hand drive 1962 Jaguar E Type 3.8 ‘Flat-Floored’ Roadster in January. A successful bidder at Goodwood in March thought a brand new E Type with zero patination was worth £180,700, mid-estimate money.

By contrast, a matching numbers 1962 S1 3.8 Coupe with the newly introduced sunken foot-wells that catered for taller occupants had been stored for the last seventeen years. Even though extensively micro-blistered and ripe for a full restoration, the RHD FHC did magnetise many potential project managers throughout viewing and was taken on for £92,220, more than the top estimate. Whilst a one family owned, 2020 miles from new in circa 1956 Jaguar MkVIIM had been specified with auto-shift for the convenience of the first owner’s wife, who was only newly qualified to drive. Far from pretty in close-up, though with running engine, the dry-stored ‘time warp’ went to a new home for £21,850.

The catalogue cover featured 1961 Aston Martin DP214 at Goodwood wasone of the three known re-creations, that had employed DB4/618/R as a donor and was claimed to be an accurate re-enactment of the only remaining and genuine DP 214, chassis 0194. Although prominently displayed in the auction tent at Goodwood, an offer was made to the auctioneers for the ‘3729 UM’ registered ‘Development Project’ and this was accepted by the vendor just before the sale. The Spa, Donington, Silverstone, Brands, Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring retro-raced DP214 Rep was declared sold therefore and appears on the published results for a premium-inclusive £551,665.

Porsche 911 GT1 road car makes £4.65m during 86% sold £91m weekend

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Richard Hudson-Evans

Although a Jaguar XK SS ran out of live bids at an insufficient $11.9m (£9.76m) on the Gooding scoreboard, a 1998 Porsche 911 GT1, one of 20 of the more Strassen-friendly versions of the factory Le Mans race car, did cross the block at Amelia Island to clock up a $5.67m (£4.65m) result.  The high octane moment when Atlantic hopping UK auctioneer Charlie Ross hammered the 911 record breaker away was captured for you by snapper Jensen Sutta, my thanks to him.

A 1937 Bugatti Type 57S, one of only three to sport Vanvooren of Paris Cabrio coachwork and offered for public sale for the first time in its 80 year history, sold at RM Sotheby’s $70.77m (58.03m) bonanza meanwhile for $7.7m (£6.31m) to top the Amelia prices this year. The Big Three auctions saw 275 mainly high end investor-automobiles change portfolios for $111.18m (£91.17m) and an overall sale rate of 86% achieved.

The 5694-mile from new in 1995 Ferrari F50 originally delivered to heavyweight Champ boxer Mike Tyson punched above its pre-sale estimate to deliver a socking $2.64m (£2.16m). RM Sotheby’s also claimed two new world record auction prices for a 1929 Stutz Model M Supercharged Coupe, one of only three Blown Stutzes on the planet that had been estimated at $1-1.2m and which sold for $1.71m (£1.4m), and a two registered owner 1956 Bentley S1 Continental Drophead, guided at $700,000-900,000, also shattered the previous auction stat for the model with a $1.68m (£1.38m) milestone valuation.

One of the most intense bidding battles of this market reassuring weekend in President Trump’s favourite State though was the contest for the keys of a 1956 Maserati A6G/54 Frua S3 Coupe, for which $1.6-2.2m had been suggested, but which was finally hammered away for $2.37m (£1.94m). A 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.0 also eclipsed its $900,000-1.1m hunch to storm into the record books with a $1.375m performance (£1,127,500 in our, as yet, only partially devalued Sterling).

The latest $2.39m (£1.96m) price in the public arena for a Gooding consigned 2015 McLaren P1 was fairly spectacular, too, as was the $1.54m (£1.26m) paid for the fourth Aston Martin DB2 built in 1949 for the personal use of AM owner David Brown. Driven in period by works driver Lance Macklin in the 1950 Targa Florio and in receipt of full restoration by AM Works, LML/49/4 was most recently concours-shown at Windsor Castle in 2016. The very first of just 37 DB5 Short-Chassis Volante Astons also fetched a noteworthy $1.7m (£1.4m) during two days of selling at RM Sotheby’s, where $70.77m (£58.03m) worth of cars sold, the highest sales total in the 19 years of Amelia Island auction history.

And then at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club, a 1955 Ferrari Europa GT in aluminium, one of only two to be so bodied by Pinin Farina, was driven past the Bonhams rostrum and purchased by a European collector for $2.23m (£1.83m in our money and my thanks for the Peter Singhof image recording the moment).

Other eyebrow raisers at Bonhams included a 1911Pierce-Arrow Model 48 S1 Roadster that epitomises the Brass Era and which sold for $550,000 (£451,000), while a 1961 Jaguar E Type S1 Roadster, one of the earliest known examples with the external bonnet-release handles, made a most impressively feline $326,700 (£267,894) after some spirited bidding by Coventry cat lovers. A still trendy looking Countach 500S Quattrovalvole from 1986 meanwhile was snapped up by an American Lamborghini enthusiast for a bullish $335,500 (£275,110) and $324,500 (£266,090) was forthcoming for Whacky Arnolt’s Bertone-sculptured in 1954 Arnolt-Bristol Prototype Roadster.

Some new record valuations at auction were claimed here, too, with a 1904 Knox 16/18hp Tudor Tourer for 5 passengers selling for $292,600 (£197,379), a 1987 BMW M6 Coupe for $104,500 (£85,690) and a 1953 Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Roadster by Thrupp & Maberly for $88,000 (£72,160).

New Group Motoring Director, the New York based Brit Rupert Banner, one of the auctioneers at this, Bonhams’ third annual Amelia Island sale, summarised their day’s trading in Florida in the current climate: “The offering of premium automobiles across a broad spectrum premium automobiles was strong and the results were very positive. What we saw was increased interest and movement in the middle of the market, and we feel that this is a healthy indicator for our industry and for enthusiasts worldwide.”

The 87% sell-through rate at the Fernandina Club – where a dinky-sized 1959 Berkeley SE 492 Sports from Bedfordshire was the least expensive bauble on the Island when picked up for $16,500 (£13,350) - certainly looked mighty healthy from an even more uncertain side off the Atlantic pond, where absolutely anything could happen next!

970S makes £55k and £143k is invested in E Type S1 project at Brooklands

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Richard Hudson-Evans

Sensitively revived 1965 Morris Mini Cooper 970S - statistically the rarest of BMC’s official S versions of which only 963 were manufactured - fetched a heady £55,000 with premium in the Historics auction tent at the Brooklands Museum, where Saturday afternoon shoppers spent £2.6m on 78% of the 128 classics in the catalogue. An early Jaguar E Type 3.8 Roadster with matching numbers from 1962 meanwhile, only the second year of production, that ran and drove, but was nonetheless a resto project, was taken on for a way over forecast £143,000.

Another Coventry cat that also performed well at this sale was a 1954 XK120SE Roadster, repatriated from the US in 2011 for body-off restoration and conversion from left to right-hand drive, which went for £126,500, £41,500 more than top estimate. A restored to original spec MkIV 3½-Litre Saloon that had been first registered to Jaguar Cars in 1948 and used by Deputy Chairman Arthur Whittaker was bought by his three grand-daughters for £68,200.

Some of the more noteworthy valuations for mainstream assets included the £57,200 paid for a 1969 280SL Merc lefty with auto-shift that had migrated from New York in 2013 and had been guided at £33,000-38,000, and the £46,750 result of a fastidiously accurate 1963 Ford Lotus Cortina Mk1 2 that had been re-shelled during the 1990s and for which up to £42,000 had been forecast. More than £11,000 over the pre-sale estimate, a potent £39,325 with premium, was also required to own a genuine right-hand drive Triumph TR2 from 1954, the year that similar ‘Long Door’ TR2s finished 28th on the Mille Miglia and 5th in class in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Model eligibility for Premier Cru retrospectives like these continues to boost auction performance.

The most surprising result of the afternoon though was the £92,400 paid for the 1997 Jordan F1 Type 197 without Peugeot V10 or transmission that had been pre-sale estimated at £20,000-25,000. Not some shopping mall display dummy this, but claimed to be the actual 197/03 chassis (with B&H less politically incorrect Snake-adorned paintjob rather than mobile fag packet livery) that wasdriven by Giancarlo Fisichella to second place in Belgium and third in Canada.  The 78% sale rate, also the average achieved by Historics throughout their 2016 sales calendar incidentally, was higher than it was at their season opener at the pre-WW2 circuit one year ago.

Simultaneously, just outside Chippenham in muddier Wiltshire where the Richard Edmonds auction tent had been pitched, 71% of the 95 collector vehicles, 72 of them cars, changed hands for another £477,255 with premium. Among the 51 sellers, a left to right-hand drive converted 1959 Jaguar XK150 3.4 Coupe for cosmetic improvement found £48,950 and £22,000 was available for an XJS V12 Convertible first owned by Lady Sarah Ferguson in 1988 that had been TWE restored in 1988.

A dormant 1934 Riley Nine Kestrel with a new crankshaft in a box on the back seat and £7000-10,000 pre-sale estimate was keenly contested until gavel fall at £14,800, costing the winner £16,280 with premium. While by far the oldest automobile on offer was claimed to have been first steamed up in Milwaukee early in 1901 and had been returned to the spec it had been in 116 years ago during the late Noughties. Apparently L2B eligible, and reportedly capable of transporting two warmly dressed travellers to Brighton under its own steam, the Milwaukee Steamer raised £35,750 from the next caretaker.

Arriving by 4x4 (and that included my Swindon-made CRV) was helpful for drama-free arrival and departure from the auction field, although a well shod Landcruiser workhorse was standing by with tow rope to rescue townies with tyres and transmissions unsuited to the countryside in the tail end of winter

Ferrari Dino exceeds guide price by £140k to sell for £440k

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Richard Hudson-Evans

Over £1m more was spent on classic cars during the three Silverstone Auctions sales at this year’s Race Retro than in 2016. The £5.7m invested in the futures of 99 auction vehicles was a new high for the Midland auction house at the Stoneleigh Park annual in Warwickshire, where there were buyers for 78% of road cars and 26 owner-drivers were prepared to pay just over £1m for competition cars.

A long bidding battle between a contestant in the saleroom and another competing elsewhere for the keys of a right-hand drive 1974 Ferrari Dino 246GT – a right-hand driver with factory-ordered and executed flared-arches and Campagnolo wheels, which had come to market for the time in 22 years -  was eventually resolved in favour of the phone-bidder. The £429,875 with premium paid by the winner however was nearly £140,000 more than the lower estimate!

From the same delighted private vendor source, another right-hand drive Ferrari F355 Berlinetta that had only been driven 7017 miles from new in 1998 had come to market to find £136,125, again £50,000 more than had been forecast.  And it was certainly another good day’s racing for Prancing Horses with a 2005 575M right hooker making £146,250 and another right is right 512TR from 1992 fetching £128,250.

A pair of low mileage Italian left hookers seduced new masters (or maybe mistresses?), a 3300k 2005 575M costing a successful bidder £146,250 and an only 2500k since 1990 348TB £93,375, the same money landing a 1989 328GTS that had been previously enjoyed for 23,000m. Whilst one of only ten 550 Maranello 2000 World Speed Record celebrants in right-hand drive and with 33,800 English miles under-wheel was successfully shifted afterwards for £178,000, just shy of the guide.

Among locally reared Jaguars to change keepers, a matching numbers 1960 XK150 3.8 SE Drophead excited determined bidding until sold for £132,750, more than double the lower estimate figure. All twelve Porsches offered were snapped up, a 1980 911 930 Turbo headlining for £109,125, and eight ‘Fast Ford’ road car changes of ownership were led by an ex-Jensen Button 2010 GT 40 at £264,375, while an only 1800m from new in 2010 Ford Focus RS in shocking Electric Green achieved an even more shocking £41,063.

But then my old 1965 Ford Lotus Cortina Mk1, which cost me considerably less than £10,000 in the late 1980s, fetched £45,000 this time around and £39,375 was forthcoming for a 24m865m 1995 Escort RS Cosworth. A 1987 Sierra Cosworth RS swopped owners, the last for 28 years, for £33,750, while a 1988 Escort RS Turbo S2 with 17,048 mileage cost the next guardian £27,000. £19,688 was required to own a 1987 Capri 280 Brooklands with Turbo Technics conversion and £16,313 a 23,000m 1990 Fiesta RS Turbo.

Another high flier was a 1994 Lancia Delta Integrale Evo 2 lefty that had flown in from Japan in 2014 and, with 13,540k indicated, was much viewed until sold on a Saturday afternoon at the once Royal Showground venue for £53,100, within estimate band money.

And in the preceding Friday session for Competition Cars - statistically by far the stickiest sector of the old car market – a bullish 68% of the race and rally car stock were towed away on or inside new trailers. Taking the chequered flag was the only surviving 1961 Emeryson F1 Single Seater with Coventry Climax FPF and Hewland Mk6 in the tail, which was bravely piloted in period by Mike Spence, Jack Fairman, John Campbell-Jones and Tony Settember. Having been retrospectively campaigned in later life for an extraordinary 16 consecutive seasons by the equally intrepid vendor from Goodwood to Monaco, Emeryson chassis 1004 realised a truly Grand Prix of £174,380 in the Race Retro sale. I am old enough to have actually been spectating at Oulton, Silverstone and Aintree to see it in action! Memories were certainly made of this.

Original Beetle sells for more than French snails in Paris sales

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Richard Hudson-Evans

Rare spit rear screen Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle, a mainly one owner and unmolested ‘original’ driven only 77,000 kilometres from new in 1952, flew past a trio of Citroen 2CVs to sell for 58,240 euros (equating to £49,594 including RM Sotheby’s premium) during the three Paris sales, which were not just all about mega-million investment automobiles.

For 118,266 personnes were sufficiently enthusiastic about old motors to pore over more than 500 voitures on display within the 65,000 square metres of Salon Retromobile. For this was where an only 40 kilometres from new 1990 2CV Charleston, a one Citroen dealer owned escargot that had been spared the reality de la route and tucked away for a sunny Friday day in Paris Expo was hammered by Artcurial for 52,200 euros (£44,370 in our now less valuable currency and digitally captured below).

But then the preceding lot, a 2CV Dolly Edition of 1990 vintage from the same Citroen dealership principal with a mere 30k on the odo, had just sold for 41,760 euros (£35,496). While much earlier in the 8 hour marathon drive-past that grossed 34m euros, a 1956 2CV AZ ‘Rallye’ with renewed floorpan and a skid-plate beneath the engine from restoration for historic rallying, which it had never been subjected to, had sold for 31,320 euros (£26,622).

Back in the international isolation of Brexitland however, such heady valuations for very French 2CVs were not being matched. For during Sunday Trading in Somerset within an unglamorous unit on the Royal Bath & West Showground at Shepton Mallet, a 1977 2CV with many panels repaired or replaced, and a new set of seat covers and matching door cards, was sold by Charterhouse for £6600, and a 1985 2CV 6 Charleston with previously galvanised chassis transplant was hammered away to a new Snail Keeper for an even more modest £1210.

Such huge variations highlight the widening differences between two very different cultures and economies on dividing sides of the once Norman, but still English Channel.  It remains to be seen whether much French will be spoken in British auction tents this summer. For to tempt Gallic palates, one of only 100 surviving twin engined, four-wheel drive 1965 Citroen 2CV Saharas comes to auction market at the upcoming Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration Show at the NEC in Brum. Auctioneers.  Classic Car Auctions estimate that their 4WD 2CV consignment, which has actually crossed the Sahara twice apparently and been the subject of a full body-off resto in the UK in 2012, will cost a Citroen fanatic an air-cooled £60,000-65,000 when it crosses the CCA auction block 1st and 2nd April. Although nothing is certain in this world, of course, or the next.

74% of classics auctioned in Paris sell for £61.1m

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

An extensively exhibited 1966 Ferrari Dino206P Prototype crossed the Artcurial auction block at Retromobile to sell for an auction week topping 4.29m euros (£3.65m with premium) chased by a Farina and Sommer raced 1948 166 Sports-Racer which made 2.89m euros (£2.46m). Both Ferraris were hammered away Without Reserve.

Other big money prices during the £26.67m 72% sold marathon session, which took 8 hours and was watched by 3000 personnes in the sale hall plus 15,237 more viewers on the ‘live’ internet-cast, were a 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV Bull valued by a new Toreador at 2.33m euros (£1.98m in devalued Sterling), a still shapely 1935 Bugatti 57 Atalante Decouvrable dispersed from the Herve and Martine Ogliastro Collection for 2.23m euros (£1.93m), and a two owners since 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort investment with 26,000k on the odo changed portfolos for 1.2m euros (£935k).

The Paris sales again kicked off with a £21.74m evening in the RM Sotheby’s packed, but up-market tent pitched beside Place Vauban with the Tour Eifel twinkling outside, where 78% of the more contemporary rolling assets found new shareholders. Although first place in the GP was taken by a forever racey Alfa Romeo Tipo B P3 of 1934 vintage which scraped over the lower estimate line to sell for 3.92m euros (£3.32m), pursued by a genuine Ferrari-opened 1973 Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona Spider captured for 2.16m euros (£1.83m).

Another Porsche 959 performed well at auction with a 1988 Sport making 1.96m euros with premium (£1.67m) and a reassuringly Ferrrari Classiche certified 1965 Ferrari 275GTB in refreshingly original Pino Verde realised 1.93m euros (£1.64m). The 1.344m euros (£1.14m!) performance of a 1995 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabrio was awesome and a 1962 Ferrari 250GT S2 Cabrio also overtook its estimate band to sell for 1.23m euros (£1.05m).

The 901,600 euros (£766,360) invested in the present, let alone the future of a 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo S 3.6 was another milestone valuation and a higher than guide price 750,400 euros (£637,840) was forthcoming for a 2012 Aston Martin V12 Zagato, ‘Number Zero’ no less. While the going rate in Paris this year for a production 1969 Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona was 705,600 euros (£599,760), the only known pre-911 1964 Prototype Porsche 901 Cabriolet that had never been offered for public sale before made 649,600 euros (£552,160).

True Brits meanwhile led the Bonhams £12.7m results in the truly historic Grand Palais, under whose vast glazed steelwork the first Motor Show was held in 1901.  Among 99 changes of ownership, a 1935 Le Mans raced Aston Martin Ulster sold for 2.02m euros (£1.71m) and a still stunning 1957 Bentley S1 Continental Convertible by Park Ward cleared the magic 1m euros barrier at 1.07m euros (£900,075). One of 640 factory-built ‘Le Mans’ specified Austin-Healey 100Ms, a 1956 left-hand drive BN2 with rare hardtop and a 2012 Mille Miglia Retrospective finisher, raised 189,750 euros (£161,288).

A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing changed nests for 1.02m euros (£864,168), a 1939-built Maybach SW-38 Spezial Cabrio that survived WW2 fetched 627,750 euros (£571,838) and a 1923 Bugatti T27 Brescia Torpedo 506,000 euros (£430,100). AStradale version of the 1977 Lancia Stratos achieved 373,750 euros (£317,688) and a 1983 Renault 5 Turbo Group Bthat finished 6th on the 1986 Tour de Corse rallied to a 195,500 euros (£165,750) result.

Many even more mega prices were paid for high value stock on top car dealers stands at Retromobile itself, so the Parisian vibes from both the auction and retail sectors of the classic car market are still positive enough not to make the professionally negative BBC News. For the moment at least, old automobiles might therefore be able to continue motoring onwards in a nostalgic haze without a red flag in sight. Although hot exhaust gases are no longer cool with the climate change lobby and both the Mayors of Paris and London have been politically empowered by their electorates to change the future by at least taxing and ultimately banning such old world practices as ours.

Ferraris sold out at the first ACA Drive-Through of the year

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

There were buyers for all three Ferraris consigned by ACA for their King’s Lynn season opener, during which the 1981 London Motor Fair displayed 308GTBi pictured, one of only 42 in RHD, sold for £50,400 including 5% premium.

The 456M GTA, also in RHD, that had been owned by the extremely acquisitive Sultan of Brunei from 1996to 2006, cruised past the rostrum to make £53,550, again more than top estimate money. Whilst on a January Saturday afternoon in Norfolk, when £1.85m was spent on non-essential classics, a 308GTB with 86,433 mileage from new in 1980 that had been in receipt of a photo-recorded restoration also cost a new keeper £71,400, within the guide price band.

For although most of the Historic Automobile Group International indices that chart the classic car market experienced a statistically lacklustre start to 2017, the HAGI P Index for Porsches falling 2.15% and their MBCI monitoring Classic Merc prices declining by 1.47%, by contrast the HAGI F Index tracking Ferrari transactions recorded a gain in prices actually paid for Ferraris of 1.57% in January.

Their number crunchers reckon that this latest golden spike in Ferrari fortunes was achieved through a number of high end Ferraris - and, significantly, rarer models from Maranello - changing hands for higher prices. For instance, there were five Ferraris in the ‘Overall Top Ten’ at last month’s seven sales during Arizona auctions week, led by the 1952 340 America Competizione Spider sold by Bonhams for $6.38m (£5.17m).

Six more Ferraris occupied the RM Sotheby’s leader-board with a 1969 365GTS Spider selling for $3.60m (£2.92m), a 1995 F50 Coupe $3.14m (£2.54m) , a 1961 Superamerica Coupe $3.08m (£2.49m), a 2003 Enzo $2.70m (£2.18m), a 1967 330 GTS Spider $2.48m (£2.00m) and a 1966 275GTB/2 Coupe $2.12m (£1.72).

For whereas the S&P Global 1200 put on 2.47% growth during January alone, most Ferrari types with production numbers in the 100s or more continue, report HAGI, to experience price pressure and low turnover. Currency volatility has also had a major impact on the classic car market during the past year, they say. For if calculated in US dollars, 2016 growth in the benchmark HAGI Top Index would actually have been closer to zero and yet stronger in Euro terms. While buying classics priced in US dollars or euros now certainly costs Brits abroad much more following the Brexit vote result, although thanks to the exchange rates imbalance selling British owned classics both in the US and on the Continental mainland can net more Sterling for a UK vendor.

Nonetheless, Ferrari Prancing Horses certainly enjoyed a good gallop last season, the HAGI F Index having risen by 2.95% in December alone, resulting in growth of 6.37% year on year. Lest we forget, it was during last year’s Paris Retromobile sales that Artcurial sold a 1957 335 S for 32.08m euros (£25.7m), a record classic car auction price for 2016 and an overall record for any car ever sold at auction in Europe.

In the same February sale in 2015, the Parisian firm hammered away a sleepy 1961 250 GT California SWB Spyder for more than 16.29m euros (£11.80m). Although during this far more uncertain year, any rise in global interest rates could impact negatively on the overall market for classics and drive investor-collectors into cashing in their assets and scrambling for the fire sale exits.

99% Of Cars Sell At SWVA Drive-Through

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.

GTO-beating E Type Jag breaks £6m auction barrier in Arizona

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

In selling for $7.37m under the Bonhams gavel during the Arizona sales (£6,002,681 in UK Sterling), the 1963 Australian GT Championship winning Jaguar E Type Factory Lightened Competition became both the most valuable E Type and the most valuable post-1960 Jag ever to sell at auction. The Scottsdale sale saw a near sell-out of headliners with 85 or 81% of the 105 cars and a scooter changing owners for £29.59m well before winter sundown.

Apart from the E Type auction price buster, a 1952 Ferrari 340 America Vignale Spider Competizione also sold at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa for $6.38m (£5.2m), a 1928 Mercedes-Benz Type S 26/120/189 Supercharged Sports-Tourer by Erdmann & Rossi for $4.81m (£3.92m) and a 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C Supercharged Zagato Spider for $2.81m (£2.28m). A 1955 Austin-Healey 100S fetched $539k (£439,002) and the 1984 Ferrari 308GTB QV driven on-screen by Tom Selleck Magnum PI during the 1984/5 shooting seasons persuaded a nostalgic viewer to part with $181.5k (£147.8k). The average investment in the futures of old cars bought in the Bonhams Pavilion this year was £348,073!

By the end of this now 10-day auction bonanza, the total spend at the seven collector automobile sales held in AZ this year amounted to just under $260m (over £210m), which was just over £6m or 3% more than the January 2016 sales total. While after more than 2650 vehicles had crossed the auction blocks among the cacti this year, and after most post-sales had been tied down before nearly everyone had flown away, around 1980 or 75% of the total entry had sold.

In terms of bucks blown, the biggest grossing event was the RM Sotheby’s bash at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix itself, where a two-evening sale generated around $53.65 (£44.53m) in the sales of 139 or 89% of the 156 cars consigned, the average spent being $385.97l (£312,640). Top seller was a one-off Merc from 1939, a 540K Special Roadster sold for $6.6m (£5.35m), followed by no less than seven Ferraris, the Italian marque therefore dominating yet another auction top ten.

Among the Prancing Horses were two new auction record breakers, a 1968 GTS selling for $3.6m (£2.92m), triple the model’s previous auction record, and a 1995 F50 in black making $3.14m (£2.54m), again milestone money. A strong $3.14m (£2.49m) was forthcoming for a 1961 400 Superamerica SWB Aerodinamico and the 2003 Enzo purchased new in 2003 by designer Tommy Hilfiger, who had only driven it 3620 miles, roared onto the stage to sell to a second owner for $2.69m (£2.18m). Bidders hailed from 30 countries, around 20% of the players apparently being first-timers to the house.

BBC TV antiques show regular and Atlantic-hopping Brit Charlie Ross once again shared the Gooding rostrum with House President David Gooding at their Scottsdale annual, which saw $33.4m (£27.04m) worth of motors move successfully into new trailers, 106 or 84% of the 126 cars driven over the stage selling for an average of $315,327 (£255,415) per lot sold.

The most notable valuations in public auction at this sale were the world record $3.3m ($2.67m) paid for a still highly original and only three owners since 1925 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix and the $2.92m (£2.36m) performance of a 1965 Ferrari 500 Superfast. A one owner 1955 Merc 300SL Gullwing flapped its door to achieve $1.56m (£1.18m) and a $451k (£365k) world record was also set for a 1920 Stutz Series H Bearcat.

Now although such heady extravagance will, of course, be largely ‘on another planet’ for most consumers of classics on the Brexit Islands, the mega prices paid at the Arizona auctions this year were nonetheless high profile votes of confidence in what is clearly seen by the movers and shakers to be the continued health of our favourite commodity.

Higher prices and low interest rates fuel finance rush

Auctions Commentary from  CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

As the prices of many, though by no means all classics have increased, and interest rates remain at historic lows, the number of acquisitions funded on finance has risen dramatically. For some time, brokers have been advertising their services in auction catalogues and their reps have been discreetly networking with the punters at sales, and retro-hp has been possible to actually pay for cars that have been knocked down to bidders who prefer to use (or need )other people’s money rather than their own.

Now, however, Historics at Brooklands have become officially authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to offer consumer credit in partnership with Classic & Sports Finance, so that, subject to acceptance checks, their clients can bid away in the knowledge that they have a finance agreement ‘pre-arranged’.

While even more like the trad trade, where virtually all new and most used motors are bought on the drip, a new-fangled web-based interactive finance calculator, embedded with every auction consignment listing in their on-line catalogue at www.historics.co.uk, enables those interested to configure a package that suits their pocket and repayment time scale.

The suits anticipate that most credit-equipped buyers will opt for an hp agreement on a fixed rate of interest (9.6% fixed, as I input this, with an APR of 11.56%). Although, and as has become custom and practice when buying new stuff, other creative solutions such as scarey balloons and the like, are available so that repayment of as much of the outstanding amount can be delayed for as long as possible. All fine and dandy, of course, if prices continue to rise, as they have done for many Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins in the recent past, when increased dispersal values have been assured and historic classic car appreciation has taken care of finance charges. But all markets are cyclical and all cyclists will encounter a steep hill eventually and even Olympians on state of the art bikes crash spectacularly!

Although individual credit approval can be set up within 24 hours of an Historics auction, at least five days before is recommended and an impulse buyer certainly cannot expect to arrange finance on the day of the sale. Those bidding for classics on credit must also have an AIP in place, the all-important ‘Agreement in Principal’, which confirms that the lender is willing to lend before the day of the auction and enables a registered bidder with credit approval to bid away up to their limit.

As long as they can afford to buy, native classicists, who might fear credit-cleared overseas invaders armed with much cheaper currency buying up even more of our automotive heritage, will be relieved to hear that pre-financed buyers will need to be domiciled in the UK and have a permanent UK address that checks out.

On behalf of rare consumers who prefer and are able to spend their own money, and who may be fearful of competing against financed opponents, I have also been assured by Historics’ Auction Director, Edward Bridger-Stille, that the auction company will not know how much any registered bidder with an AIP from Classic and Sport Finance is good for - thus avoiding an auctioneer from running the financed bidder up to his pre-arranged spending limit!

While gratification may well be relatively instant for those who will buy classics on the tick, by end of term, borrowers will, of course, have paid considerably more for their toys than those bidding with their own old money. The vast majority of properties and their contents, jets and commercial vehicles, most private cars and their running costs, and nearly all lifestyle purchases, have been paid for with borrowed money for yonks. Maybe fellow luddites who pay hard earned taxed cash for Real Ale rather than bending the plastic or swiping their mobiles in order to consume the cheapest goods may have to adjust to even more change.

Although if the finance trend does really catch on or even become the norm in the old car bizz, then the prices of all £10k+ classics will almost certainly rise as a direct result of the influx of external funding – and only a return to a softer market or even the return of ye olde bear pit is likely to frighten away the new breed of brave young bulls with their AIPs.

C-Type Jag Sells for £5.7m

£5.7m C Type Jag was top Brit in EU auctions, though average auction price in 2016 fell by 9%

Auctions Commentary by Richard Hudson-Evans

Although new auction records were established for several models, the average price paid for classics fell dramatically during 2016. For while there were buyers for 7537 of the record 11,375 collector vehicles auctioned in Europe as a whole, the average paid per EEC auctioned car fell by £4727 per car, a fall of 9% in value in one year. Of the 5885 cars from the 8929 offered that I personally saw change hands for £166.5m at UK island auctions last year, the average sum handed over for a classic sold under the hammer amounted to £28,292 with premium, nearly 15% less than in 2015 sales.

Even more surprising perhaps is the average price of the 1652 classics that I reported on being sold for £189.31m on the Eurozone mainland auctions also fell by the Sterling equivalent of £48,286 per car last year from one year earlier, and, lest we forget, average prices paid in 2015 had been £27,130 lower too than those seen in 2014. Statistically, and contrary to so much other shallow punditry that peddles permanent boom in what will always be a cyclical sector, the prices of most, though by no means all mainstream classics have softened dramatically during the past two years. 

Real world sale rates achieved at the 107 classic auctions attended at home and abroad varied from a 17% low at Newmarket in July to 100% at New Bond Street in September. The £40m total sell out of 423 ‘No Reservists’ at Milan in November meanwhile was by far the highest grossing sale of the year. Whereas the average sale rate for the whole of my last year’s catalogues worked out at 66% of auctioned cars selling in the UK, 4% fewer than in 2015, and an average of 68% on the Continent, again 4% less than the average achieved at auction one year earlier.

In terms of both the numbers of cars offered and sold as well as their sales total, RM Sotheby’s topped the auctions chart on the Continent by selling 546 of the 589 cars consigned for their Paris, Monaco and Milan fixtures, 33% of the cars sold on the other side of the Channel last year, and achieving a 93% sale rate and grossing £76.22m by year end, 40% of the industry total for 2015 in Euro Europe. In second place were Artcurial, who, in shifting 366 or 79% of 464 of their clients’ cars for £57.85m, took a 31% euro-market share. Bonhams Europe were third, securing 20% of the market with the sale of 173 of the 286 cars auctioned for £38.01m and achieving an average of £219,711 per car sold, the highest on the Continent. The 1953 Le Mans raced Jaguar XKC sold for 7.25m euros (£5.72m with premium) in May at the Fairmont Monte Carlo was the highest-priced Brit auctioned in Europe last year.  

In Brexit-land, more collector cars were auctioned in a single sales season than ever before and, by selling 374 mainly higher end classics in 9 sales for £45.57 with premium, Bonhams were the UK market leaders with a £121,845 average per car sold figure and a 27.37% market share by value. In second place were Silverstone Auctions and their CCA subsidiary, who sold 436 mainstream cars in 9 UK sales for £25.44m, an average of £58,349, and 403 more accessible classics in 6 sales under the CCA gavel for £5.44m, an average of £11,033, a combined 16 sales total of £30.88m with premium. By selling 65 top cars for £21.65m in Battersea Park in September, an average of £333,077 per lot, RM Sotheby’s took third place by value with a 13% UK market share, while H&H were fourth with 563 cars sold for £14.73m, an average of £26,162 and an 8.85% market share.

By volume however, once again ACA consigned the most cars for their 5 sales at their single King’s Lynn venue, where they sold 938 of the 1268 cars offered for £8.4m including 5% buyer’s premium, the lowest charged and an average of £8955 per car sold, and took a market-topping 15.9% of the UK market by volume. Although with 929 of their 1312 cars sold stat in 2016, the Midland Silverstone and CCA brands were right behind the Norfolk firm. The 8 Brightwells sales for Traditional classics (at an average price of £11,986) and Modern classics (at an average of £4977) saw 846 of the 1193 consigned cars sell for £8.27m, a 4.3% UK market share by volume.

Jaguar

2016 Round-Up

More Modern Classics were auctioned in more sales than ever before and record prices were paid during 2016 in a markedly younger market.

Auctions Commentary from Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Ford Sierra Cosworth 3-Doors, like the Graham Goode lightly renovated 1987 12,000 mile example sold for £75,900 during the final December 3 CCA sale of the Old Year in Warwickshire, defined the UK provincial auction market. For Modern-ish Classics that appeal to a younger generation certainly wrote the headlines as more Moderns were auctioned in numerically more sales in 2016 than ever before and several auctions, three of them run by Brightwells in Herfordshire, specifically catered for the new sector.

Several now iconic models made increasingly record money too, notably Big-winged Cossies and other Fast Fords, Quattro Coupes, Integrales and Pug 205 GTIs, like the 205 1.9 GTI ‘original’ driven only 7986 by one owner since new in 1989 sold for a gob-smacking £30,938 by Silverstone Auctions 31 July during Classic weekend! And then there was the 95,450 euros (£75,406) performance in Monaco of an only 2800k in the hands of one owner 1989 BMW Z1 Roadster during the 13 May Bonhams Med-side sale, during which a 1953 Jaguar C Type time warp also sold for £5.72m!

The appeal of even newer collectibles with ultra-low mileages was certainly highlighted by the sale by Bonhams of an only 2016 vintage Porsche 911 Type 991 R Coupe, number 135 of 991 produced with 52k on the odo, for 483,000 euros (£436,404) 7 October at Knokke-Le Zoute beside the North Sea in Belgium.

But then this was to be the Brexit-voting year when a 1989 911 930 Turbo SE G50 Porsche factory Flatnosed-Coupe made an air-cool £211,500 under the Silverstone Auctions hammer 13 November during the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show sale at the NEC. While also valued in public at auction in Brum were an ex-Japan 41,000k since 1993 Lancia Delta Integrale Evo 2 at £48,875, and aone owner 12,000 miler 1990 Ford Escort RS Turbo at £30,375 and a 1991 Fiesta RS Turbo with same mileage sold for £19,688.

The 24 September CCA sale at the Warwickshire Event Centre saw such relatively new kids cross the auction block like a 1994 Nissan Skyline GTR V-Spec 2 flown for 101,000k fetch £18,700, a ‘Back to the Future’ promoting 1981 Delorean DMC-12 manual Gullwing flap away for £25,300 and a one owner VW Corrado 2.9 Storm Edition from 1995 owned for £11,000.

BMWs from the 1970s through to the Noughties have become increasingly consigned and sold on these occasions - with £48,400 needed at CCA on a September Saturday afternoon just outside Leamington Spa to land a 220bhp 1988 E30 M3 Evo 2 converted to rhd, £41,250 a 1991 E30 M5 lefty, £23,650 a 2002 Z3 S54 M Sport Sports-Estate Japanese import, £20,350 a 1999 M3 Evo GT2 Imola Edition with 107,277 mileage, £18,920 a 1973 E9 3.0 CS in lhd,  £11,400 a 76,000 miler 1994 E36 M3 3.0, £10,450 a 1985 M535i with factory body kit,  £9020 a shark-nosed 1989 E24 635 CSI Highline and £8250 a 1997 840CI Sport with 4.4 V8 from the Individual programme. And during the final sale of the season specifically for Moderns, a 1988 E30 325i Sport with Alpina upgrades and M-Sports suspenders was driven past Brightwells’ rostrum into new ownership for £16,500.

The ‘live auction attendances’ in 2016 were noticeably larger where the cars and the audiences have been younger. More punters tend to view the newer stock and there appeared to be more of them bidding for many of the more recently made cars than the older stuff, both in person at the sale and on-line, with bidding via internet being markedly more active during the last buying season than ever before.

Although, as was the statistical case during the previous year’ trading, by far the most classics were consigned per sale and, indeed, during the whole of 2016, too, by ACA in King’s Lynn, where exhaust-emitting classics continue to be driven-through huge crowds in their King’s Lynn auction hall and no bidding by modern mouse is entertained. By my catalogue scribbled calculation, the Norfolk firm auctioned 1268 classics and sold 938 of them, a comforting 74% sale rate for what has been the most unpredictable year in our recent history.

2012 Bentleys depreciate by £148 per mile!

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

While Ferrari Prancing Horses of all ages continue to kick well, 2012 Bentleys depreciate by £23,883 a year and £148 per mile!

With clear title by order of the High Court, the H&H Chateau Impney catalogue cover featured 2009 Ferrari F430 Spider in Middle Eastern White with just over 400 miles on the odo was hammered away for £127,500, costing the successful bidder £142,800 with premium.

On a Wednesday afternoon in December, there were buyers - more of them on-line via four platforms or on the dog and bone than in person in the Droitwich Spa hotel conference hall - for 67% of the 85 cars on offer during the Northern firm’s final fixture of the classic car buying season, when £2.1m was available for 57 collector grade cars.

Several car transporters full of mainly high end Belgravia underground car park residents from the same cache had been consigned for the Midland sale. Another one owner Ferrari, a 2012 California with two-piece folding roof in Red with Tan leather, had also only been cruised between Knightsbridge and Chelsea for all of 500 miles and sold for £126,500 with premium. Many new Ferraris, if made in limited numbers, do not depreciate over-much. 

Most of the 14 rolling assets dispersed in the Midlands were over large, very thirsty and emissions-unfriendly for Mayor Khan’s increasingly Green Capital, consisting of a 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost with 2800 mileage sold in diesel guzzling Worcestershire for £121,475. On 13 October 2011, the 6.6 litre twin-turbocharged V12 had been purchased from R-R Motor Cars London for £212,000, only clocking up therefore £90,500 depreciation in five years! A 2012 Bentley Continental GTC driven 500 miles during the same ownership fetched £101,080. It had cost £175,000 when bought from Jack Barclay in 2012, £18,500 per annum or a paltry £148 per mile.

Whereas a 2003 vintage Rolls-Royce Phantom 5100m sold by H&H for £99,680 had cost £96,000 when invoiced by R-R Motors London five years ago. But a one owner Bentley Mulsanne with 2400 mileage sold for £95,760, but had cost a whopping £229,000 when purchased as an ex-demonstrator from Jack Barclay in March 2012, a £95,000 hit over four years or depreciation of £23,883 per annum! Dinosaur feed in the great scheme of things unsustainable.  

Other old world galleons to find new harbours in which to moor included a one owner since 1982 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible with 10,600m mileage dispersed for £76,160, a 2011 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed with 11,000 miles displayed £52,828 (£134,000 in 2011), a 2006 Bentley Arnage RL with 4800 recorded mileage £52,192 (£75,000 in 2012), a 1939 R-R Wraith by H J Mulliner £52,640 (£55,000 in 2013) and a 1951 R-R Silver Dawn £34,465 (less than the £34,465 that had been lavished on rolling refurbishment during the last nine years).

During the rest of the sale, and according to a two-page invoice in the history file, a right-hand drive and highly specified Type 996 Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport cost the one owner £131,710 in 2001. Fifteen years later, the 2001 911 cost the successful internet bidder £103,960, 911 996 GT2 Clubsport ownership having therefore cost the original owner £1850 per annum. Although running costs, of course, would also have to be taken into account, as would value-eating inflation as the buying power of a pound Sterling continues to be regularly eroded by mainly bad news events.

Successful buying of modern cars that are perceived to be future classics is all about getting the timing right, of course, and waiting patiently until after the big hits of the early years that depreciate most, though not all rolling assets have run their course, and the falls in their resale values have slowed at least or preferably plateaued. Buy only then, before too many others do, and any reactive appreciation begins to kick in and prices go up, has therefore to be best advice.  

Bentley

Xmas shoppers pay big prices for old Princes

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

A ‘Prince Henry’ Sports Torpedo, one of the world’s first sports cars made by Vauxhall in 1914, cleared half a million at the Bonhams New Bond Street sale, selling for a within forecast £516,700 with premium. The ‘Prince of Wales’ 1988 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante - first owned by AM CEO Victor Gauntlet, and subsequently seriously upgraded with RSW 7-litre 500bhp V8 and reassuring AP Racing brakes – seduced another West End Christmas shopper into parting with £651,100, mid estimate money.

Attending the sale of the rightly applauded 102 year old Vauxhall survivor were the family who had parted with their Prince back in 1945. Whereas the 28 year old Aston Martin Prince was one of a Newport Pagnell works run of only 27 such hand-built open-top V8s with Vantage performance, but with a less macho and more restrained appearance that celebrated the ownership endorsement of Prince Charles.

By contrast, a 13 year old DB7 lefty with Coupe Carrozeria by Zagato, sold for a more than forecast £309,000, had only been driven 900k since new in 2003. A 2004 vintage Porsche Carrera GT with 1722m on the odo, although bid to £430,000, £50,000 below the guide price, was declared sold with premium by the closing of the book – and a below estimate £158,820 was also accepted for a 13,000m from new 2011 SLS 63 AMG (a sign of a softening in demand for such non-essential big boys toys perhaps?). The end of 2016 season Bond Street rate however for an always right-handed and 26m since restored 1962 Jaguar E Type S2 3.8 Roadster was still a healthy enough £219,900 with premium.

Indeed, by the end of the Sunday afternoon session, 67% of the 27 top cars displayed in the firm’s flagship salerooms, where the finest artworks and priceless porcelain pieces are hammered away on a daily basis, had sold for £4.36m and a market-impressing average of £250,000 had been invested in the 18 high end classics that changed portfolios.

Three days later, the Bonhams Motor Cars team were occupying The Grand Hall at Olympia, the former location of the pre-Earls Court era Motor Shows, where, and following morning and early afternoon sessions for automobilia and classic bikes, another 83 collector cars for more inclusive budgets were on offer. By early evening, 58% of them had been hammered away to new homes and an additional £3.41m had been spent in 48 classics by new owners.

Among them a 1967 Aston Martin DB6 ZF 5-speed manual, last restored and upgraded to 4.2 Vantage-spec by Goldsmith & Young in 1998, headed the prices with a more than top estimate £359,900 performance. A Nicholas Mee serviced 1966 DB6 auto fetched £216,540, within estimate, and a 1938 2-Litre 15/98 Sports Tourer for the occasional four that was acquired from the Stratford Upon Avon Motor Museum in 1996 sold again here for £198,333.

The 1992 Geneva Motor Show displayed Virage Volante 6.3 in Emerald Green with matching hood had been first registered in supercar rich Brunei and driven less than 20,000 miles in 24 years. Repatriated in 1999, it sold for £86,620. A one owner since 2009 and left-hand drive DB9 Volante with Touchtronic-change made £61,980 and a DB7 Vantage Coupe manual that had cost a fraction under £96,000 when new in 2000 was bought by a happy couple in the seats for £52,900.

The 1971 Earls Court Motor Show and right-hand drive Ferrari 246GT in Bianco Polo Park first bought from the Dick Lovett dealership by F1 Team owner Rob Walker realised £331,900, within the forecast band. Much more primitive and high rise was a Stutz Bearcat with rumble seat that was believed to have been first owned in 1918 by Charles Elsworth Stuz and which sold for a better than expected £214,300. Another couple had viewed a 2008 restored Porsche 911S 2.4 with 1972 model year ‘oelklappe’ external filler for the engine’s dry-sump tank at great length before outbidding the room and paying £203,100 for a right-hand drive 911S with all numbers still matching.

A second-series Alvis Speed Twenty SB 4-Seater Tourer of 1934 vintage - when an all-synchromesh gearbox and independent front suspension made it one of the more technically advanced British motor cars of the day - was hammered away for £92,000, less than the £95,000 worth of engine and body work bills since 2010 on file! With Halda Twin Tripmaster and WW2 aviator’s clock, and such event-sensible upgrades as an electric fuel pump, flashing indicators and hazard warning lights, the clearly very well sorted Speedy Twenty with stickers for four ‘Flying Scotsman’ rallies and the 2015 ‘Alpine Trial’ (so far) looked ready for more adventures far away from Motorways.

Jaguar prices were led by a left to right drive converted 1952 XK120 Roadster, restored and upgraded with 5-speed box by Fender Broad, which went for £89,980. £88,860 was forthcoming for a 1964 E Type S1 3.8 Fixed Head with known ownership history, £85,500 for a 1966 E Type S1 4490cc to ‘Fast Road’ spec, £79,900 for an always right-hand drive 1959 XK150 DHC, £73,180 for a 1973 E Type S3 V12 Roadster manual in oh so period Lavender Blue and £65,340 for a one owner from new in 1971 E Type S3 V12 Roadster manual.

A 1962 Lotus Elite Climax with Type 9 5-speed box fetched £73,180, an ex-Swallow Registrar 1955 Doretti £68,700, an only 2-owner 1955 Austin-Healey 100 lhd £51,750, a 1988 BMW Z1 Roadster accessible via electrically-operated doors that (are supposed to) drop down into the body £41,400, and an apparently renovated 1977 Porsche 911 SC 3.0 Coupe glass-out repainted in Lindgrun Green metallic £28,750. In such uncertain political and economic times, being able report on such definite market movement in our sector has to be seasonally encouraging for all concerned.

81% of classics sell at packed Brooklands

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Whilst all 633 cars and bikes sold out in Milan during 30 hours of ‘No Reserve’ auctioning under 5 individual RM Sotheby’s auctioneers attended by 5000 salegoers in person with some lots requiring over 20 active telephone lines and more than 1000 internet bidders during a £42.41m weekend, 81% of the 141 classics on offer in Mercedes-World at Brooklands were also sold by Historics for a pre post-sale £3.48m back in increasingly rocky Brexit Britain.

Despite the weight-sensitive Mezzanine at M-B World being full to Health and Safety limits, 51 different marques spanning 9 decades were represented on the entry list and 34 of the consigned cars were auctioned ‘Without Reserve’. Apart from the throng of Saturday shoppers, many of whom had come to kick the tyres of new Mercs in the largest showroom for three pointed stars on the island, there was a significant increase in on-line bidders, both domestic and international, since the June sale. While bidder interest from a Trump US were constant, the biggest international growth in bidder registration was from the Eurozone mainland.

Some of the editorial highlights at Brooklands, I would suggest, were a 1957 Tourette Supreme sold for £30,800, one of a school of micros cars that realised over £112,000 under the hammer. By contrast, a 1966 Ford Mustang 350 ETH, pre-sale estimated at £72,000-82,000, made £91,575 with premium. A mid-estimate £105,600 was paid for a 1993 Ferrari Testarossa and the Brooklands rate on the day for a 1965 Jaguar E Type S1 Roadster was £123,200.

Within what is the Temple of Mercedes, an ex-Qatar Royal 1971 280SE Coupe went for £88,000, top estimate money with premium, and 1964 230SL Pagoda-top sold for £50,600 with charges, nearly double the lower estimate. A similarly Stuttgart made in 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Sport Targa, that had only done 302 miles since an Official Porsche Centre executed rebuild, unsurprisingly raised £105,600, £21,000 more than the guide.

Astons were popular with Christmas shoppers, one of whom merrily handed over £111,000 for a 1978 V8 Vantage Volante that had been forecast to fetch £67,000-78,000. A £34,000-40,000 2003 DB7 GTA cruised to a £55,000 result, a 2006 DB9 Volante overtook its £28,000-34,000 band to sell for £38,500 and a 2001 DB7 Volante, for which £10,000-15,000 had been sought, did £22,000 on the hammer, £24,200 with premium.

A 1968 Lotus Elan +2 for restoration had started life as Team Lotus driver Graham Hill’s company car and was taken on for £23,100. The 1990 Motor Show displayed Esprit Turbo SE doubled a £10,000 lower estimate figure to sell for £20,075.  Genuine Mini Cooper S from the 1960s continue to perform well at auction with a 1966 Austin-badged 1275S going for £47,850, within the £38,000-50,000 forecast, and a 2000 vintage Mini Cooper Sport 500, one of the last 500 made with 437 mainly stored mileage, did £23,375, more than the £17,000-20,000 forecast.

In a cavernous exhibitions hall in Milan meanwhile, RM Sotheby’s dispersal sale on behalf of the Italian authorities of 423 rolling four-wheeled assets that had been uplifted from Venice, a logistical nightmare in itself, sold out. Although many of the No Reserve classics were very short on documentation and, thanks to Italian show visiting vultures or souvenir hunters, anything that could be pocketed had been!

The record busting results were led by a 1966 Ferrari 275GTB/6C Alloy sold for 3,416,000 euros (£2.9m with premium) from a 2004 Maserati MC2 that stormed into the world record breaking books with a 3,024,000 euros valuation (£2.57m). The Italian distress sale rate for a 1992 Ferrari F40 was 1,030,400 euros (£875,840), for a 1988 Porsche 959 Komfort 1,008,000 euros (£85 6,800) and for a 1969 Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona Berlinetta with headlights behind Plexi-glass front 873,600 euros (£742,560).

A once awesomely potent 1991 Lancia-Ferrari LC2 Group C with an historic race future powered to a 851,200 euros result (£723,520) and 761,600 euros (£647,360) were invested in a 2005 Carrera GT, few if any of which are actually driven anywhere and are banked in secure storage facilities. The final places on the leader board of the largest ever sale ever held on the Continent were taken by a 1969 Ferrari 365 GTC sold for 739,200 euros (£628,320), a 1994 Bugatti EB110 GT for 616,000 euros (£523,600) and a 1996 Porsche 992 GTC for 616,000 euros (£523,600).

Significantly, and showing how the market moves and never stays still, half of the top ten collectors cars at this monster Italian take-away were relatively ‘modern’ classics.  It was, indeed, some weekend, when just under £46m was pumped into 537 collector vehicles on both sides of the part-English Channel.

Brightwells to head East to Bicester

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Before the first lot was knocked down at their last sale for traditional classics of this buying season at Leominster HQ, Brightwells announced an expansion deal with Bicester Heritage, which will see the Herefordshire auctioneers become Official Bicester Heritage Auction Partner and host three premium sales during 2017 on the 348-acre former WW2 RAF Bomber site in Oxfordshire.

‘Brightwells Bicester’ branded fixtures are additional to the Leominster sales programme with provisional auction dates in 2017 scheduled for Wednesday 5 April, Saturday 1 July during the Flywheel event and Wednesday 25 October. The Richard Binnersley led Brightwells team will also be putting down roots at Bicester with a permanent on-site office presence in the Guard House, while their auctions will be held within Hangar 113 on what has become the UK’s first campus for the restoration, storage and enjoyment of historic vehicles.

The 2016 International Historic Motoring Awards category winning Heritage venue, which is steered by Riley MPH owning MD Dan Geoghegan, is at the epicentre, of course, of a potentially fruitful Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire catchment area and is only a very gear-changes away from two M40 corridor junctions. Importantly for consumers too, salegoer parking is both plentiful and on hard-standing. Although whether long haul travellers can enjoy a hearty breakfast with tea for £6 - as they can in the most excellent on-site cafeteria at the Leominster Auctions Centre - is as yet untested by your Correspondent.

Back to the auction in the here and now, on a November Wednesday afternoon in the Welsh Marches, a 1962 Jaguar E Type S1 3.8 Roadster shell in primer with very early chassis number 850413 stamped in the picture frame and the same number appearing on a Jaguar Heritage Trust Certificate was by far the highest profile artefact in the 115 lot sale. Right-hand drive number 413 was among the first 56 to have the newly recessed foot-wells for increased driver-friendliness, whilst retaining the straight bulkhead behind the seats of the first 526 pre-recessed foot-well Roadsters.

The only RHD Roadster of the 258 made for the French market, number 413 was first owned by Princess Nina Aga Khan, the former Nina Sheila Dyer who became a top model in France, where she later ended her life with an overdose of sleeping pills. The E Type body with depressing back-story and panels, but without engine, gearbox or any other parts for that matter, was auctioned at ‘No Reserve’ and made £23,650.

The highest priced car of the afternoon was a Herefordshire domiciled Ferrari Challenge specified, former Category C crash repaired 2002 360 Modena, a unique road legal Ferrari racer, which sold for £72,150 with premium, forecast money. A ground-up restored and better than new in 1954 Land Rover S1 86ins in RAF Blue was, indeed, “stunning” and deserved its £21,120 valuation by a new owner – and a front of rostrum parked and original right-hand drive 1955 Fiat Topolino, fresh from a down to last nut and bolt rebuild, also raised a higher than predicted £15,400.

Much viewed by matured chaps in cloth caps was a pre-war 1934 Riley 12/6 Mentone Sports-Saloon with straight-six motor, Art Deco inspired interior and MG prefix reg, which was auctioned ‘Without Reserve’ and fetched £13,750. A 1965 Triumph TR4A IRS sold for £16,600 had been one doctor owned since 1972 and latterly only driven during annual summer visits to the UK from his Australian home. Lady Pidgeon of Great Brampton House Antiques had gifted a disc-braked and telescopic shocked 1970 Morris Minor 1000 Traveller in her Rolls-Royce matching Royal Blue with Charles Ware supplied comfy seats to a former employee on his retirement. The half-timbered Estate changed hands here for £7810.

Despite crying out for much re-commissioning, a ‘No Reserve’ 1989 Middlebridge, rather than Reliant-made Scimitar with Ford Scorpio 2.9 V6i and overdrive replacing 5-speed manual box sold for £5500. An apparently nicely prepped Barnard Formula 6 - a 150cc 3.5hp Briggs & Stratton powered go-kart with single-seater body-work bought off Tom Barnard’s stand at the 1967 Racing Car Show (£185 in kit form, ready-built for considerably more) - made £2200. Two Aston Martin test engines in unknown internal condition were vry much larger, heavier and cheaper, a 2007 DBS 6.0 V12 AM08 for rebuilding selling for £1760 and a rebuild-ready 2010 Rapide 6.0 V12 AM16 for £1650.

By far the most motor car for the money though was a retirement driven Weddings Cars lot consisting of three white-ribboned, chauffeur-driven redundancies, a 1979 Silver Shadow II Roller and a brace of matching E-Class Mercs which were hammered away for £8250 as a job lot. By the time the large car park had emptied and several hundred attendees had returned home round many bends to their laptops, and before any further post-sale provisional conversions had been added to the Brightwells website, 91 cars, 78% of the total offered, had sold for £954,370 including premium.

Records broken and unbroken in an increasingly virtual world

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

By selling for £121,500 including premium during the first of two Silverstone Auctions sales which saw 79% of cars sell for £5.7m during the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show at the NEC, the ex-Chris Barber Lotus Elite has established a new world record price in a public auction for Colin Chapman’s revolutionary fibreglass monocoque GT.

The first ever customer S1 Elite was supplied to jazz musician Chris Barber, appropriately registered CB 23 and seriously raced by the celeb band leader from Boxing Day 1958. The recent revival and upgrading of Lotus Type 14 MYPH/1009P and its Glyn Peacock rebuilt Coventry Climax engine was master co-ordinated by TV frontman Ant Anstead at his Evanta Motors workshops. While the famous car’s record busting dispersal at auction in Brum was recorded on camera for the next weekend’s ‘For the Love of Cars’ on C4.

A similarly C4 show resto-recorded 1969 Aston Martin DBS - with RSW ‘Vantage-ised’ 6-cylinder motor fed by triple Webers and the original auto-shift swopped for a Tremec T5 manual - also sold particularly well for a non-standard production example, achieving £174,375 with premium, more than £14,000 over the top estimate. The 2014 world auction record price of £533,500 for a DBS 6 still stands however.

For £359,125 more was forthcoming for this model two buying seasons ago under the Bonhams gavel during the annual Aston Martin sale at the Newport Pagnell works, where ‘The Persuaders’ exposed DBS/5636/R with original 6-cylinder engine and, pre-V8 launch and to impress viewers of the high profile ITV series, AM-applied V8 badging and V8-style alloys came to market.

Another really strong performer in Silverstone’s Saturday sale was a 1977 Jaguar XJ12 2-Door Coupe, the winner of 18 national concours awards, which still looked as sharp as it did when it came out of the restoration shop in 1990, and which made £43,875 with premium. A far more than current top retail price, this, for a standard production XJ12C, albeit a stunning example.

Although, again, not actually the highest amount paid at auction in recent times for a 12-Pot XJ 2-Door as £69,440 with H&H premium, more than five time the pre-sale estimate, was handed over October 2015 at Duxford for a Barn-found 1976 XJ12C project, though only the 8th produced and, again, with major ITV series provenance. For the dusty Broadspeed ETC-replicating, wide-bodied XJC with non-running V12 had been on location four decades earlier,  when pretend-driven by the late Patrick Macnee in the role of John Steed during the shooting of ‘The New Avengers’ .

Just over a year later, H&H had consigned another V12-engined Jag for restoration - a 1971 E Type S3 FHC manual in rhd only recently disinterred from many years static-slumber in a garage - for their latest Pop Classics sale at Donington. Estimated to fetch £16,000-20,000, such is the current pulling power of all E Types in whatever condition, it seems, that the project generated applause in the cavernous ‘Engine Room’ beside the East Midlands race circuit when bravely taken on for £33,000.

A brace of Bemma 3.0CSi sold well, too, a 1973 Coupe, uprated with later M5 (E34 Series) running gear storming past its £28,000-32,000 guide band to sell for £51,480 gross - while a second 3.0 CSi to standard spec, though in need of an extensive resto, cost a benefactor £23,600 with charges.

The day before, a rare, claimed still to be original and carefully stored in recent years HRD Vincent led a £660k classics bikes session with a close to world record £267,696 result. In second place on the leader board was a 1934 Brough Superior Alpine which cost the next rider £131,560. Including bikes and cars sold under the hammer, plus those provisionally taken bids that were converted during the ‘live’ auction process, the two sales had grossed more than £1.3m before the internet-feed to four bidding platforms had been unplugged.

Although unpopular with luddites (it takes one to know one), the paperless catalogue was totally on-line for this sale. How long can it be therefore before auctioning old cars at the moment of hammer fall becomes a virtual sport in which all would-be participants join the spectators wherever they happen to be at the time? In the pub without any traffic jams to get there sounds like a plan to me. 

£306k Porsche Speedster heads NEC auction prices

Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

A show standard 1957 Porsche Speedster 356S T1 Speedster selling for £306,563 to top 79% sold Silverstone Auctions sales of £5.76m during Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show weekend at the NEC in Birmingham confirms the continued strength of Porsche prices. For the best performing Historic Automobile Group International marque index, the Porsche transaction charting HAGI P was 2.21% higher during October and Porsche prices, say HAGi, are 5.51% up for the year to date.

Other market significant valuations for Porsches during the two Silverstone auctions in Brum were a mid-estimate £258,750 for a 1975 911 Carrera 2.7 MFI, one of just 21 made, and £211,500, £61,500 above the guide price, for a Type 930 1989 911 Turbo with factory-done SE ‘Flachbau’ (flat-nose). A more than double lower estimate £202,500 was necessary to beat other bidders to secure the first UK SE Flachbau, the factory press car from 1985, and £108,563, forecast money, was available for a right-hand drive 993 1998 911 Turbo X50 with 430bhp X50 upgrade. A UK market 1988 928 S4 auto driven 18,500m by one registered keeper was in exceptional nick, hence the £49,500 paid, and a 99,400 miles from new in 1991 944 Turbo Cabriolet manual in rhd cost the next keeper £24,188.

Whereas the HAGI F index that monitors the fortunes of the Ferrari market declined by 1.47% last month, indicating more modest growth therefore for Prancing Horses of 2.96% for the year so far. While the HAGI MBCI was much the same in October as it was in September, increasing by a mere 0.18% , classic Merc prices have gone up by 6.37% this year to date and have advanced by a marque-topping 8.63% year on year. A UK delivered 1970 280SE 3.5 Cabrio, one of only 68 produced by the factory in rhd that had around 9000 miles of patination since restoration, attracted £249,750 with premium in the Midlands.

Among other noteworthy performers under auctioneer Jonathan Humbert’s smashing gavel, a ‘For the Love of Cars’ restored on C4 1969 Aston Martin DBS made a way over guide £174,375. The 6-cylinder engine had been upgraded to Vantage spec with triple Webers by RS Williams and the auto box swopped for a Tremec T5 manual. The 1958 Lotus Elite S1 Coventry Climax Coupe, originally raced by jazz musician Chris Barber and also Ant Anstead restored for C4, sold for £121,500, over £20,000 more than forecast – and a 1974 Jaguar E Type S3 V12 Roadster restoration project with the rarer manual-shift was taken on for £69,750, again £30,000 more than had been estimated. Whereas both really early Land Rovers with headlights behind their grilles had been restored already and also out-performed their Green Welly guides, a 1948 S1 finding £43,875 and a 1950 S1 £39,938.

There were takers for half of the dozen ‘Jewels in the Crown Collection’ cars with Royal, Pop and Celeb provenance. A 1984 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible that had been cruised for 13,700 miles, initially by the Emir of Qatar, sufficiently impressed one subject to part with £135,000, and a 2005 Phantom that had done 6000m in the service of Sir Elton John found a fan with £123,750. A paparazzi snapped 1994 Audi 2.5 5-Cylinder Cabrio auto that was employed post-separation by Diana Princess of Wales to convey the still Royal Princes to private engagements made an extraordinary £54,000.

Whereas an HM The Queen 2012 Bentley Mulsanne, an HRH Princess Margaret 1980 R-R Silver Wraith II and an HMQ transporting 2001 Daimler Super V8 all failed to appeal to commoners with the necessary £215,000, £90,000 and £50,000 required. A 1988 560SEL Merc armoured to B4 level to protect King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan in transit to Harrods provided reassurance to another shopper with £30,375. The 1972 Fiat 500L given by David Cameron as a birthday prezzie to his wife Samantha clearly appealed to one Remainer with £20,813.

Most more mainstream Fast Fords motored well in front of a Classic Motor Show audience, a UK rhd 1993 Escort Cosworth Lux with 20,600 mileage and model-appropriate ‘C6 OSY’ reg making £40,500, top estimate money, and a one owner 1990 Escort RS Turbo S2 original with 12,000 miles on the clock £30,375, £10,000 more than suggested. A 45,000 miles from new in 1987 Ford Sierra RS Cossie 2-Door with large whale tail realised the necessary £29,250 and a still original 1991 Sierra RS Cossie Sapphire 4-Door with much more discreet wing on the back went for £26,438. From the same year, a 12,000 mile and very original Fiesta RS Turbo sold for £19,688.

Exceptional pre-BMW Minis of all types proved to be popular with punters, too, with £28,688 handed over for a fully restored 1971 Cooper 1275S Mk3, £19,688 buying a 1967 Morris-badged Moke that had been originally employed on BMC Parade duties, £17,438 a 1964 Austin Countryman Woody restored in Cooper S style, and the generous £12,938 proceeds of a 1969 998 Super Deluxe Mk2 known as ‘Margo’ benefited Prostate Cancer UK.

By Sunday morning, 48 - or 76% - of the 63 Saturday sale cars had been hammered away for £3,077,277 including premium, while by close of play Sunday, and before any post-sales had been concluded, another 47 or 81% of the 58 Sunday cars had sold for an additional £2,687,557 gross. The pre post-sale and post-Brexit vote vital stats, 95 or 79% of the 121 cars sold for £5,764,834 with premium, amounting to an impressive sale total for a provincial sale and setting a new Silverstone house record for a collector vehicles auction at the NEC.

Porsche