Classic Auction Review

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2023 Mercedes-AMG One F1-Inspired Hypercar driven c100m by 1 owner made estimated £2.46m during Bonhams £10.7m Goodwood FoS Sale

Apart from the 1,063bhp 219mph Merc-AMG One with delivery mileage being a £2,456,600 Hypercar, there were buyers for most of the higher value cars in the Bonham auction tent behind Goodwood House during the Friday afternoon of Festival weekend.
For another only one Swiss owner, 770k from new in 2007 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Coupe - in 2-tone Mocca Brown Metallic and White Coffee with Magnolia and Havana interior - was auctioned Without Reserve to sell for £1,527,000 with premium.
This was a mighty £727k more than top estimate and a new world record auction price for the Veyron 16.4 Bug!

Whilst an even more bullish valuation was the premium-inclusive £911,000 paid for one of only two surviving 1992 Mazda RX-7FD Veilside Fortune Coupes employed in ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’ action movie, but spared from the drifting sequences.
With the benefit of hindsight, the Tokyo Drifter auctined had been over-cautiously estimated at £250,000-350,000 pre-sale, which was throughily overtaken by successful bidder and under-bidders.
A still matching numbers 1957 M-B 300SL Roadster - imported in dismantled form from the US to the UK by Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan in shipping containers with a brace of repatriated WW2 Spitfires in 1995 - had been in receipt of a 23 year restoration completed by Kevin O’Keefe in 2021 and UK registered, before deservedly selling for the £866,200 required.
Other front of house displayed Mercs to change guardians here included a circa 10,650 total mileage 2009 SLR McLaren 722S 641bhp 207mph. One of a 150 strong Special Edition Roadsters commemorating the Stirling Moss victory of the 1955 Mille Miglia, With GP Journo and sidecar racing passenger Denis Jenkinson on the pace notes and with Number (and this Model) Number 722, the Brits had started the Italian Road Race at 07.22.
The appropriately retro-registered ‘MO55 SLR’ with video-recorded Sir Stirling Moss autographed bodywork, was bid to £455,000 and post-sale sold for an unpublished price, likely to have been circa the £500,000 lower estimate.
A track-focused Project One Edition variant of the 2022 vintage Merc-AMG GT ‘Black Series’ was only available to AMG ONE Hypercar allocation holders at launch. With twin-turbocharged, flat-plane crankshaft 4-litre V8 delivering 730 horsepower, the example auctioned had only been tamed by one owner in 4-point Schroth harness for 830 ballistic miles in three years before fetching a within estimate £437,000.
One of 69 Jaguar XJ220 Coupes in Right-Hand Drive, a 1999 car with Stage 1 factory brakes upgrade driven a mere 2,793 miles by two owners required recommissioning, but still achieved an accurately estimated £310,500 with premium.
As did the much viewed 1928 Bentley chassis ‘KM 3091’ registered ‘YV 9486’ with 4½-Litre engine number ‘KM 3090’ renewed with ‘XF 3514’ in 1930, but still the original D-Type gearbox, windscreen and Vanden Plas Tourer coachwork for 4 fresh air breathers, which had come to market for the first time in 35 years to realise a mid-estimate £304,750 with premium.
The top ten prices were completed by the R-R Goodwood-manufactured in 2008 and very Middle Eastern Phantom Drophead Coupe with 21,618 mileage, that had been uniquely commissioned with stainless steel bonnet option costing first owner Sheikh Rashid of Bahrain £25,000, cost the third owner £190,900 with premium, £11,000 over guide.
While an only just below forecast £345,000 was accepted for a 1986 Aston Martin DB4 ‘Series V’ in receipt of 1984-85 restoration including respray and rebuilt Vantage engine in 2020.
A fuel-injected from new in 1970 DB6 Mk2 Manual requiring recommissioning made £178,250, estimated money, and a best bid of £80,000 (amounting to a just over guide £92,000 with premium) did land a dusty1969 Aston Martin DB6 Auto with rubbed down filler needing full restoration that had been dormant since 2003. 
Even though there was the largest gathering yet of original and built-up MG Metro 6R4s beside the Rally Stage at this year’s Festival, there was nobody in the auction tent with the £250,000+ sought for the former 1997 Sunseeker National winning 1987 dated 6R4 chassis ‘0046’.
Packing a 400bhp International 3.0 V64V, the Group B had been latterly owned by the late and great Colin McRae, who famously drove ‘D459 XHJ’ on Motors TV to open the course on the Colin McRae Stages Rally, but which ran out of auction road with £220,000 on the scoreboard.
Among lower priced classics in the well air-conditioned tent to change hands, a No Reserve Jaguar XKR-S Convertible, a bespoke build with unique trim for Ian Callum, for whom ‘VX12 CYZ’ was the Chief Designer’s daily driver in 2012, was hammered for £32,200 with premium, well below the lower estimate of £40,000.
Another No Reservist was a Chequered Flag supplied in 1962 Lotus Elite S1.  With 1,558cc Twin Cam transplant in place of original 1,216cc Coventry-Climax FWE SOHC, the shabby all-GRP FHC that had last turned a wheel in 2012 may well have been well taken on in 2025 for £25,300.
For the same mid-estimate money purchased a 1966 MGB FIA-spec racer with hardtop that had recent HSCC and Guards Trophy Champs class winning form. While a last exercised in 2024 Lotus Elan +2S from 1969 had come to auction from a deceased estate to fetch £9,775.
The first 56 lots of Finest Automobilia had the gilt-edged provenance of being formerly the property of the late Jack Barclay, Brooklands Racing Driver, the most world’s famous Bentley Dealer with showrooms in London’s Great Portland Street, Hanover Square and still in Berkeley Square.
Offered Without Reserve, Barclay’s Brooklands trophies, books, photo albums, motoring paintings and registrations all sold out for a premium-inclusive £823,533 under Toby Wilson’s gavel for very strong prices and one UK record.
For a Frederick Gordon Crosby water colour of 1923 French GP winner Segrave’s Sunbeam about to overtake a supercharged Fiat on the Tours public roads circuit raised a more than top estimate £21,760.
Charles Sykes’ circa 1910 Original Design for the Rolls-Royce ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ mascot of nude female with billowing drapery in pencil, charcoal and pastel on paper pulled £22,400, over double the lower estimate.
A way above catalogued £25,600 was forthcoming for a circa 1930 Cartier keyless pocket watch with enamel initials ‘JB’ and sapphire set bezel with platinum and pearl chain for the Superdealer’s cigar cutter.
Cherished Registrations on Retention - ‘SCB 1’, guided at £20,000-30,000, flew to £48,300 and the March 1932 issued ‘JB 1’ (‘Jack Barclay 1’ had been displayed on 6 of Jack Barclay’s R-R and Bentley cars over the years) was eventually sold for the first time in 92 years to a ‘UK resident JB’ (a John Bull or James Bond fan?)  to enormous applause for £608,600, more than double the £200,000-300,000 estimate band and a new UK record price for a Cherished Registration.
Goodwood Vital Statistics –
when the auction book had been closed, 40 or 67% of the 60 collector grade motor cars in the traditional glossy catalogue auctioned by James Knight and Richard Stafford sold for a 15% buyers’ premium-inclusive £9,871,475, an average of £246,787 being spent per car sold.
Including the 100% sold preceding Automobilia session however, the Friday sale grossed £10,700,008 with premium
, the highest grossing sale in the Brexit British Isles this year, so far, and the overall sell-through rate had risen to 80%.
12 or 20% of cars hammered, 15% of those offered, had been consigned Without Reserve and were going to be sold for whatever was bid. Below estimate offers were accepted by 8% of vendors, whereas 19 cars achieved estimated figures and 4 sold for more than their estimate bands, 58% of those sold selling for estimated or more than forecast sums.

Three days earlier Tuesday 8 July in front of historic Cliveden House, once the High Society Seat of Lord Astor and the Gossip Columns Set and the infamous location for ‘The Profumo Affair’ in 1961, now the very stylish Iconic Chain Thameside Hotel in Berkshire, RM Sotheby’s returned for their second Summer Garden Party sale, where 75% of the 1905-2017 contents of their catalogue changed portfolios for £6.3m.
After all 18 No Reserve Oldtimers from the Irish Collection of the late Jim Boland had found new Motor Houses to go to - including a 1929 Bentley 6½-Litre Tourer in the style of VDP acquired for £275,000 and £103,500 secured a 1921 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Tourer by Hooper from 40 years in Boland’s portfolio - the Lotus Elite Climax S2 first owned by Honda Founder Soichiro Honda in 1961, also auctioned Without Reserve, was bought for £73,600 with premium.
Having been warmed up with NR cars, all of which were going to sell for whatever was bid, the sun-soaked salegoers were far less active for the next 41 classics, vendors reserves for 16 of which were not matched or bettered.
The late afternoon into early evening’s results were therefore headed by the late Barry Burnett’s 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster with Hardtop, colour-changed during back to German bare metal restoration 1988 and UK rebuilt engine and injection pump 2019, for which a below £700,000 estimated £657,500 with premium was accepted.
A rare in right-hand drive 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L Lusso Berlinetta, first owned by racing hill climber Phil Scragg in period, had been expected to star, but ran out of interest with £800,000 on the screens.
It was left therefore for another Right-Handed 1969 365 GTC with Classiche Red Book to top the prices with a within estimate band £567,500 valuation by a buyer. A £50,000 below guide £398,750 with premium was accepted for a Maranello Concessionaires supplied in 1973 365 GTB/4 Daytona Berlinetta with 44,714 mileage.
The only 1957 Aston Martin DB4 Prototype ‘DP114/2’ with Frank Feeley styled body made a forecast £421,250 and a 1930 1½-Litre International 2/4-Seater raised a mid-estimate £97,000.   
One of only 3 CA07 LMP1 made, a finisher in two Le Mans 24 Hours 2008/9 and the subject of BBM Sport restoration, had been estimated to sell for £550,000-750,000, but sold for £410,000 with premium.
Used by HM King George V for ‘Troops Inspections’ on the Western Front during WW1, a 1914 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost ‘Colonial’ Limousine was privatised again in a Ministry of Munitions auction at Earls Court 12 November 1919 and sold again here 5 July 2025 for £196,500.
A Venezuela and US resident 1957 AC Aceca Bristol Rally/Race-Coupe with restoration and event invoices for £315,000 on file cost the next owner-driver the forecast £120,750.
The Cliveden Numbers
– while 16 cars were returned to their vendors unsold, 47 or 75% of cars auctioned by the gavels of Sholto Gilbertson and Malcolm Barber sold for £6,323,500 with premium, an average of £134,543 per car paid.
6 or 13% of cars fetched more than forecast prices at Cliveden, 19 or 40% sold within their guides and 22 or 47% for less than the lower estimates. By the Friday night at Goodwood, over £16.5m had been spent on 87 collector cars. RH-E

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  • 1955 M-B W196R Streamliner fetches 51,155,000 euros (£42,458,650!) in RM Sotheby's stand-alone M-B Museum Sale

    After a 1 February 2025 bidding battle over the phones and in the room, auctioneer Sholto Gilbertson's record breaking gavel crashed down at £46.5m bid. Raced by Stirling Moss around the banked curves of Monza during the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, the Stromlinienwagen W196R chassis became both the second most valuable collector car auctioned and the world's top priced racer.

    For in the same Mercedes-Benz Heritage GmbH room in Stuttgart in 2022, the same global market leading house also hammered the most expensive car ever sold at auction, the 300SLR 'Uhlenhaut Coupe' flying to a stratospheric 135,000,000 euros with premium (a £112,050,000 world record), making it an all Merc front row!

    One of the very few Silver Arrows to be in a private quiver was gifted in 1965 by the then Daimler-Benz AG Unterturkheim factory to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, who had consigned their 70 year old exhibit to RM Sotheby's, the proceeds to benefit the restorative upkeep and expansion of their Indy 500 themed collection of over 150 vehicles and more than 55,000 artefacts.

    Few historic racing cars resonate as strongly as the famous Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows that dominated Pre-F1 Grand Prix racing in the immediate pre- and post-war era, admired for their advanced technology and spectacular speed. From the ashes of WW2 defeat, the W196R was developed to meet new regulations for engines with up to 2.5-litre displacement introduced in 1954, and it soon proved to be the car to beat in the hands of legends such as Juan Manual Fangio and Stirling Moss. RH-E


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