S T O P P R E S S
Driven 121m by 1 vendor owner, 2000/4 WRX STi based Prodrive P25 flew to auction record £562,500 under Iconic gavel at Race Retro
While the Midland auctioneers' sale rate may have eased to 64% for Competition Cars 22 February at Stoneleigh Park, just over £1m was spent on 21 of them, a very racey £50,035 average per Historic sold. In addition, 45 or 70% of the 64 collector cars in the main section then sold for £3,239,500, a premium-inclusive £68,011 per classic forthcoming from buyers of classics.
3 out of 4 Group B cars offered by Iconic sold, their results market-making with a premium-inclusive £305,000, £45,000 less than forecast, accepted for an only1,404 miles since 1986 Ford RS200 S, one of 20 built to 350hp S spec in recent receipt of £70,000+ recommissioning.
Austin Rover Factory Team in 1986 MG Metro 6R4 'C818 FFC', rallied by Tony Pond in Portugal and David Llewellyn in South Wales, and Malcolm Wilson's San Remo test car, was valued by its new owner at the just under guide £270,000 paid. While a back to shell restored and mechanically rebuilt 1987 6R4 Clubman 3 Litre 'D807 UJN' with 10 pages of invoices on file found a lower estimated £200,500.
A within estimate band £146,250 bought a Le Mans Classic eligible Chevron B8 chassis DBE-54, uniquely fitted with a 2-litre Coventry-Climax in 1968, when extensively raced by Peter Crossley, but BMW powered from 1969, currently packing a zero hours Lester Owen rebuilt motor.
The new owner of a 1985 Audi S1 E2 Sport Quattro, employed as the donor to replicate a 'Pike's Peak Special', thought Keith Edwards 800bhp+ one-off was worth a mid-estimate £123,750. Another bidder invested a more than top estimate £77,063 in the future prospects of a 1990 UR-Quattro 20-Valve RR road car, one of only 295 in right-hand drive, that was fresh from four year restoration.
This year's Race Retro going rate for a UK-delivered in 2000 Mitsubishi Evolution VI 'Tommi Makinen Edition', very fully loaded with every conceivable Ralliart upgrade, was bid to £70,000 net, the lower estimate, costing the new keeper £78,750 gross.
The £58,500 result of a £40,000-50,000 guided 1983 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus Series 2 road car established a second world record price for the sale, but the 41 year old bodyshell had been treated to 'Open Seam' reconstruction during total restoration.
A 1982 Porsche 911 SC Targa,repainted in Hellbronze Metallic with period-correct retrim in tan leather with brown and beige Pasha velour inserts, had been forecast to fetch £45,000-55,000. In receipt of £30,000 worth of resto-bills from Norfolk Premier Coachworks, Redtech Engineering and Export 56, it was bid to £60,000 and valued by a new owner at £67,500 with premium.
The Warwickshire firm's sale day stats therefore amounted to 66 or 68% sold from 97 offered for £4,290,243 with premium, road classics and competition ones together realising £65,004 average per car, 31 of which were unsold.
As vast neighbouring HS2 earthworks will continue to defile swathes of prime English countryside for many years at the expense of taxpayers, who will never ever buy a ticket to ride, the Race Retro season opening event plus auctions are already booked to return to the former Royal Showground at Stoneleigh from 20 to 22 February 2026.
The Saturday going was much softer for Historics at Royal Ascot Racecourse 1 March, when 185 runners and their vendor riders competed for bids with many struggling to cross the finish line, though by the time bids were converted into sales, 116 or 63% of classics displayed inside and outside the main Grandstand complex had changed keepers for £2,095,050 with premium, an average of £18,061 paid per car.
The £550,000 lower estimate was unachievable on the day for a starring 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4-Cam V12 'Daytona' Berlinetta in Blu Chiaro Metalizzato, one of 149 in right-hand drive.
The day's top seller was a deceased estate sourced 1933 Lagonda M45 with T7 Open-Tourer coachwork repainted in Green in 1991, for which a well below £130,000-170,000 forecast £105,000 was bid and £117,600 with premium paid. A 1994 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evo II lefty, one of 220 in Giallo Ginestra, estimated at £85,000-95,000, made £86,240 with premium.
Some of the prices, £61,600 paid for a £58,000-70,000 1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III MPW Chinese Eye Coupe, one of 47 in RHD from 2 family ownership, and the most viewed lot, a Gumball Rally entrant 1963 Jaguar Mk2 'Coombs Evocation' with 280bhp 3.8 and LSD that cost over £100,000 to build, sold for a within guide £55,000.
The £44,800 paid for a 2007 Aston Martin Vanquish S with 2+2 seating and 17 service stamps made a more than £32,000-42,000 estimate £44,800. A £24,000-32,000 estimated Ford Transit Mk2 LWB, driven an unrepeatable 147 miles from new with 1983 purchase invoice, collected £41,440, record money.
A one private owner 2007 Porsche 911 997 Carrera S with 12 OPC service stamps during 21,584 mileage sold for a more than guide £37,000. Whereas a £2,720 below estimate £21,280 was accepted for a 1980 MGB GT Webasto with EV Conversion by Sebring Works energised by 10 Jaguar Ipace batteries. 70 car lots were unsold however. Historics next such 'live' auction will be held Saturday 3 May within the huge Farnborough International Exhibition Hall.
One week after Historics Ascot sale, another 100 collector cars had been consigned by Hampson Sunday 9 March for the North West auctioneers first Bolesworth Castle Cheshire sale of the 2025 season, when 73 or 73% of lots sold for £895,218 with premium, an average of £12,263 spent per car bought. 27 being unsold.
An officially licensed 'Gone in Sixty Seconds' Eleanor 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback, previously the property of football legend Thierry Henry, fetched £140,625, the lower estimate. A Mercedes CL63 AMG with only 1,500 warranted mileage from new in 2007 realised a low estimate £26,508.
Auctioned Without Reserve were a now rare and correct supercharged 1931 Austin Seven Ulster sold for £23,625, a 1968 Chevvy Corvette Convertible manual £21,225 and the final car from the Catalunya Limited Edition run of the 1998 Subaru Impeza Turbo, celebrating Colin McRae's WRC victory in Spain, £7,312. 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
