Last Friday, in the surprisingly quiet confines of the Bonhams tent situated just behind Goodwood House, auctioneer Robert Brooks brought the gavel down on 70 cars, achieving an impressive £17m all in…
World Record
As expected, the big hitters were Stirling Moss’s Porsche RS-61 Spyder, fetching a bang-on-estimate £1,905,500 (inclusive of buyer’s premium, as all listed prices are), and the Aston Martin Works Ulster LM19, which achieved £2,913,500 after an agonisingly long spell of tactical bidding, smashing its £1.6-2.2m estimate and earning a new World Record price for a pre-War Aston Martin in the process. Don't expect to see another offered for sale any time soon...
Perfect Porsche, perfect price
Several cars well exceeded their pre-sale estimates, including the Citroën SM from the collection of Rolling Stone Bill Wyman (£61,000), the matching-numbers Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante (£306,140), and Richard Hamilton’s ‘perfect’ Porsche 911 S (est. 250,000-300,000), the latter fetching a staggering £393,500. And we can’t say we’re surprised – it really did look terrific in the metal.
Crime pays
The £51,750 achieved for James May’s Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera confirmed our thoughts that its £28,000-34,000 estimate was more than reasonable, while the Ferrari 308 Vetroresina’s £60,000-80,000 estimate proved similarly conservative, the achieved £117,980 seeming to us, at least, a little more on the money given its condition. The Ferrari Enzo (est. £600,000-800,000) – recovered by the National Crime Agency and sold under the Proceeds of Crime Act – made £897,500, a strong price given its confusing back-story and dodgy owner.
A number of Series I Jaguar E-types sold well, one gunmetal Coupé surpassing its high estimate by £54,000. And we must admit, we were a little surprised at the £1,513,500 attained for the (t00?) outrageous Mercedes CLK GTR Roadster, a ’90s hypercar showing just eight (yes, eight) kilometres on the clock. What were we saying about ultra-low-mileage classics, again?
A solid sale
It wasn’t all rosy on the day, though, with several key lots failing to sell – take the sale's sole Mercedes 300 SL ‘Gullwing’, both the Ferrari 512BB and black Dino, and the ex-Autodelta Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm, for example. While there were no ‘steals’ as such, we reckon the low-mileage, matching-numbers and highly original Porsche 930 3.3 was a good buy at £102,300, the buyer’s premium nudging it just over its lower estimate.
Photos: Peter Aylward for Classic Driver © 2015
You can find more than 5,000 classic cars for sale in the Classic Driver Market.
