Among the £1000 Penny Farthing bicycles and collections of farm machinery offered at its 20 October, ‘Vintage’ Sale, Cambridge-based auctioneers Cheffins achieved a new World Record for a Land Rover sold at auction when it moved ‘UKE 80’ on for £129,000.
The reason? One celebrated former keeper.
Famous owners’ names don’t carry much more weight than that of Winston Spencer Churchill. The car had been presented to the wartime leader by Rover to mark the occasion of his 80th birthday, and carried special modifications to accommodate the larger-than-life figure’s larger-than-normal frame.
Riding on a wave of interest in the British company’s world-class 4x4s, bidding on the car swiftly broke first its estimate (£60,000) and then the £100k mark, finally selling for a record-setting £129k.
