200 CLASSIC CARS FROM CLOSED STONDON MUSEUM TO GO UNDER THE HAMMER

A motoring museum’s entire collection of vehicles is to go under the hammer at two specially held auctions – and all of them will have no reserve.

Stondon Motor Museum said that following its decision to close the Bedfordshire attraction after 20 years its collection will be sold by Brightwells, with the motorcycles being sold on 29 April and the rest of its collection – including more than 200 classic cars – on Wednesday, 10 June.

Museum director Chris Saunders said ‘many happy years’ had been spent amassing the 400 vehicles at the museum.

He said: ‘While it’s worth remembering a lot of them haven’t been started in 10-12 years, they’ve all been stored indoors and looked after, and haven’t been racking up the miles on the road.

‘We have spent many happy years amassing the collection," said John’s son, Chris Saunders, "but the care and maintenance of such a large and diverse assortment of vehicles has become increasingly onerous and we have now decided that the time has come to move on.

The collection from the museum, originally opened in 1994 by Chris’ father John, also includes buses, fire engines, a replica of George Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive and a Soviet missile launcher.

Brightwells said it was delighted to be able to handling the task of selling the entire collection, and that a huge amount of planning and logicial organisation has gone into planning the two sales.

While details of some of the museum’s vehicles can already be seen on the auction house’s website, a full catalogue detailing all of the Stondon vehicles will be published on 1 June.

Richard Binnersley, managing director, said: ‘Everything will be sold, no matter what, so this is your one and only chance to grab a slice of motoring history.’

The no reserve rarities going under the hammer:

ADC Scout

Automotive Development Consultants – one of the firm’s involved in the initial development of the MGF – created thisMetro-based baby off-roader in 1991, predating the ‘soft roader’ theme of the Rover Streetwise by more than a decade. However, despite providing the doner car, Rover never followed up development of the model.

 

Rover P6 Estoura

Coachbuilders FLM Panelcraft built around 160 of these P6-based estates, which were sold – with Rover’s factory blessing – through HR Owen’s dealer network. Stondon’s 1974 car is one of the more desirable variants, being fitted with Rover’s 3.5-litre V8.

 

Russian aquacar

Chris’ father John purchased this Soviet-eraamphibious creation in 2006 as part of a batch of vehicles from a collector who specialised in East German military vehicles. It will be joined at the 10 June sale by other Eastern Bloc vehicles, including a Trabant 601, a Škoda Rapid 120G Coupé, and a Soviet-era mobile missile launcher.

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