Clockwork Alfa fetched more money than half the full-sized classics at Charterhouse auction in Shepton Mallet,  where really scruffy, though low mileage, 2-owner Mini Van on SORN sells unseen to internet bidder for £2860.

It’s not often that I lead on an automobilia result, but the auction performance of a clockwork-wound and spring-driven  Alfa Romeo P2 in faded orange tinplate by CIJ in the Charterhouse sale well and truly smacked my overworked gob.

Admittedly, the ancient playroom floor racer was in absolutely ‘to die for’ patinated condition after circa 70 years of vendor ownership, during which time a daughter had deployed it for Cindy doll transport duties and a nephew had thankfully only rarely been permitted to subject it to supervised exercise. But the 54cm long time warp rapidly overtook the £1200-1800 pre-sale estimate to achieve £3400 by hammer fall, £3910 with premium - a higher price, indeed, than 13 of the full-size collector vehicles!

Once again at a UK auction, the Minis sold out, led by a £8250 1967 Austin Mini Cooper 998 hydrolastic, with original, though recently refurbished Mk1 shell and new sub-frames. A thickly repainted, but ‘Downtonised’ 1985 Austin Mini Mayfair 1293 with Weber 45 fed MG Metro head was landed for £2530, below estimate. A 1982 Austin Mini City with previously repaired front panels and sills was deservedly inexpensive at £660. Whilst even with only two owners recorded and an MOT pass in January, the £2860 paid by an internet bidder for a matt and nasty 1972 Austin Mini 850 Van with entirely obvious repairs and a completely rusted through rear door was certainly generous, if not incredible.

Even more ambitious to resurrect will be a 1935 Talbot SW75 ‘Barn Find’. Only recently acquired at auction for restoration that had had to be abandoned due a change in the vendor’s circumstances, the Long Wheelbase Saloon, which appeared to be substantially complete and had been stored on a farm by the previous owner for more than years, was taken on again here for £7119, slightly less than in November.

Throughout viewing, it was a previously restored wire wheels shod 1967 MG Midget MkIII that magnetised the most punters who picked at this and that, notably the sills and some bubbling along one rear wing seam, until Richard Bromell’s gavel determined new ownership for £4290 with premium.

Two our three Morris Minors found new homes here, a 1969 Minor 6cwt Van, restored some four years ago and externally clean if unexceptional inside, selling for £5060, just over the guide price, and a 1967 Minor Convertible for £4950, considerably more than the £3200 top estimate. A 1968 Austin A30/35 5cwt Van, restored 2006/9 including pro-repaint, made the forecast £4510. Whilst £2200, £600 below lower estimate, was accepted for a 1975 Rover P6 3500S with the desirable manual-change.

With the Footman James Ford Show taking place in neighbouring units, the top selling Ford at £3603 with premium was a 1977 Capri MkII 1.6 GL which had only done 3000m since restoration with retrim in 1997. A pair of Escort MkIV XR3i from 1990 and 1987 with mileages of 73,000m and 53,000m cost new owners £2475 and £1650 respectively, the former recently repainted and much more glossy.

By the end of a bitter Sunday afternoon in Somerset - when it was simply too cold to contemplate, let alone ride a classic bike (all 3 of which failed to attract buyers) - 19 or 63% of the 30 classics on offer sold for £60,184 with premium and the average spend per vehicle amounted to £3168.

Next week, I will give you my take on the prices paid at H&H Buxton as well as Saturday’s Historics at Brooklands auction and Tuesday’s first Barons sale of the year at Sandown Park. The new season is really hotting up and Dunlop should be particularly delighted as the trusty Swindon-built CRV has very nearly chomped through a set of sticky ST30 Grandtrek M&S. And as the first hedgehog has just woken up in my garden, and to mark Caterham being on the F1 grid in March as a manufacturer, it may even be warm enough soon to fire up the Seven 1700 Supersprint. The neighbours have been warned. RH-E