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Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

The 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II that sold for an applauded auction record £292,500 including premium during the Silverstone Auctions Saturday sale at Race Retro had come to market via Germany, Guernsey and New Zealand ownership with just 2772k on the odometer. Very keen telephone and on-line competition from all over the world for the rolling asset, which was one of only 502 produced in Stuttgart, resulted in the homologation special fetching more than double the £140,000+ pre-sale estimate.

By close of play, 53 street-legal classics, 655% of the 81 offered at Stoneleigh, had sold for a premium-inclusive £4.25m, an average of £80,175 per road car being spent by a global audience. Whilst an average of £36,808 with the charges was handed over for 15 competition-spec cars, which sold for an additional £552,120 with premium. The three day sale total for cars therefore amounted to £4.8m, with automobilia and lifestyle items £4.9m, some £1.5m up on the same gig only one year ago. 

Earlier in one of the busiest collector vehicle auction weeks on the UK calendar, there being seven sales in six days, Barons at Sandown Park sold a 1955 Triumph TR2 with TR3 grill that had once belonged to TR guru and author Bill Piggott. Part-restored 2012/14, and with useful upgrades including rack and pinion steering and front disc brakes conversion, ‘VWB 919’ cost the next owner £20,350 with premium.

The £186,810 results should have been headed by the 1928 Rolls-Royce 20hp ‘BX 99’, which co-starred with Alec Guinness in the ‘To Paris With Love’ movie. To comply with the wishes of the post-sale purchaser of the car however, the price paid has not been revealed and what must remain a confidential transaction cannot therefore be included in the published stats for the public auction, which show that 33 or 53% of the 62 classics in the catalogue sold for £186,810 with premium, punters at the Surrey racecourse spending an average of £5661 per car. 

The next day in ‘The Engine Room’ Exhibitions Centre beside the Donington Park racing circuit in the East Midlands, Triumph sportscars topped the H&H price list. £22,400 was paid for a 1959 TR3A that had been repatriated from the US in 2005 and converted to rhd during restoration completed in 2007, and £20,720 bought a 1965 home market TR4A IRS that had also been extensively restored during a 32 year previous ownership.

The £14,000 selling price of an Austin Seven can be explained by the open two-seater being a convincing evocation of a 1938 Mulliner Sports with fabric-covered bodywork and 12v electrics. A 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT sold for £13,277 had been converted to rhd, given a 1750 HTV appearance and fitted with a replacement engine and uprated brakes at some time. While a UK supplied in 1990 Lotus Esprit Turbo had been recently imported from Japan with micro-blistered paint to realise £12,430.

A 1980 Land Rover 88 Series 3 with hardtop appeared to have been well restored for £11,312 and another body-off revived one of 1972 vintage cost the next game keeper £6720. A 1980 Austin Maxi 1750 HLS with 2600 recorded mileage and custom-made wood dash had only outlived one deceased owner and persuaded the next one to part with £5824.

After many provisional bids had been converted into sales, H&H sold 75 or 76% of the 99 classics in their pocket-sized mini-catalogue for £495,605 with premium, an average of £6608 being spent per car mid-week in Derbyshire. Higher value collector vehicles will be crossing the H&H block in the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 April.

At a very fresh weather Bedford Autodrome on a Sunday, 64 of the 74 cars entered for the Classics Central sale went under the hammer of house principal Justin Lacic, 35 or 55% of them being knocked down to new homes for £143,783 with premium, an average of £4108 per car. A customised 1968 Ford Escort Mk1 in tri-tone with 2-litre Pinto moor on twin Webers and 5-speed box and limited slip was the top seller at £13,200 pursued by a 1978 Escort Mk2 with 711-blocked 1700 crossflow a full complement of upgrades sold for £12,045. 

£11,220 was available in Beds for a 1990 BMW E30 325i M Sport Coupe on Alpina alloys with fully stamped service book and all MOTs, and a late-entered 1994 Caterham 7 S3 Ford 1.6 was bought for a well below estimate £9130. As I hit the send-button however, a number of post-sales were still in mid-negotiation. CC’s next sale will be held at the same Thurleigh Airfield Business Park venue 15 May.

The busiest sale of the batch though was at Brightwells on Wednesday, and a confidence boosting auction it was for the market and all who still have the nerve and stamina to ride the surf. For 131 of the 163 cars on offer sold for £1.7m including premium (a £1.75m sale total with bikes and a caravan) and an 80% sale rate was achieved.

Equally priced top sellers in Leominster at £81,400 apiece with premium were a nicely turned out 1934 Bentley 3½-Litre Tourer for four from a deceased estate and a previously repainted 1962 Jaguar E Type S1 3.8 Coupe with engine and gearbox last rebuilt in 2001. A 1960 Mercedes-Benz 190SL manual left hooker with Canadian plates fetched £70,400 with premium, the top estimate figure, and a 1968 280SL Pagoda-top auto, an older restored right-hand drive auto, £68,200. A 1970 E Type S2 4.2, a left to right-hand drive and manual Coupe with Tremec T5 5-speed, sold for £63,800, £8800 more than forecast.

After some rather depressing sale rates earlier within the same week, at least on a Wednesday afternoon in Herefordshire there were buyers for four fifths of the cars for sale. Further analysis of those steeds that were happily rehomed will appear within this resource in a future transmission.