As the Judges force the Government to ban the sale of even new petrol cars, classic car auction price falls of unknown depths are very likely in the short term. While I fear a long term collapse in most values and, indeed, most of the market as we know it, may be inevitable – as local authorities are empowered to tax and then ban old cars from even urban areas and fossil fuels are in very real danger of disappearing from what will be a dwindling number of forecourts.

For if the elected politicians prevent you from driving your classic car where you want to go and you are unable to refuel it when you get there, unless you have a motor museum, then there would appear to be little point in enforced ‘static ownership’ of a forever inactive artefact. Maybe only if a collector vehicle can be vandalised with some sort of green-friendly, retro-fit cassette motor, might the continued funding of increasing preservation costs be justified, let alone the provision of precious garage space.

Those owners who lose their nerve first will consign their classics to auction first and be the first to cash in their chips on a no reserve basis and accept what somebody is now prepared to pay for a fossil fuelled classic with the realisation that that the end of the old road is now nigh. Those with few driving years in stock and the will to spend rather than bequeath a few quid may soon be able to land a hitherto unaffordable investor-grade supercar for the yesterday price of a MGB.

There will always be a market for every commodity, of course, however unfashionable. For even with bombs falling in the London blitz, old masters were reportedly being dealt by candlelight on a promise to pay if still alive basis. Although classic car auctions may have to revert to what, historically, all auctions used to be pre-reserves, real auctions, where the object of the exercise always used to be to establish current value through all lots definitely selling for whatever somebody was prepared to pay when the hammer fell on the day.

The new reality may quickly also become a ‘today market’ rather than what a classic car might or might not be worth in the future, which thanks to ‘The Michael Gove Bombshell’ has become even more uncertain than ever before. In the meantime, and unless The Donald is trumped, which is always possible, the climate change denying US will continue their love affair with the gas guzzling automobile and most high value collector vehicles are likely to be air-freighted to a playing field where the goal posts have not been uprooted.

Sale rates in public auction are the most accurate barometer of the true state of the classic car market and, although there have been some recent exceptions, the current trend would appear to be less cars auctioned are selling - and, where they do sell, most achieved prices are below the pre-sale estimates that were established often several months ago.

For the same weekend as the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Bonhams sold 70% of the 86 cars in their Friday sale catalogue and 26 of them did not sell, there were buyers for only 52% of the 122 Artcurial cars on the Sunday in Monaco and 59 were unsold.

Whereas the following weekend at Brooklands, 101 of the 128 classics consigned by Historics changed hands in Surrey during a 79% sold Saturday session, although 27 of the reserves set by vendors were too much for the registered bidders, more than 200 of whom were competing for cars on-line. By the Wednesday afternoon at Leominster in Herefordshire however, while 75 of the 123 cars in the Brightwells sale sold, 48 of them did not, and on Saturday afternoon at palatial Blenheim in Oxfordshire,  both attendance in the Coys tent and obvious sales certainly ‘appeared to be’ well down on past pitches at the stately Oxfordshire venue.

The next day during Sunday trading in Dorset at the ‘Classics at Sherborne Castle’ event, there were buyers for only 38% of the 55 cars in and around the Charterhouse tent, from where 34 unsold cars had to be trailered back from whence they came. The following Tuesday in Surrey, 21 more classics did not sell at Sandown Park, where Barons sale rate was 48%, although the premium-inclusive prices paid for 15 of them did exceed their pre-sale estimates. Among market encouraging movers, a much viewed and restored 1970 Jaguar E Type S2 4.2 FHC sold for a £6700 more than top estimate £51,700, and a mint and upgraded 1964 Jensen CV8 for £48,950, again £950 above the guide.

The greater number of lower sale rates may just be a holiday time blip, of course. Although such a glut of unsold cars could be a timely reality check for auction car reserves, so many of which are now no longer achievable.

Although the once David Gilmour of Pink Floyd owned 1988 Ferrari F40 with a fiery past failed to find a friend in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed auction marquee, 70% of the 86 cars in the Bonhams catalogue did change portfolios.

The £10.26m leader board was headed by a disc-braked 1962 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster with hardtop sold for a mid-estimate £897,500. Also sharing the podium was a 1973 Porsche 911 RS Lightweight in right-hand drive sold for £830,500, again within the guide band, and £779,900 was forthcoming for an over-large for most 1931 Bentley 8-Litre Sedanca De Ville by H J Mulliner.

A princely £550,300 meanwhile, £150,000 more than expected, was required in order to secure a 1914 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Open Tourer that used to transport the Maharana of Udaipur in some style. The new going rate at auction for a 1972 Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona in right-hand drive meanwhile was £539,100 and an early, but nearly too scruffy 28/50hp Merc from 1911 with Robinson of Norwich Open Tourer coachwork picked up a most respectable £359,900.

Whilst the 1957 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk2, which became DB Mk3 Prototype that was driven on the 1958 Monte by the BBC’s Raymond Baxter of ‘Tomorrow’s World’ fame, rallied to a £337,500 result. For despite the worst efforts of our Elected Representatives and the Bad News obsessed media, and although 26 cars had to be transported back to their vendors, there were still plenty of big money movers in the lee of the Sussex Downs to cheer up long haul travellers.

The same weekend in sun-baked Monaco, Artcurial offered 122 voitures during a close to five hour session in the Grimaldi Forum and sold 52% of them under the hammer for 8.1m euros (£7.13m), a much raced in the US 1970s Porsche comfortably exceeding the magic 1m euros, while 23 other auction cars changed hands for over 100,000 euros apiece. For the Sunday sale’s top seller, a 1974 Porsche Carrera RSR 3.0 sold for 1,724,000 euros (£1,517,120), had raced at Sebring eight times in the 12 Hours and competed no less than seven times in the Daytona 24 Hours.

The other headliners beside the Med were a Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta, driven 4200k by one owner from new in 2015, sold for 524,700 euros including 16.6% (£461,736) and a Team Zakspeed triple FIA GT series winning 2005 Saleen S7 R Coupe, that may have an Historic event future, race to a 419,760 euros (£369,389) result. A 2014 restored and Ferrari Classiche certificated 1967 330GT 2+2 made 373,120 euros (£328,346) and a one owner 2005 Ford GT 338,140 euros (£297,563).  The going in the tax haven was far from firm, decidedly sticky even, as 59 auction cars were unsold, their reserves too high for current market conditions.