£3.3million Koenigsegg CCGT headlines the Bonhams Festival of Speed sale results

5. 2008 McLaren-Mercedes SLR Roadster

Sold for £327,750

Coming in at number five was this McLaren-Mercedes SLR Roadster from 2008. These normally come in more conservative colour schemes – grey, silver, white or black, with the occasional blue and red – but this one must have been an exception. The yellow is even braver being combined with Classic 300 SLR Silver Arrow red leather on the inside.

The car has barely done 62 miles and has been dry-stored since its purchase, so it’s pretty well in the condition it was delivered in 15 years ago, albeit now with the need for a bit of recommissioning. We hope whoever’s bought it gets it going again and does what the SLR was made to do – undertake some substantial continental touring.

4. 1963 AC MA-200 Roadster Prototype

Sold for £368,000

Beating the mega Mac? A humble AC from 1963, though this one’s really rather special. It’s a prototype called the MA-200 Roadster, which was an investigation into replacing the seminal Ace sportscar. Why did it never actually happen? AC were highly preoccupied building Cobras for Carroll Shelby, so never actually got round to it.

A shame, as this prototype is running proof of promise. Packing a 4.7-litre Ford V8, the MA-200 Roadster is wider and longer than the Ace, running on a space-frame chassis. The car was run by AC’s managing director, Derek Turlock, until being sold in 1968. Restored to near-original condition in the early 2000s, the car won a Best In Class award at Amelia Island. A well-documented piece of AC’s history that we’re sure the new owner will be delighted with.

3. 2008 McLaren-Mercedes SLR Coupe ‘Crown Edition’

Sold for £379,500

No, you’re not seeing double. Another SLR, in an almost identical yellow hue, is a coupe this time. Called the ‘Crown Edition’, it benefits from a range of 722 Edition upgrades, including the 650PS (478kW) engine ramp-up, the enlarged splitter and diffuser and 722 wheels. It also has the Silver Arrow interior and is built to Swiss specifications.

Like the above roadster, it’s barely moved, having covered just 26 miles in its 15-year life. It will also need a thorough going-over before it can be used properly given that, really, it’s never been used. We hope that’s the first thing the new owner does. The two were almost certainly bought originally as a pair. We wonder if they were again…

2. 1964 Aston Martin DB5

Sold for £625,400

Second-placed on the billing jumps pricing up a couple of hundred thousand. This Aston Martin DB5 is in perfect ‘Bond’ spec, being a Silver Birch 1964 car. It’s also a very low-mileage car for its age, having covered just 48,000 miles in its 59 years. Last sold in 2013, the car has since undergone an extensive restoration with marque specialists Pugsley & Lewis between 2017 and 2019, costing over £300,000 including the new silver paint job.

Happily, this is a DB5 that’s ready to drive, with modern upgrades to improve performance and efficiency including an alloy radiator, a cooling fan, electric-assisted steering and a modernised radio. First stop, the South of France…

1. Koenigsegg CCGT

Sold for £3,319,000

Of course you know what headed up the sale. It couldn’t have been anything other than the incredible one-of-one Koenigsegg CCGT, the Swedish hypercar maker’s stillborn GT1 racer. The car was two months into development and shakedown runs when the GT1 rules changed, banning carbon tubs and raising mandatory production numbers for homologation.

For a car ultimately without a purpose, the CCGT has led a sheltered life, being kept in climate and light-controlled conditions with semi-regular servicing. Having been owned by one private buyer since the factory sold it, the car is now finally ready to race, with Endurance Racing Legends granting it eligibility in its GT1 series, in spite of never having actually competed. Good lord, we hope we see it finally fulfilling its design brief…

Event photography by Pete Summers