11 Stars from the Bonhams 77th Members’ Meeting sale
Rocketman’s Ferrari Boxer and the King of Cool’s Excalibur – plus a huge variety of other collectors’ cars in every shape and form – were among the sale highlights of the Bonhams 77th Members’ Meeting auction at Goodwood this weekend.
Rocketman’s Ferrari Boxer and the King of Cool’s Excalibur – plus a huge variety of other collectors’ cars in every shape and form – were among the sale highlights of the Bonhams 77th Members’ Meeting auction at Goodwood this weekend.
Meanwhile the car that took the fancy of the King of Cool – Dean Martin – is rarer still, with only 22 of the V8-powered Mercedes SSK-style cars built in 1973. Restored, with 21,000 miles and that famous name in the logbook as the first owner, the Excalibur went to a new home for £75,900.
Here are some more highlights from the auction:
Top priced child’s car
The honours here went to surely every kid’s dream machine: a miniature Silver Arrows pedal car. Made by Audi in 2008, the half scale replica of the famous Auto Union Type C sold for £6,325. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of the cars were hand-made with an aluminium body clothing a spaceframe chassis. The car features spoked wheels, pneumatic tyres, hydraulic disc brakes and chain drive with seven forward speeds. Some kid’s going to be very happy…
Top priced number plate
Selling for way above its pre-sale estimate the star registration plate at this year’s auction sold for £166,750 including the premium. The plate? U8.
Top priced racing car
A McLaren from the company’s glory days dominating Can-Am racing in North America was top lot among the competition machines. The 1966 M1B Group 7 Can-Am car, recently fettled by no less than Lanzante Racing, sold for £172,500. The Chevy 5.8-litre V8 powered sports racer has had only one shakedown test since refurbishment – we certainly hope to see it at Members’ Meeting next year!
Top priced police car
With so many Minis providing so much entertainment elsewhere during the 77th Members’ Meeting, it was fitting another period-perfect Mini was in the Bonhams sale. But this was no racer, this was the car Liverpool Police used to catch all the boy racers. The 1970 Mini Cooper 1,275cc S MkII has been fully restored and could one day race… now that would make quite a sight chasing the field in the Betty Richmond Trophy with blue lights ablaze. It sold for £31,050.
Top priced American car
Postwar Cadillacs don’t get much more desirable than an Eldorado convertible, and the 1954 Series 2 example in the sale showed why in spectacular fashion. Magnificent in its extravagance and over-the-top style, the car came to the UK in 1983 and has been restored to concours condition. How to make a big American statement for £69,000!
Top priced Jaguar
Beating the E-Types on price, the exquisite XK150 S in the sale amply demonstrated why it is regarded as the ultimate XK sports car by selling for £188,333. The 3.8-litre roadster, one of only 24 right-drive S roadsters, has been continuously maintained rather than restored and today is said to be outstandingly original – right down to a service book signed by Sir Williams Lyons.
Top priced Rolls-Royce
That was the 1931 20/25HP Shooting Brakes with coachwork by James Young. The car was originally commissioned – by American banker and US ambassador to the UK J Pierpoint Morgan II – as a landaulet bodied by Barker and Co. before being converted to a shooting brake in 1942. Perfect for a bit of huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’, the Rolls sold for £50,600.
Top priced Porsche
The star among a good selection of Porsches in the sale was a 356A Speedster which sold for £241,500. Not currently UK registered, this super little 356 was restored in 2006 and has covered 11,000km since.
Top priced French car
Of several Citroen DSs in the sale – some at the temptingly affordable end of the market – the star was the DS21 Décapotable, one of the original Henri Chapron convertibles from 1966. The rare right-hand-drive French beauty has had effectively two owners since 1986. It sold for £117,300.
Top priced Mercedes
One of the cars from the Key Museum in Turkey in the sale, the 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SC coupe with Sindelfingen coachwork sold for an impressive £356,500. Only 200 of this post-war top-of-the-range Mercedes were ever made.
Photography by Pete Summers and Bonhams.
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