Bentley 8‑litre leads Bonhams' 80th Members' Meeting sale

The 8-Litre story follows a typical Bentley narrative. This was a car designed to rival the Rolls-Royce Phantom II while delivering better performance, evolving the existing 6½-Litre engine by boring out the cylinders to 110mm. However, this, larger engine produced through evolution was joined by a brand new gearbox and chassis.

This particular 8-Litre, on its original licence plate, was ordered as a Thrupp & Maberly landaulette from new but faced being scrapped in 1956. Eventually, it was recovered and re-bodied as a Vanden Plas four-seat tourer by H & H Coachworks.

Playing second fiddle to the Bentley, something completely different. A 1999 Subaru Impreza WRC99 Rally Car driven by Richard Burns alongside co-driver Robert Reid at that year’s Sanremo rally and a stage winner in the 2000 Monte Carlo rally.

Registered ‘T15 SRT’, this WRC99 sold for £448,900 on the back of its extensive and documented history. Sold by Prodrive in 2000, it traded hands in Europe and competed regularly until 2011, before being totally restored in 2018 right down to a period-correct livery for the 2000 Monte Carlo rally. 

Elsewhere, a 1987 Aston Martin V8 Vantage X-Pack Sports Saloon sold for £276,000. The genuine factory-built X-Pack has been meticulously maintained with some of the most extensive history Bonhams says it has ever seen.

It was one of several Astons rounding off the auction top ten, with the fourth most expensive car sold being a 1970 DB6 for £270,250. The rare Mk2 Vantage saloon is one of only 72 built and has been in dry storage since 2012.

One of the very oldest cars in the auction, a 1913 Hispano-Suiza 3.0-litre Type 20 bis Four-Seat Sports Tourer, sold for just over a quarter of a million including premium. One of only 20 cars built, this ultra-rare car has been privately owned since 2002. 

Rounding out the top ten was a 1972 Porsche 911S 2.4-Litre 'Ölklappe' Coupé, a 63/64 Cooper-Chevrolet Racing Sports-Prototype, a 1970 Aston Martin DB6 Mk2 Sports Saloon, a 1996 Porsche 911 993 Turbo, with a history of only five owners and under 24,000 miles and a lovely red Jaguar E-Type Series 1 Roadster.

Other auction highlights include two ex-Formula 1 cars – a 1993 Footwork Arrows-Mugen Honda FA14, as well as the ex-2007 European Grand Prix leading Spyker Ferrari F8-V11, sold in 2008 specification as the first car to race for Force India, the VJM01.