’Tis the season to spend, spend, spend as the big collectors’ car auctions of 2017 get into top gear. As ever sale prices – rather than presale estimates – provide the best guide to the state of the market, so we thought we would take a quick look through a couple of recent results…
MAY 18th 2017
£780k DB6 leads Bonhams' Aston Martin super‑sale
Bonhams held its annual Aston-only sale at the Aston Martin Works building in Newport Pagnell on May 13th. As predicted (see our preview story here) the gorgeous DB6 Volante made top money. And the very rare Aston Martin estate car did well too. Here’s the top 10:
£785,500, 1970 DB6 Mk 2 Volante
£561,500, 1964 DB5 saloon
£382,300, 1970 DB6 Mk 2 Vantage saloon
£337,500, 1996 V8 Sportsman estate
£292,700, 1967 DB6 Vantage saloon
£225,500, 1961 DB4 ‘Series III’ saloon project
£212,060, 1958 DB Mk3 saloon
£197,500, 1982 V8 Vantage Volante
£180,700, 1953 DB2 Drophead coupe
…and at the other end of the range: £28,750 for the rebuilt-by-Aston 1979 Lagonda saloon. Guide price was twice that!
Silverstone Auctions’ May Sale at the circuit on May 13th comprised 75 collectors’ cars, 72 per cent of which found new homes. For our preview (see feature here) we looked at five convertibles, from VW Beach Buggy to Ferrari F355. One that did particularly well was the Porsche 944 Turbo Cabriolet, going for almost £40k when its estimate was £20-30,000. We thought the best four-pot Porsches were on the up!
As well as strong Porsche prices, the Jaguars did well, the Ferraris less so. The star car, a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 failed to find a buyer on the day (it’s available now for £220,000), while in the sub £100k category a Testarossa, 512 TR, 348, 308 and 355 were other models not to sell on the day.
The big prices were:
£556,875, 1993 Porsche 911 (964) Turbo S Leichtbau
£348,750, 1971 Aston Martin DB6 Mk3 Vantage
£164,250, 1989 Porsche 911 Speedster
£123,750, 1961 Porsche 356B Cabriolet
£121,500, 1955 Jaguar XK140 SE
£112,500, 1965 Jaguar E-Type Series I Roadster
…and at the other end of the scale, £29,250 for the 1960 Bentley S2 that Sir Ray Davies of the Kinks bought after “Lola” became a hit!
Ferraris that did sell at the Silverstone Auction were:
£103,500, 5600-mile 1989 328 GTS
£91,125, 1996 F355 Spider
£87,750, 1985 308 GTS Quattrovalve
£66,375, 1993 348 Spider
£54,000, 1985 308 GTS QV modified with Ferrari V12 engine
£36,000, 1981 308 GTSi

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