Ferraris and Porsches might still make the really big money at auctions, but it’s not all about the exotic makes, as some astonishing prices for Fords, Vauxhalls, Renaults and Peugeots at the Silverstone Auctions sale at the weekend showed.
AUG 01st 2017
£114k Sierra, £38k 205 GTI, £72K Lotus Carlton headline Silverstone sale
Welcome to the world of the £100,000-plus Ford Sierra Cosworth. A 1987 RS500 with just 10,733 miles from new eventually sold for £114,750 (including the premium) after a fierce bidding war. Silverstone Auctions’ presale estimate was £90-100,000.
A 2010 Focus RS500, number 70 of only 500 made, that has covered just 130 miles sold for £54,000. Blue Oval cars with higher mileages also did well: a 1987 Ford Capri 280 Brooklands beat its lower estimate by more than £20,000 to sell for £55,125 while a 1973 Ford Escort Mk1 Mexico went for £34,313.
Special Vauxhalls – and none more special than the Lotus Carlton – also found new homes, but at very different prices that show just how important low mileage is. A 1991 version of the 176mph super-saloon with 4500 miles on the clock sold for £72,000 while another ’91 car but with 73,000 miles up went for £23,625.
Other everyday classics that caught our eye:
- 1988 Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9, with 5726 miles, sold for £38,480.
- 1981 Renault 5 Turbo, sold for £74,250.
- 1959 Volkswagen 23-Window Samba, sold for £65,250.
- 1967 Fiat 1000 Abarth TC, sold for £13,500.
- 2015 Rowan Atkinson’s Land Rover 90 Celebration Heritage Edition, one of 400 final models, sold for £48,000.
And for the real high rollers? The six-figure cars were headlined at the sale during the Silverstone Classic weekend by a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona that once belonged to Sir Elton John – it is said he bought it on the back of success with his album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. The Ferrari sold for £551,250.
Earlier at Silverstone Auctions’ racing car sale at the circuit, the bullish mood was set by the sale, at £100,000 over its estimate, of a works Group A Lancia Delta Integrale, as driven by four-times World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen. The car in its iconic Martini Racing livery eventually sold for £225,000.
For that, you could have bought the brace of road-going Delta Integrale Evo IIs in the sale several times over, even though both beat their pre-sale estimates: one ex-Jay Kay car sold for £42,118 and a bright yellow 1993 example went for £33,750.
Other race car highlights of the sale included the ex-Tim Harvey Labatt’s liveried BMW E30 M3 which sold for £146,250 including premium. Alas the ex-Barry Sheene Group A Toyota Supra touring car – you may remember seeing it at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard in 2016 – didn’t sell. It is available now at £67,200.

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