Six cars under £50,000 we wish we’d bid on at the Classic Car Show last weekend

1970 Fiat 500 - Estimate: £6-8000, Sold for: £7,313

It started as a holiday romance: a trip to Italy and before you can say Cinquecento you’re head over heels in love. The object of desire – a Fiat 500. It didn’t look exactly like this when the female Fiat lover from the UK first saw it, though.

The way it looks here is the result of several months’ worth of passionate craftsmanship by Italian specialists. The buyer wanted to drive it home to the UK but not before it had been fully restored by experts in the country of its birth. Now it’s as smart as 500s get with its period correct Bianco body, red sunroof, red and white interior and correct upholstery and switchgear, plus a bespoke luggage rack. And how did the drive back home from Italy go? Perfetto apparently.

1991 Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9 - Estimate: £15-18,000, Sold for: £19,125

The appeal of the 205 GTi will surely never wane, but finding a good one can be tricky. Silverstone Auctions – which in the past has sold the landmark French hot hatches for record prices – reckon this Cherry Red and half-leather example from 1991 ticks all the right boxes.

It’s lowish miles (35,000) and unmolested inside – the rear parcel shelf hasn’t even been cut about for the virtually obligatory afermarket speakers. It comes with 21 service stamps in the book, the last of which (in June ’19) included a water pump and cambelt change, and has an MoT to next August with no advisories. We are trying to think of another affordable  classic as practical and everyday usable as this that handles anywhere near as well.

1989 Porsche 928 GT - Estimate: £20-25,000, Sold for: £20,813

Here’s your chance to own a freshly fettled 928 – and be on telly. The mighty Porsche, with the reputation for mighty expense, is star car in the pilot episode of a new Channel 4 restoration show, described as “Dragon’s Den in reverse”. The idea is that the owner chooses which restorer – from a selection that have pitched for the job – they would like to recommission their car before it goes for sale. That’s all been done now and according to Silverstone Auctions the mechanical and cosmetic refresh now makes it “one of the best examples of a 928 GT manual you will find”.

The sensible thing here would be to ensure you started with a cracking 928 to begin with of course, and that appears to be the case. The car in question has been dry stored for the past four years, had an engine rebuild 1500 miles ago and has visited Porsche and specialist service centres no fewer than 21 times (and inevitably has a “massive” file of receipts). As an early GT it is fitted with the more reliable mechanical limited-slip differential.

The final stage in its rebirth was its sale at the NEC auction last weekend – where the new was able to drive the freshy Mot’ed machine out of the NEC – after shelling out just north of £20k of course.

1976 Alfa Romeo Montreal - Estimate: £22-26,000, Sold for: £39,375

GRR columnist Andrew Frankel was raving about Montreals recently, so this was one for him – providing he was happy with orange (Arancio Pastello actually) and was prepared to dole out the TLC it needs. Silverstone Auctions says it is more of a re-commission than a restoration since the rare Alfa – in even rarer right-hand drive form – was in regular use before being put into (centrally heated) hibernation 15 years ago.

The owner, only the car’s third, thought about selling it but says he loved it too much to get rid of it. He bought it in 1980 with 4000 miles showing and the car has now covered 45,000. The Montreal was designed by Miura man Marcello Gandini, is powered by a racing-derived dry-sump, quad-cam V8 and is certainly rare – the car in the sale was one of just 155 Montreals supplied to the UK.

1987 BMW M635 CSI - Estimate: £22-27,000, didn’t sell

The first registered owner of this classily dynamic BMW coupe, with right-hand drive and rare manual gearbox, was BMW GB. The second owner kept it rather longer – 29 years in fact. Using but cherishing the shark-nosed coupe meant its mileage shot well past 100,000 while during all that time servicing was entrusted to a single BMW main dealer, Murketts of Cambridge. Murketts looked after it right up until it had covered 113,000 miles.

A service history like that says a lot for a car. Today the Bimmer has covered 126,500 miles in the hands of only its third owner and comes across as beautifully well presented – especially in its pleasing combo of Cosmos Blue paint with blue houndstooth interior. Recent work done includes restored wings and sills to bring the M Technic kitted body up to what is said to be an excellent standard.

And what a coupe the M635 CSi is, with its classic thin-pillared and glassy cabin and 3.5-litre, 24-valve six-cylinder unit from the BMW M1 under the bonnet. The engine’s 286bhp went hand in hand with uprated suspension, bigger brakes, a limited-slip differential and, in the car up for grabs, a close-ratio five-speed gearbox, all put together under the auspices of BMW's Motorsport department.  0-62mph? About six seconds.

2013 EVANTA “DBR1 EVOCATION” - Estimate: £50-60,000, Sold for: £75,375

Okay, this one went for slightly more than £50,000…

An Aston Martin DBR1 will set you back around £17.5 million (which is what the last one sold for) but for one 350th of that you could have bought an evocation of the classic British sports racer and Le Mans winner from the Evanta Motor Company.

There’s nothing original about it of course but we reckon it still looks pretty wonderful. Presumably as does the “high profile celebrity petrol-head” owner who has driven and enjoyed it for the past three years and who sold it.

Helping the illusion that you are in Aston Martin’s most famous racing car are Aston Martin Racing Green paint, the correct duck egg colour for the frame, a high compression

Jaguar 4.2 engine with 203bhp and 291lb ft of torque, a Getrag five-speed gearbox, de Dion rear suspension, coil-over front wishbones and disc brakes all round.