Sunday was a very exciting day for me – my first classic event of the year, hooray! While many of the UK’s auction houses have chosen to maintain their sales schedule by going online, Historics have tended to hold out and wait for the Covid-imposed restrictions on public gatherings to ease. This paid off in December last year when they hosted what was for them a record sale, and they again chose to wait following the latest lockdown 3.0, pushing their early Spring sale from March to April 17th and then back one more day following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. The sun shone brightly on Ascot Racecourse with 165 classic cars and a few odds and sods arrayed around the area in front of and inside the Queen’s Stand, and as the first event open to the public since the start of the year, it unsurprisingly attracted the Covid-restricted full house of 500 attendees.
I was already excited to preview the lots on the Wednesday prior to the sale, and we have featured two of them in recent Prime Find slots – the 1988 BMW 635CSi and a 1963 Triumph Vitesse convertible. Both were excellent examples of their type and both sold for good money at £27,168 and £23,520 respectively. It’s always nice to have our own selections confirmed as good buys, despite them both breaking our budget limit.
As usual with Historics, there was a wide range of classics and prices from 48 marques, with the lowest price of £1,487 going for a 1985 Austin Maestro 1.3 with only 18,266 miles on the clock that was in really good condition and would make an ideal entry-level classic – and perfect for the Festival of the Unexceptional – and the most expensive car of the day was the 1991 Jaguar XJ220, more on which later. In between those two extremes were numerous interesting lots, and I’ll pick just a few.
Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar tend to be the most represented marques at Historics’ sales, and this one was no exception, with the leaping cat leading the way with 29 lots including no fewer than eight E-Types – seven of which sold – and the three-pointed star following with 23 lots, among which were the usual gaggle of W/R107’s. Two more unusual Benz’s to see at auction were a very smart 1982 280TE seven-seater estate and a black 1954 170SV, unusually with RHD. The former was finished in a deep green with beige interior and boasted Lord Hanson of the eponymous construction materials conglomerate as a former owner – his crest was subtly placed on the front two doors. It was in fine condition and fetched an above-estimate £24,640, while the latter – a pre-WW2 model that was given new life from 1947 until 1953 – went for £45,280, £20k over top estimate, an exceptional price for a very interesting piece of Mercedes history. However, this was not the most extraordinary price achieved for a Mercedes – the new owner of a practically perfect 1969 280SL Pagoda in silver paid a remarkable £184,800 to take it home. It was stunning, though.
Lord Hanson’s old TE was one of a sub-set of lots that had famous names as part of their ownership history, and few are more famous or wealthier than Nelson Rockefeller, former VP of the USA and then one of the world’s richest men. He bought this car new for almost $13,000, but – if the mileage of just under 7,500 is to be believed – barely used it before it spent the next several decades in various collections. This Lincoln had incredible presence, and it sold – no doubt to another collector – for a very healthy £73,580, well over top estimate.
A silver 1998 RR Silver Seraph, once owned by Sir Bobby Robson, much-loved former manager of the England football team as well as Ipswich Town, who he guided to their most successful period as a club, fetched £26,036, and a very good 1973 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC that was originally owned by renowned film director Blake Edwards (better known to some as Mr. Julie Andrews) and then gifted to Peter Sellers sold within estimate £36,400
One more lot with a famous former owner – and offered at no reserve – was a 1972 Mini 850 previously owned by ex-World Featherweight Boxing Champion “Prince” Naseem Hamed. A very modest car for such a flamboyant personality – he would somersault over the ring ropes when entering the ring for some of his fights – this teal blue with white roof little car, plus a pair of signed boxing gloves and a portrait of the pugilist, sold for £10,080
Not a car with a famous owner, but a very famous driver, a 1970 Mk1 Escort Twin Cam driven by no less than Hannu Mikkola in that year’s Rally of Cyprus sold for £63,840 and another Mk 1 Escort from the same year, this time a 1600RS with a hillclimb and sprints competition history that went for £43,016. There were also a couple of very good V6 Capri’s, a 1971 Mk1 3000E achieving £23,520 and a black ‘79 MkIII 3.0S hit £36,400 – fast Fords continue to do well.
What else caught my eye? A couple of Japanese coupés for a start – a 1980 Mitsubishi Sapporo in white with beige velour upholstery – very ‘80’s! – and a 1989 Toyota Supra, also in white, with contrasting blue leather interior and just 35,360 miles under its wheels. If these two very well-presented Nippon classics had a drawback, it’s that both were automatics, but both sold well, fetching £7,538 and £15,848 respectively.
Who doesn’t love the Alfasud? Well, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t, so that’s definitive, then. The black-bumpered and spoilered 1984 Alfasud isn’t perhaps quite as pretty as the earlier versions, but had a decent exterior in ivory, if somewhat worn beige velour seats, and with a warranted 64,420 miles, not a car that’s been excessively used. It, too, sold well, for the same price as the Sapporo.
As a BMW 2002 owner, any time one comes up for auction, it attracts my attention, but the Verona red 1973 tii that had been prepared and used for rallying didn’t reach the vendor’s reserve against an estimate of £29,000 to £35,000. Besides this and the 635CSI, there was a third high-performance BMW in the shape of a 1987 E28 M5. This black M535i – one of only 185 RHD examples built – had racked up almost 175,000 miles with just two owners, but looked like a car that had done no more than 75,000, as it had clearly been very well looked after, and found a new owner for £49,808, strong money against what I initially thought a high estimate of £28,000 to £35,000 – shows what I know.
Another potential historic race car was a very smart yellow and black – an unusual colour combination on a big Healey – 100/6 that had successfully completed the 2020 Mille Miglia – it looked fab, but like the ’02, it also failed to sell. Perhaps the ’02 and the Healey were just too expensive to consider hurling around a rally course, in which case, how about a very pretty 1959 Sunbeam Rapier Series II Competition Coupé? Finished in cream with a turquoise side flash, this car had successfully completed no fewer than eight Historic Monte Carlo Rallies and the auctioneer’s gavel came down at just £18,840 – lots of rallying fun on a budget.
Classic Citroëns stand out in almost any company, and there were three beauties (and one less beautiful) up for sale on Sunday. The first, an early (1958) restored DS19 that had spent much of its life in storage – hence the low odometer reading of only 59,371km – was immaculate in black with a grey roof but a questionable interior. This was a really nice car but didn’t sell. Second of the DS’s was a 1974 DS Safari, complete with occasional seats in the back – this big estate did sell, for £21,840. The “less beautiful”? A very “patinated” 2CV van that went for the – to me – astonishing sum of £11,603.
Besides the DS’s, there was also an example of the Maserati-engined SM on sale, this one a 1972 car resplendent in gold with tobacco leather – I’m often torn between thinking of the SM as either ungainly or gorgeous, but I really liked this one, although it was a little frayed around some of the edges and its new owner paid £36,224, well over estimate.
As usual at a Historics sale, there were a handful “glamour” lots, and few cars are more glamorous than a Facel Vega. This one was the 1963 Earl’s Court Motor Show Facel Vega II, gorgeous in metallic grey with opulent red leather interior, and with an infamous history, having been linked to a finance scam before disappearing into a barn for 25 years. It has since been restored, with 125 hours spent on the paintwork alone, but it failed to find a new home, reaching £235,000 against an estimate range of £260,000 to £310,000.
A Lamborghini Espada is equally as glamorous and there was a spectacular black 1976 RHD example that had been the subject of a full restoration. The Espada is nothing if not dramatic, and although this one really did look fabulous, it sold for well under its estimate, for £99,050.
Two other striking American classics besides the ex-Rockefeller Lincoln included a 1969 Shelby GT convertible in Acapulco Blue, white hood and black trim and with a restoration bill exceeding $200,000, this car bristled with intent even standing still, and was – unsurprisingly, given the restoration bill – in near as dammit perfect condition. It was also a relative bargain at £90, 560. Continuing with the Shelby connection (I don’t just make this up as I go along, you know), a 1965 MKIII AC Cobra with only 3,011 miles under its belt fetched £189,044, just within its estimate range – among the many stand-out features of this beast were its 42 gallon (yes, forty two!) fuel tank. I know these are thirsty cars, but that won’t matter in a museum.
Perhaps THE halo car of the sale – and unusually for a Historics sales of late, not a DB Aston – was the dark green 1992 Jaguar XJ220, a genuine supercar. These are big cars – over 16 feet long – and were built originally to be Jaguar’s entry into the market opened up by the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959, and for a couple of years the XJ220 was the world’s fastest production car. Timing is of course everything, and unfortunately for the Coventry company, theirs was a little awry – by the time the first cars left the factory, the world had changed, and instead of having a waiting list of customers, only 275 of the planned 1500 examples were built. This was number 97 and had recently been the subject of £61,000 worth of recommissioning work. It sold for £305,640, well under its low estimate of £325,000, but I’m sure it won’t see many miles added to its meagre 14,100 – like the Cobra, it’s destined to be a museum piece.
To the numbers…and it was a pretty good day for Historics. Despite a few late withdrawals, probably caused by the late date change, the auctioneers worked their way through 165 car lots plus a few non-car items, and this is how they did:-
Lots sold without reserve – 45 (27.3%)
Lots sold below low estimate – 14 (8.5%)
Lots sold within estimate – 32 (19.4%)
Lots sold above high estimate – 48 (29.1%)
Lots not sold – 26 (15.7%)
A total of 139 sales from 165 lots offered – a sale rate of 84.2% – totalling over £5m in sales, was impressive, particularly the number that sold within or above estimate (once Historics’ 12% commission was added to the hammer price). And over a quarter of sales were of lots with no reserve – maybe the gamble is worth taking on some cars?
Due to this sale taking place over a month later than scheduled, the next Historics auction is only four weeks away – more on that nearer the time.
