 |
|
|
December, as always, was a busy month for classic car auctions
especially in the UK. First up was Bonhams with a massive 115
vehicle entry for their Olympia sale on 2nd December, where the
stunning Maserati
A6GCS Berlinetta by Pinin Farina took centre stage at £607'000.
This car, although re-bodied, must rank as one of the prettiest
closed coachwork designs of all time. Yet another
Ferrari 550 Barchetta was offered at Olympia, selling for
£133'500 despite having covered over 8'000 km - most Barchetta
buyers insist on negative mileage! My personal favourite was the
1935
Rolls-Royce Phantom II Sports Saloon by Kellner - for just
£85'000 the new owner got Britain's finest luxury car of
the period, with a bespoke Parisian body and restoration bills
exceeding £160'000. Whichever way you look at it, these
cars are downright good value and are a world away from comparatively
mundane 1950s and 1960s production cars.
The usual crowd was much in view at Olympia, a mixture of market
"insiders", seasoned dealers and a sprinkling of heavyweight
collectors.
 |
|
|
For their sale at the Jack Barclay showrooms south of the Thames,
Christie's had assembled a small collection of cars with a few
gems such as the little Austin 7 Ulster with period racing history
which deservedly reached £30'550. The elegant Bentley
S1 Continental Fastback was surprisingly unsold, and
James Allington's Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa replica, rather
optimistically estimated at £140'000-180'000, did well to
achieve a premium-inclusive £148'200. A
Ferrari 275 GTB/4 which had seen better days was not surprisingly
unsold, given its £200'000-240'000 estimate, and nor was
the elegant gunmetal grey 'plexiglass'
Daytona formerly owned by Eric Clapton. Two cars were particularly
good value, a drum-braked
Mercedes-Benz 300SL acquired by a northern dealer for just
£82'250, and the cheapest
Gullwing we have seen for some time, at just £89'950
- a steal! I wonder if Christie's were pleased with these results,
which saw an unusually high number of unsold lots.
 |
|
|
The following day, provincial auctioneer H&H offered a wide
selection of lots headlined by a Bugatti
Type 50 with Le Mans-style coachwork, extensively advertised
in the trade over preceding months. Other highlights included
rally cars from the collection of the late Don Pither, his lime-green
Lancia
Stratos selling for a reasonable £35'000 - an affordable
entry into historic rallies - and his ex-works Sunbeam
Tiger achieving a healthy £39'500. As an alternative,
how about a Rolls-Royce
Silver Shadow II - the world's most luxurious rally car -
at £7'000? Another star car, the AC
Cobra 289 racer, did not find a buyer.
H&H are undoubtedly attracting more important cars and achieving
a good sale rate, but will they be able to start selling multi-100'000£
cars on a regular basis? And will they be able to consistently
attract high-profile lots if they stick to their 5% commission
rates and basic levels of presentation? As the saying goes, there
is no such thing as a free lunch …
|
 |
|
Bugatti Type 57/101 Le dernier coupé
Gangloff
|
Experienced French auctioneer Hervé Poulain held his end-of-year
sale in Paris on 16th December, offering some 50 cars ranging
from the sublime to the obscure. Star billing was given to a Bugatti
Type 57, re-created in the 1990s to a "lost" Gangloff
design. Whether you believe the story or not, this was a gorgeous
car and every serious collection should include a Bugatti, a marque
whose pedigree has few equals. This spectacular re-creation was
hammered down at just EUR230'000, hardly the price of a factory
bodied Type 57 drophead. It has to be said that this was a weak
sale, with numerous unsold lots and quite a few withdrawn. It
can't have covered its costs and one wonders how much longer Poulain
will continue to hold car sales. That being said, his specialists
have done well to secure the Rolf Meyer collection, to be offered
on February 10th in Paris. There must be more to this than meets
the eye, as this is, delicately put, probably not the ideal venue
for the sale of a collection whose highlights are models favoured
by the more enthusiastic members of the German government in the
1930s …..
 |
|
1947 Ferrari 166SC Siluro Corsa
|
Bringing 2002 to a close, all eyes were focused on Bonhams' Ferrari-only
Sale on 20th December in the glamorous Swiss mountain resort of
Gstaad. Despite the general market slow-down, 69% of the cars
were dispatched to new homes, top price being SFr1'086'000 for
the founding Ferrari 166 bought by a well-known Swiss Ferrari
collector. A stunning 275GTB/4 with just 14'000 miles drew applause
at SFr575'000, as did the ex-Charly Müller racing Lusso at
SFr535'000, thankfully staying in Switzerland. Yet another 550
Barchetta scraped by, achieving SFr285'000, but none of the three
Formula 1 cars nor the 375MM or 250SWB met their reserves. The
latter should sell post-auction.
Summing
up
the
year,
buyers
are
fussier
than
ever
before
but
still
willing
to
pay
the
price
for
the
right
car.
The
problem
facing
anyone
in
the
classic
car
business
at
present
is
that
vendors
are
not
motivated
to
sell
and
buyers
will
only
buy
the
best
(which
every
vendor
thinks
he
has).
Unless
sellers
are
realistic
and
buyers
get
off
the
fence,
we
risk
market
stagnation
although
I
would
suggest
that
this
is
preferable
to
the
collapse
in
prices
we
saw
in
1990.
My advice
would
be
for
auction
companies
to
hold
fewer
sales
and
concentrate
on
quality
rather
than
on
quantity,
declining
cars
which
don't
make
the
grade
or
are
not
sensibly
priced.
Happy
hunting
in
2003!
|
