Summertime equals sports car time. While MX-5s and MGBs predictably dominate the front covers of classic car rags, I find myself drawn to less mainstream choices. And no breed offers such a diverse menagerie as sports cars. Luckily, a rich variety of rare and unusual gems is coming up for sale at the
forthcoming Silverstone Auction
(yes, them again) at the circuit on July 25 and 26. There's something for everyone here, from £16K to £280K.
Chris has a vested interest in this one
The very definition of sports car rarity is the Caterham 21: just 50 were built, yet it exudes an abundance of design character and engineering provenance given it's basically a 7 underneath.
I've visited the Caterham 21 in this column before and I've owned a yellow one for several years which, as it happens, will shortly be going on the market. So I'm keener than most to see how well the rather superior example up for auction at Silverstone performs in the sale room.
It's Caterham's 1997 brochure and press test car, and it looks rather fab in Honda Passion metallic orange with black leather and gunmetal grey 16-inch alloys. Its 1,795cc Rover VHPD engine, normally 190hp, has been upped to 204hp. Considering the 21 weighs merely 691kg, the power-to-weight ratio is now over 300hp per tonne. It's reasonably estimated at £16,000 - £20,000.
Expensive, yes, but a lot less than a real one
Another Brit rarity is the
Lynx XKSS
. Replicas don't come much pricier than this but the Lynx is a million miles from those glassfibre-bodied Ford Sierra-based kit car replicas that often occupy the classifieds. This is a pukka aluminium monocoque with hand-rolled aluminium bodywork.
It's one of only 10 XKSS replicas built by Lynx, completed just a few months ago for a German customer. It's based on a 1969 Jaguar E-Type Series II and looks rather fabulous in its gloss black paint with Jaguar Red leather interior. It should be reasonably rapid with its 270hp tuned XK 4.2-litre engine and triple 45 DCOE Weber carbs.
Since Bonhams sold a Lynx XKSS last year for £385,000, the auctioneer's £250,000 - £280,000 valuation could be an underestimate. But it's still way less than the £10m you'll need to buy a genuine XKSS.
An even more powerful Pantera? Go on then
De Tomaso Pantera GT5-S
when it was new, and concluding it was a bizarre mix of brutal V8 power and wayward Italian design -charming if unsophisticated.
This was the Pantera's last gasp. The Countach-ised shape may or not be to your taste, but there's no questioning its rarity. The Pantera GT5-S up for sale is a very late (1989) example, and an original UK-supplied car, one of only 17 RHD cars out of a total of 187 made. Its Rosso Corsa with Crema interior is classically Italian, which isn't something you could say of the Ford V8 engine, which has been upgraded from 5,752cc to 6,440cc, using the original block. The auctioneers estimate £100,000-£120,000, which I think might be a bit rich, but we'll see.
JDM at least means it's RHD
If you prefer your mid-engined supercars more sensible, how about an early Honda NSX? Just ahead of the launch of the all-new car,
this 1991 example
looks interesting at an estimated £44,000-£50,000. It's a JDM NSX (right-hand drive) with a full Japanese history (good luck working out what's been fixed from the paperwork!) and has covered only 18,600km from new.
Particular Porsches
Any Porsche with 'GT3' in the title is going ballistic price-wise at the moment, with the possible exception of the 996. This 2000MY example is estimated at £45,000-£55,000 - a lot for a 996 but very little for a GT3. The downsides: it's LHD, it's got 80,000km on the clock and it has dubious orange graphics (removable, apparently).
You want blue? You got blue!
Compare that price with the £249,000-£279,000 anticipated for the
911 Turbo S 'Last Waltz
', a figure that's described as "priced to sell." Last Waltz? It's a new one on me, too: apparently a run-out special 993, built in spring 1998 as part of the Exclusive Programme. It's a 993 Turbo 4x4 with a 450hp M64/60 engine, six-speed gearbox, Iris Blue paint with matching wheels and calipers, blue interior, dials and air vents. Just 20 such cars were apparently built, this one having been exported to Japan, where it's only done 10,600km from new.
And so to the final Porsche, a 1981 Porsche 924 Carrera GT. Revel in its flared plastic wings, front spoiler and intercooler air scoop. 210hp doesn't sound much by today's standards but it'll do 150mph and 0-60mph in 6.5 seconds. And, of course, it's rare and a mere 75 examples were made for the UK. Will it make its estimate of £35,000 - £40,000? We'll find out next week.