Auction Preview: Goodwood Revival Sale
Rare Lister, Porsche and Hooper exotics catch our eye on Bonham's books
Seven litre Lister XJSs like the one we looked at recently rarely come up for sale. Ragtop versions like this one even less so. Allegedly Lister's actual ex-demonstrator car, it will be going under the hammer at the Goodwood Revival meeting along with the usual selection of sublime, and occasionally ridiculous, collector's machinery.
The reserve seems a tad conservative at £20,000 - £25,000 considering that the recorded mileage is around 13,000, that it was maintained by Lister themselves until 1998 and that it has spent half of its life in a private collection. Such money for a 500-ish bhp, V12 convertible car whose value is more likely to go up than down sounds like a bargain.
As if to illustrate the point, in the same sale is a Ferrari Daytona Spyder. It may not have the same grunt as the Lister, but with an upper estimate of... ahem... £600,000 it is somewhat more valuable. Finished in Rosso Corsa we'd imagine that it probably looks more appealing than it did in its original 'Blu Dino with silver side stripes'. Mind you in the Seventies it was probably cool to have 'side stripes' on your Ferrari.
Although both the Fezza and the Lister have ample performance, both are probably quite far off delivering the kind of oomph you could expect from this GTD40.Yes it's a replica, and both the wheels and the extra scoops on the rear bodywork don't look quite right, but it makes up for this firstly by having been built by a British hill climb champion, and secondly because it's said to be producing 600bhp from a twin-turbo Rover V8. With an upper estimate of £40,000 it's probably the performance bargain of the auction. An Ultima alternative perhaps?
Another car which could be an Ultima alternative - albeit a much more expensive one - is the Jaguar XJ220 prototype. The story behind this car is on the Bonhams link and warrants reading, but in brief it was one of two development cars (the other met its demise when it was used for the obligatory crash tests) which has done only 250 road miles and has recently been re-commissioned at a cost of £70,000. The upper estimate is £180,000, though it's likely to exceed that.
Expect to pay similar money for one of only the three right-hand-drive Lamborghini Countach LP400s built... plus import duty because it's coming back from the States. Suffice to say for that kind of money it's been refurbished and painted.
The Jag' and the Lambo' aren't cheap, but you'll have to dig even deeper to call this 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 'Lightweight' your own. It's one of just 17 right-hand-drive Lightweight RS cars delivered to the UK and is enough to bring a fever to the brow of any Porsche enthusiast. Despite the upper estimate of £250,000, expect the car to be surrounded by action at Goodwood.
Changing pace somewhat, Coachbuilders Hooper have been around for over 200 years and in that time have produced elegant and beautiful designs for some of the world's wealthiest people. This 1988 'Empress II' Bentley Turbo R, however, probably isn't one of them. Several were made for owners who probably appreciated the solid silver 'Asprey' vanity unit and the fine-cut crystal decanters and glasses in the cocktail cabinet more than the exterior styling. With an estimate of £35,000 - £40,000 it's probably pretty good value for an exclusive coachbuilt Bentley though... if you could you live with the looks.
Sadly we don't have enough space to cover all of the tasty machinery on offer, so you can view the full list of lots here. Judging by results from other classic and collector's auctions this year it's likely that the vast majority of lots will find new owners and meet their estimates (at least) in the process too. I'd go along myself, but wouldn't trust myself not to swap my life savings for that Lister.
Lister Knobbly by Suggs, on Flickr
Not sure I'm feeling the £250k estimate for the RS, much as I'm a early Porsche fan this just feels too much. If it breaks £200k I'll be surprised. Having said that the 1m+ price tag for the Ex McQueen 911S may have sent prices up again...
Was pleased to see X5 a few years ago at the Revival. Again just parked in the carpark, roof down.
Was pleased to see X5 a few years ago at the Revival. Again just parked in the carpark, roof down.
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