Thursday 28th July 2011

A Classic Auction At Silverstone Classic?

'Lots' (groan) of interest to be had at last Saturday's Silverstone Classic auction

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Remember the ex-James Hunt Austin A35 Countryman we mentioned a couple of weeks ago? It and a host of classic and modern performance and racing machinery went under the hammer at the Silverstone Classic auction last Saturday, and there were one or two eyebrow-raising results.

The Austin, which used to belong to the man who famously opined "Well of course that's bollocks" when Murray Walker suggested that Rene Arnoux's lack of pace was down to the fact that he was more used to driving turbocharged rather than atmospheric F1 cars, sold for £13,000. The ex-Sir Stirling Moss Vespa ET4, however, didn't sell against an upper estimate of £8000.

The Ferrari 456 was reportedly a little 'loose at the seams', but still looked good value with an estimate of £18,000-24,000, but the bidding got no further than £15,000 and it wasn't sold.

Two Ferraris that did sell were the Dino 246GT and the 330 P4 replica (okay, so one was a replica, and there are some who don't consider the Dino to be a 'real' Ferrari...but that's just being a wee bit picky)The Dino had been restored by Terry Hoyle and made a healthy £95,500 (estimate £90,000-110,000), whereas the replica P4 went for £51,000. That sounds like a lot for a replica, but this one had been done properly by all accounts (carb-fed Ferrari V12 and many parts from Maranello, etc...) and was arguably one of the better-value sales on the day.

There were a couple of contrasting Aston Martin DB4s too. This one was fully restored and sold for £170,000, whereas the other was in original, unrestored condition and made £100,000.

The question is, would you spend £70,000 on the unrestored car to make it mint, or would you prefer to keep it original? As the saying goes 'you can restore many times, but it's only original once...'

At every auction there are one or two cars which are sold for bids beneath the low estimate, and the Silverstone Classic was no exception. The Alfa Romeo Zagato was apparently in very good order and had a low estimate of £14,000, but found a new owner on the day for just £12,400.

The DeTomaso Pantera, meanwhile (does anyone else reckon that the steering wheel looks just like one off a MKIII Cortina?), sold for £26,500, against a low estimate of £28,000.

You can get a full list of results on the Silverstone Auctions website, but a couple of other notable lots were a Porsche 935 replica with a supposed 580bhp which went for £34,700, and a 996 GT2 which can't have been very far off being sold at a high bid of £39,500...but didn't.

I wonder how much higher than £15,000 you'd have had to have gone to get the 456...

Ps - All told, the auction drew almost £1,500,000 on the hammer (all prices by the way are exclusive of 10% of the hammer price, plus VAT on the 10%), and around 65% of the lots were sold.

 

 

[varsas]

Those early Panteras are lovely, aren't they. £26.5k seems good value too.

[delboyGT5]

Does anyone know what the Longchamp that went through the same auction achieved?

[Stevie Mojo]

I'm a fan of Panteras too.

[soxboy]

There seems to be a heck of a lot of the cars that went unsold. Not enough buyers in the room or were the prices a bit too keen??

[legalknievel]

Putting the word groan in brackets after a pun like that in no way absolves you of guilt!

[MarJay]

I think James Hunt said "Bullst" not "bks".

[silversixx]

delboyGT5 said:

Does anyone know what the Longchamp that went through the same auction achieved?

Apparently the Longchamp made £29k on the hammer against an estimate of £35k-45k and didn't sell. Can't have been far off though...

[legalknievel]

MarJay said:

I think James Hunt said "Bullst" not "bks".

Either way, I bet uber professional Sir Murray didn't enjoy it!

[E30M3SE]

delboyGT5 said:

Does anyone know what the Longchamp that went through the same auction achieved?

Didn't sell.

[will_]

soxboy said:

There seems to be a heck of a lot of the cars that went unsold. Not enough buyers in the room or were the prices a bit too keen??

Indeed - perhaps a lot of dealer cars thrown in with high reserves and hoping a punter might take a bite?

[silversixx]

soxboy said:

There seems to be a heck of a lot of the cars that went unsold. Not enough buyers in the room or were the prices a bit too keen??

Yes, circa 65% of lots sold would be a bit poor if it was Bonhams for example, but for a recently-established auctioneers it's not bad. I'd imagine if the figure was 70% they'd have been over the moon.

[soxboy]

silversixx said:

soxboy said:

There seems to be a heck of a lot of the cars that went unsold. Not enough buyers in the room or were the prices a bit too keen??

Yes, circa 65% of lots sold would be a bit poor if it was Bonhams for example, but for a recently-established auctioneers it's not bad. I'd imagine if the figure was 70% they'd have been over the moon.

The 65% relates to the whole auction. For the cars, only 33 out of 79 sold on the day which is 42%. I don't know how this compares to the norm for more established auction houses but it doesn't look too great at face value.

[donz29]

I had a good look at the 456 on sale. Really uninspiring! A ding on almost every panel, bumpers had dropped and interior looked well worn and really uninviting for a Ferrari (although the dark colour probably didn't help).

Would make a great smoker though if you've got faith in the oilly bits...

[silversixx]

soxboy said:

silversixx said:

soxboy said:

There seems to be a heck of a lot of the cars that went unsold. Not enough buyers in the room or were the prices a bit too keen??

Yes, circa 65% of lots sold would be a bit poor if it was Bonhams for example, but for a recently-established auctioneers it's not bad. I'd imagine if the figure was 70% they'd have been over the moon.

The 65% relates to the whole auction. For the cars, only 33 out of 79 sold on the day which is 42%. I don't know how this compares to the norm for more established auction houses but it doesn't look too great at face value.

Not too great - but bear in mind that this is a fledgling auctioneers starting out at a time when the economy isn't exactly at its strongest. There will also be some deals done after the auction - possibly for cars like the GT2 which wasn't far off selling on the day which will raise the figure a bit.

[CampDavid]

silversixx said:

soxboy said:

silversixx said:

soxboy said:

There seems to be a heck of a lot of the cars that went unsold. Not enough buyers in the room or were the prices a bit too keen??

Yes, circa 65% of lots sold would be a bit poor if it was Bonhams for example, but for a recently-established auctioneers it's not bad. I'd imagine if the figure was 70% they'd have been over the moon.

The 65% relates to the whole auction. For the cars, only 33 out of 79 sold on the day which is 42%. I don't know how this compares to the norm for more established auction houses but it doesn't look too great at face value.

Not too great - but bear in mind that this is a fledgling auctioneers starting out at a time when the economy isn't exactly at its strongest. There will also be some deals done after the auction - possibly for cars like the GT2 which wasn't far off selling on the day which will raise the figure a bit.

Every auction house I've known includes post sale deals in their figures.

At the moment most auction houses are doing a fine trade and bargains seem to be fewer and further between than I've seen in the past

[Yeloperil]

Having taken a close look over the Ferrari Dino 246 I was a little concerned regarding the position of the rear wheels in their arches, significantly different left to right side. Other than that minor issue (but sir, they were all built like that) it looked a very genuine unmolested example

[Yeloperil]

Having taken a close look over the Ferrari Dino 246 I was a little concerned regarding the position of the rear wheels in their arches, significantly different left to right side. Other than that minor issue (but sir, they were all built like that) it looked a very genuine unmolested example

[cookie1600]

Whilst not bargains, there looks like some good deals to be had there. The Pantera seems very good value for money unless its a hound - surely they are back on the up again?

The P4 recreation also seems OK with the undoubted amount of work that has gone into it and at least you can get the proper Ferrari V12 sound when you hoon it + it it has period plates.

[58tangohotel]

CampDavid said:

Every auction house I've known includes post sale deals in their figures.

At the moment most auction houses are doing a fine trade and bargains seem to be fewer and further between than I've seen in the past

You say this, but sure, if the deal is done following the Press Release then the deal cannot be included in the figures? It all depends on when the press release was written in relation to the auction ending.

With other auction houses, I know their Press Department write the releases almost immediately after the auction. If any deals are done following the release going out the figures may be published at a later date. Also if the car has sold folllowing the auction the buyer may not want the price known, and following the auction it no longer needs to be put into the public domain.

[dugsud]

The P4 is lovely