Monday 27th October 2014

Silverstone Auctions Classic Motor Show preview

Unregistered LHD Lotus Sunbeam a highlight in another fabulous lot list from Silverstone

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Hopefully a horribly hackneyed cliche can be excused on a Monday morning. Maybe. But it really is hard to know where to begin with Silverstone Auctions' lot list for next month's classic motor show. Its focus is on a particularly immaculate Lotus Sunbeam but there is so much more besides.

Yep, less than 200 miles in 34 years

Said Talbot hatchback is an Italian car, recently released from a collection with just 313km (192 miles) on the odometer. Indeed it's never even been registered, meaning the first owner in the UK will be the Sunbeam's first registered owner in its 34-year life. The Embassy Black car goes to auction with a £24-£28,000 estimate.

Bit steep for a Lotus Sunbeam? Want a car to drive rather than preserve? This 1981 car has covered 68,000 miles but has recently been subject to a £20K restoration. Complete with a dyno-proven 150hp it has an estimate of £14-£16,000. Still not cheap, but have you not seen where fast RWD Escorts are at currently?

Conveniently Silverstone's auction at the Classic motor show has one of those too. Alright, so comparing an Escort Twin Cam with a Sunbeam may be a little mismatched but the Ford's guide is twice that of the Talbot's and looks cheap by Escort standards. Great colour though.

From one collection to another?

Anyway, enough of Lotus-engined rally cars. Also being sold are a V8 Capri that may be familiar to PHers, a beautifully presented Datsun 240Z with a few choices upgrades and the Sultan of Brunei's old Jaguar XJ220.

That's before you get to the usual selection of Minis, air-cooled Porsches and suchlike. It should be a fascinating auction. A few more gems from the lot list to finish on: this one-owner C4 Corvette ZR-1 looks fantastic value at £15-£20K and there's a barn find Aston V8 being offered without reserve for the brave. Finally, the story of this Rover SD1 is worth sharing. The original owner was disappointed at the trade-in offered on his Pharaoh Gold with 'dark chocolate' velour (!) Vanden Plas after 11 months, ergo parked the car up and drained the fluids. Until last year. One for the Rover collector!

 

[Turbobanana]

Estimate £24-28,000: I can't help thinking it will go higher than that.

[Pat H]

Turbobanana said:

Estimate £24-28,000: I can't help thinking it will go higher than that.

Yep.

It would be good value at that money, especially compared to the prices that Escorts fetch.

But it is pretty academic. It will just disappear into another collection and never get used, which is sad.

[ecsrobin]

Turbobanana said:

Estimate £24-28,000: I can't help thinking it will go higher than that.

It probably won't sell, seems the norm for a silverstone auction.

[trickywoo]

There is nothing like a boom in classic car prices to make you feel old.

I remember when tidy examples of these were £3 to £4k in local free ad papers and they would hang around unsold for weeks.

[LotusOmega375D]

Only ever went in one once when I was a kid. My mate's Dad picked us up from the train station in a brand new one that he had borrowed from the local Talbot dealer for the day (ca. 1981/1982). My one memory of it was the sporty high-back front seat headrests fouling the headlining when we climbed into the back. I guess the driver didn't do any impressive handbrake turns or take the roundabout on opposite lock, otherwise I might have had more exciting memories to reminisce about.

Anyway, it will be bid to much more than that estimate as others say.

[Oddball RS]

The estimate is good value, it will surely go for more, much want indeed, much better than a dressed up Escort with a pinto for the same money.

[GTEYE]

I'm sure it will go higher than those estimates.

On the 68k mile one, its a pity the £20k of restoration costs didn't go as far as straightening the wonky front bumper...

[Ebo100]

Just speculating, but how would you go about registering this car, would it be registered as a 1980's car or would it have to pass current standards ie Emissions, sharp edges?

[Oddball RS]

GTEYE said:

I'm sure it will go higher than those estimates.

On the 68k mile one, its a pity the £20k of restoration costs didn't go as far as straightening the wonky front bumper...

Or sorting the upholstery out.......

[theholygrail]

The width of the rear tyres on that Corvette!!! Lovely car though. I can't decide if the seats are a design abomination or the coolest things ever?!

[fastgerman]

Couple of 930 Turbo's could be interesting

I haven't been to an auction since 2006 and it was a BMW BCA event. Has anyone got any experience of Silverstone/Brooklands auction end prices vs ebay?

[thespannerman]

I'm more interested in that *tidy* looking 3-door Range Rover in the same barn as that Aston... Wonder how much the owner would take for that

[daytona365]

Seems unusual to find a neglected classic V8 Aston these days......By the way the prices of these agricultural wheezing escorts are just insane. Imo of course.

Edited by daytona365 on Monday 27th October 15:12

[Maulden7]

"Just speculating, but how would you go about registering this car, would it be registered as a 1980's car or would it have to pass current standards ie Emissions, sharp edges?"

Not a problem, & The Sunbeam Lotus Owners Club have already provided all the necessary paperwork & manufacturing detail confirmations to enable the car to be road registered with an age related plate should the new owner want to do this in the UK.

[Europa1]

The Jaguar XJ220 is still a pants-wettingly gorgeous looking thing.

[garypotter]

cannot wait for the results to see if the classic car bubble has burst as a few cars at their previous auction did not hit their reserve/estimate, personally I do not feel the bubble has burst and a couple of these cars will make very strong money.

[DonkeyApple]

garypotter said:

cannot wait for the results to see if the classic car bubble has burst as a few cars at their previous auction did not hit their reserve/estimate, personally I do not feel the bubble has burst and a couple of these cars will make very strong money.

It'll be a very interesting auction as the fall in the commodity markets continues its two year journey and prime London property growth is declining rapidly. All key signs that the fast money is coming off the table hard at present. But, this stock is all Baby Boomer stuff rather than international big buyers and so my feeling is that it'll all mostly sell well but continue the trend of known dogs or the more dubious stuff being ignored as some sense has been creeping in throughout this year in domestic auctions.

The real bubble check will come at the first international auction that is selling a few serious ticket items. That's when we will see if a large number of buyers have pulled out from the market on the back of sharp drops in other sectors.

[TinyCappo]

That 240 is lovely with all the right upgrades too.

[dinkel]

It's pretty quick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIfsft5QsEU

[Sir Bagalot]

GTEYE said:

On the 68k mile one, its a pity the £20k of restoration costs didn't go as far as straightening the wonky front bumper...

It doesn't say a £20K restoration! It says £20K worth of bills. Very different things