Hammer down

Racers that are going, going, gone…

The Bonhams sale at the Silverstone Classic meeting in August saw mixed results.  Chairman Robert Brooks personally headed the auction.  Competition cars included  Brun Porsche 962, which failed to achieve the £160,000 reserve, and a freshly rebuilt ex-Jean-Louis Schlesser McLaren-Cosworth M4A F2 car managed £36,700.  Strangest car to sell was a Rover 827 rally car; it made £2070.

Recent entries for the Bonham sale at the Goodwood Revival include the ex-Skip Hudson Cooper-Chevrolet run in the early ’60s by Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright of Bonanza).  Also on the block is a 1985 Jaguar XJR-5 that was ordered new by Tom Walkinshaw but was never raced. Its bottom estimate is £130,000, while the ex-Bruce Halford Emeryson-Climax F1/F2 car has a reserve price of £75,000.  Weirdest car in the sale is the ex-Chris Lawrence/Gordon Spice Deep Sanderson 301 that ran at Le Mans in 1964, the Mini-powered GT having been rebuilt by designer Lawrence and driven by him in last year’s Le Mans Classic.