Around the houses, October 2010

NEWS FROM THE MAIN AUCTION HOUSES AROUND THE WORLD

Gooding and Company

Having been appointed as the ‘official’ auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance at Monterey in August, Gooding and Company managed to sell more than £41.25 million worth of cars.

That’s an astonishing figure, especially when you consider that 106 cars were sold, meaning that the average price per car was a shade under £400,000. The figures don’t stop there as Gooding also managed to set six new world records for prices achieved, breaking the $6m (£3.8m) mark on three cars and the $1m (£640,000) mark on 13 cars.

Star of the show was the 1959 Ferrari 250GT LWB California Spider Competizione that fi nished fifth overall in the 1960 Sebring 12 Hours. After some spirited bidding the hammer finally fell at £4,641,994.

RM Auctions

RM had a similarly successful weekend at Monterey. Three sales on Friday, Saturday and Sunday attracted the greatest number of registrants the company has ever witnessed, and bidders from 29 different countries.

Motor Sport closed for press before RM could give official figures, but it did announce that it managed to sell 95 per cent of the cars that went to auction – another impressive statistic. Disappointingly for the auction house, the items which did not sell included two particularly important lots – the 1958 Ferrari 250 ‘Pontoon Fender’ Testa Rossa which reached a high bid of £6.8m, and the 1931 Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix car which had a top bid of £1.8m.

Competition cars are always harder to sell than their road-going cousins, but RM Auctions was not ruling out post-sale transactions, such was the interest in the two lots.

Many of the cars went for well above their estimates during the weekend, and 14 lots went for over $1m, showing once again how strong the American market is at the moment.

Bonhams

Bonhams and Butterfields sold an impressive 102 cars, an aeroplane and a boat at its Quail Lodge sale on August 13. The company sold over £11.5m worth of machinery and automobilia partly thanks to the Michael Amalfitano collection of competition cars, which went for much more than predicted.

Bonhams was breaking records over the weekend with the 1972/3 Porsche 917 Interserie Spyder (below) going for £2,528,994, making it the most expensive Porsche ever to be sold at auction. This particular car was raced by Mike Hailwood and David Hobbs at Le Mans, and Jurgen Neuhaus and Jurgen Barth in the Interserie championship.

Elsewhere Bonhams sold the 2006 Honda F1 ‘Bonneville 400’ for £51,000 at its Collectors’ Motor Cars sale at Silverstone on July 24. The Formula 1 Speed Record holder managed 397kmh (246.68mph) at the Bonneville Salt Flats and went into the sale with an estimate of only £10-20,000.

Artcurial

The Artcurial sale at the Le Mans Classic on July 9 included some great competition cars as well as some interesting automobilia. Even though the star of the sale – the 1995 McLaren F1 GTR BMW Art Car – did not sell, the auction house still managed to find new owners for over £5.5m worth of cars and memorabilia. A 1930 Bentley Speed Six Le Mans tourer went for an impressive £611,068, while a restored 1960s Gulf petrol pump fetched £4232, and a rare lithograph of Asterix driving a Ferrari chariot that was made in 1980 for the Ferrari France Club sold for £3702.

Historics at Brooklands

The new auction house has confirmed a convertible Aston Martin DB5 for its second sale on September 25. The car is expected to fetch around £450,000, more than 100 times its original sale price of £4562. A 1949 Bentley Mk VI drophead coupé (£70-80,000), a 1965 Ferrari ‘GTO Evocazione’ (a 330 rebuilt to resemble a 250GTO, with a £190-240,000 estimate), a 1936 Lagonda LG45 Pillarless sporting saloon (£65-75,000) and a 1982 BMW 732i once belonging to Roald Dahl have also been confirmed for the sale.

H&H Sales Ltd

At its auction in Buxton on July 21 H&H sold the 1935 Singer Nine TT Team Car for £132,000. The racer has history at Le Mans, the Ards and the Donington TTs, and was restored in time for the Ards 75th anniversary in ’03.