'Longbridge tunnel' Mini sells for £1400

Despite much in the way of pre-sale hype, it looks like the Mini Clubman so famously rescued from the Longbridge tunnels in 2012 fell short of impressing at auction. The ‘Longbridge tunnel’ Mini made a hammer price of £1400 (£1610 after premiums) at the sale by Silverstone Auctions at today’s Classic.

The car, which has been described as being the final ‘new’ example of its type to leave the factory was sold at no reserve, and although it had an interesting history,  buyers, clearly didn’t feel that this was enough to enter into a bidding war over.

The car had been standing in dank water and away from sunlight for at least 30 years, and was a time capsule reminder that beneath the factory is an intricate network of passages that saw so much action. They served to protect the factory workers from German bombers during WW2 and ended up becoming something of a storage-cum-hiding area in more recent years.

The car was rescued from the tunnels in November 2012, and its owner Steve Morgan vowed to restore the car to as new condition. We’ll need to wait and see what its new owner decides to do with this curio.