NEC Classic Motor Show 2016: Records tumble at auction

Several auction records fell at the Silverstone Auctions NEC sale over the weekend. Taking place at this year’s Classic Motor Show in Birmingham, 80 per cent of the vehicles on offer were successfully sold, for a total sales value of £5.8 million.

A special 1958 ex-Chris Barber Lotus Elite Series I set a record auction price of £121,500. Sold to applause for more than £40,000 over its lower estimate, the car, and auction, will feature in a one off special of the popular Channel 4 TV series at 8pm on Sunday, 20November.

Another car restored by Ant Anstead and his team, a 1969 Aston Martin DBS 6 Vantage Spec, sold online for a world record market price of £174,375 (including premium) to a buyer in Austria.

A selection of Porsches sold for new benchmark prices. After a fierce bidding war, a 1985 Porsche 911 (930) Turbo SE Flatnose, the first UK car, sold for a new world record auction price of £202,500.

The record didn’t stand long, though, as just half an hour later a right-hand drive 1989 Porsche 911 (930) Turbo Flachbau was offered (pictured above). Finished in Guards Red, it sold for £211,500 – another new world record price.

Porsche collectors were spoilt at the sale. Many couldn’t resist bidding on the highly collectible 1957 Porsche 356A T1 Speedster, which sold for £306,563 - the highest value lot of the sale.

Speaking immediately after the sale, managing director of Silverstone Auctions, Nick Whale, said it was ‘…the most successful we’ve had at the Classic Motor Show since we first hosted the auction back in 2012.’

No less than seven Jaguar E-types were offered and amazingly all sold for above their pre-sale estimates. A 1962 Jaguar E-type 3.8 Roadster, (pictured below) owned by the vendor for 43 years and starring in an official Jaguar video with model David Gandy, had seven phone bidders as well as buyers in the room trying to purchase the car. It eventually sold for £171,000 - nearly £80,000 over its lower estimate.

With everything about the car ‘just right’, a 1965 Jaguar E-type 4.2 Series I Roadster sold for £146,250 (more than £50,000 over its lower estimate). And a ‘barn-find’ 1974 Jaguar E-Type Series III Roadster sold for £69,750 (nearly double its lower estimate).

It wasn’t only E-types that proved popular with Jaguar fans. A 1977 Jaguar XJ12 Coupe, a winner of more than 18 national concours events, achieved a new world record price, selling for £43,875.

Raising £12,938 for Prostate Cancer UK, a 1969 Morris Mini Super Deluxe, with a fascinating story and restored by Lancaster Insurance to its former glory, was sold to a very generous buyer in the room.

Silverstone Auctions’ first sale of 2017 takes place at Race Retro at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire on 24-26 February.

To view the full list of results from Silverstone Auctions’ Classic Motor Show Sale visit silverstoneauctions.com