Brightwells kicked the year off to a fine start in February with 51 of the 66 lots on offer being successfully sold for a total of £393k, giving a clearance rate of 78%. An interesting selection of cars spanning every decade of the 20th Century attracted bidders from all corners of the globe with some excellent results achieved.
Top price of the day went to a 1937 Riley 12/4 Special which had been modified over the years for fast road and hill climb use. Widely tipped to make around £15k it was on offer at no reserve, a tactic which paid off in spades when it was finally hammered away for £27,670. A most encouraging result for a pre-war car in the current market which tends to favour more modern classics.
In fact all 13 of the pre-1950 cars on offer were successfully sold, including an exceedingly rare 1912 Napier T46 Coupe with a lovely patina from a 1970s restoration which made £17,480 and is now on its way to a new home in East Africa. Equally rare was a fascinating 1934 Tatra Type 57 Cabriolet which had spent many years in a museum in the Czech Republic before coming to the UK in 2014. In wonderfully original condition and bristling with quirky design features, it romped past its £8k reserve to finish on £10,600 and will soon be on its way back to Prague, not far from where it was originally made 90 years ago.
A 1937 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Tourer also found a new home at £22,400, the value being reduced somewhat by a non-original body made by Horsefield of Halifax in the 1980s and the fitment of an earlier 20/25 engine at some point in the distant past. A nicely restored 1948 Triumph Roadster 1800 was snapped up for £16,920 which was about 25% less than it fetched when first sold by Brightwells at the height of the market in 2018. An extremely rare 1924 Cluley 10/20 Tourer, one of fewer than 10 surviving worldwide, also find a buyer at £10,100.
A pair of WW2-era lorries also did well, a 1942 Scammell Pioneer SV2S recovery truck fetching a whisker under £18,000 while a 1939 AEC Matador 4x4 made £11,200 – both huge amounts of metal for the money!
Most Sixties cars have taken a bit of a dip lately but there are still plenty of folk of a certain age who appreciate the style and mechanical simplicity they offer. A 1963 Austin-Healey 3000 MkII in everyday usable condition looked like a decent buy at £27,100, while an early ‘pull-handle’ 1963 MGB Roadster which had been restored in the early 1990s fetched a creditable £12,900.
A very original 1960 Sunbeam Alpine Series III with a nice 007 ‘Dr No’ colour scheme made a healthy £9,500 while a rock-solid 1969 Ford Mustang Convertible fetched £14,000 despite having a few paintwork issues and a 3.3 straight-six engine rather than the more characterful V8.
Morgans always do well at Brightwells (the Malvern factory being only 25 miles away) and the solitary example on offer, a 2006 Plus Four with only 20k miles on the clock had no trouble finding a buyer at £26,350 and is now on its way to a new home in France. Also heading overseas was a 1971 Morris Minor Van in need of light restoration which fetched £5,600 and was bought by a museum in Cyprus – a nice place for any product of the Midlands to retire to!
The next Brightwells Classic Vehicle auction will be on 2nd April with a closing date for entries of 21st March so if you are thinking of selling, please get in touch by calling 01568 611122 or by emailing classiccars@brightwells.com