Traditional British sportscars top the charts while pre-war cars continue to perform surprisingly well
It was another bumper catalogue at Brightwells for the May sale, the site full to bursting with the 170 cars and 20 motorbikes on offer, spanning virtually every decade of the motoring age. The buyers were out in force for the viewing days and by the time the curtain came down, 70% of the vehicles had successfully changed hands, for a total of in excess of £1million
Top price of the day went to a nicely restored 1955 Jaguar XK140 Coupe which comfortably beat its £30k reserve to finish on £39,200. Not far behind was a smart 1962 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIIa with various performance upgrades which found a buyer at £34,270, both good results in the current market.
Pre-war cars had another surprisingly good day with all but one of the 11 on offer finding new homes. Top price went to a nicely patinated 1929 Morgan Super Sport Aero from 58-year ownership and with a rebuilt fast-road JAP engine which comfortably sailed beyond its £20k reserve to finish on £26,992. An absolutely gorgeous and extremely rare 1926 MG 14/28 Super Sports was worth every penny of the £27,830 required to secure it, this being the earliest surviving MG model.
Equally smart was a beautifully restored 1925 McLaughlin-Buick Standard Six Two-Seater with Dickey which looked like a great buy at £11,200 given the quality of the workmanship that had gone into the restoration. Most of the other pre-war cars were in the £5k - £9k range which gives you a wide choice of small-engined cars like the Austin Seven and Morris Eight these days.
Attracting much attention during the viewing were two wonderful microcars, both in cheerful bright orange and both in excellent condition. The 1964 Messerschmitt KR200S finished on £15,680 but the extremely rare ex-Finnish postal service 1959 BMW Isetta 600 Limousine did rather better, romping to a £24,080 result.
Even more quirky and almost unheard of on these shores was a highly original and somewhat battle-scarred 1950 Panhard Dyna X85 saloon. Bristling with unusual design flourishes and weighing only 550kgs, this fascinating machine was on offer at no reserve and looked a most interesting buy at £2,745.
Sticking with the French theme, a pleasingly original 1953 Citroen Traction Avant 11B Normale raised £7,700 which seems to be about the going rate for decent examples of these wonderfully innovative machines these days. An expertly restored 1979 Renault 4TL flew well beyond its £4k reserve to finish on £7,560, this being a model that is getting increasingly hard to find in good condition, despite the fact that over 8m were sold in period.
In similar vein to the Renault 4 was the Italian equivalent, a spartan 1989 Fiat Panda MkI 4x4 with minimalist Giugiaro styling. These have become very collectable of late, attracting high profile owners among the Monte Carlo set, and this one was so original and rust-free it was surely a canny buy at £8,900. Rather more conventionally appealing was a 1975 Alfa Romeo Spider 2.0 in need of recommissioning after several years in storage which was snapped up for £11,200.
Air-cooled VW Camper vans seem to have fallen right out of fashion lately. Routinely selling for £20k+ just a couple of years ago, they now struggle to fetch much over £10k and none of the three on offer came close enough to their £15k reserves to get a deal done.
No such troubles for air-cooled Porsches though, and a tidy two-owner 1984 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera 4 Cabriolet looked like a solid buy at £30,240 and would no doubt have made slightly more had it not been a LHD model. These air-cooled Porsches have held up remarkably well in the current market and have a lot going for them, not least the excellent build quality and reliability compared to their later water-cooled cousins.
Build quality was always a strong suit at Bristol Cars and while the styling could be divisive the engineering was universally admired, resulting in a small but loyal fan club today. The 1964 Bristol 408 on offer was a refreshingly honest and original example from 30-year ownership and looked like a lot of handbuilt luxury for £15,120. And talking of build quality, a beautifully preserved 1982 Mercedes 230E W123 Saloon with just two owners and 82k miles was another great buy at £8,960 and will no doubt still be going strong long after we have all departed.
Top honours among the Modern Classics went to a 2014 Audi R8 Quattro V8 S-Tronic with a modest 54k miles on the clock which was hammered away for £28,875. A similar 2007 R8 with a manual gearbox and 105k miles found a buyer at £21,450. A pair of water-cooled Porsche 911s also changed hands, a 2002 996 Carrera 4 Cabriolet with only 39k miles fetching £18,700 while a 2007 997 Carrera 4 with 70k miles and a few bodywork defects sold for just over £17,000.
A 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL350 with under 11k miles on the clock looked like a fun summer runabout for £16,900. Rather more intriguing was a super-rare 2002 Mercedes CL63 AMG V12 Coupe, one of only around 30 made and costing well over £400k new in today’s money. A two-owner car showing 126k miles, it had no service history whatsoever and had been in storage for 16 years but it looked very sharp nonetheless and had sailed through an MOT in January with no advisories. Okay, the ‘hand grenade’ potential was probably too scary for most, but at a mere £14,650 it could be considered the bargain of the sale – provided that fortune does indeed favour the brave…
With the days growing ever longer, the season is about to enter full swing with plenty of folk out there keen to buy a new set of wheels for the upcoming summer shows. The next Brightwells auction will be on 24th June with a deadline for entries of 10th June so, if you are thinking of selling, please don’t delay and do get in touch by calling 01568 611122 or by emailing classiccars@brightwells.com for a free, no obligation valuation.
