With a welcome winter season of top class auctions soon upon us, I’ve scanned through the massed ranks of enticing machinery and been impressed by much of the variety and quality. As a preliminary taster, I’ve picked out a few offerings from the sales to be held in the French Capital and southern United States. They may whet some automotive appetites for a more in-depth look, and potentially be a catalyst to readers exploring.
1962 Maserati 5000 GT – RM Sotheby’s, Phoenix Arizona on 28th January 2016. One of just thirty-four ever produced, these big beasts hardly ever come to market. Commissioned by, and sold to, heads of state, the world’s foremost industrialists and film stars of their era, little else could come close to both their desirability and price. Of the eight coach-builders which stamped their creative signatures as bodywork styles, Allemano were the most numerous, and perhaps the most conventional. With 22 examples completed (RM’s mistake quoting 20), they uniquely look good from any angle and have a thoroughbred racing heart under the bonnet. A magnificent 325hp V8 originating, then enlarged, from the thundering 450S sports racers of the late 1950s and instantly recognisable by their turquoise cam covers. Compared to the stratospheric escalations in value for some German contemporaries and Italian cousins, these opulent 170 mph cruisers, made in Modena, have always baffled me in being something of an understated bargain. Find it here
1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA – Gooding & Company, Scottsdale on 30th January 2016 – If you ever wanted an ‘60s Alfa with a good racing pedigree, you’d have to look long and hard to find a better example than this GTA. But with a gold-plated provenance and gilt-edged diaries full of wins and podiums between ’65 and ’71, it comes with a cost, of course. You could arguably have just as much fun and success in the U2TC championship races around Europe with a Lotus Cortina or BMW Ti/SA at a fraction of the price. That said, the Giulia GTA cuts its own, highly accomplished, furrow in the sport, now as then, on either side of the Atlantic. This car, from Carlo Chiti’s Autodelta, gained eight outright wins during one season alone and shared the 1966 German Touring Car Championship title in the hands of Herbert Schultze. Benefiting from a recent comprehensive restoration, will it reach the heights of a $475k lower estimate, or sail way beyond the half million mark? If two people want it badly enough, then who knows when the gavel will come down? Let’s just hope the winner regularly returns this GTA 1600 to the track, hangs the tail out and provides that resplendent rasp from the exhaust as it was made to provide. Find it here
1969 Porsche 911 S 2.2 Coupé – RM Sotheby’s Paris on 3rd February 2016. Now that all the 1973 2.7 RS Carreras are way beyond the reasonable horizon in purchasing terms, it’s no surprise 2016 seems to be the year of the slightly less potent 911s from the preceding decade. And there’s a great many from which to choose. In fact, combine the Arizona and Parisian auctions and you can make a selection from twenty ‘S’, ‘T’, ‘E’ and standard variants in both Coupé and Targa body styles, over half of them being offered by Bonhams, However, for maximum versatility and potential competition, you might seriously consider this one from RM Sotheby’s as among the most tempting. Finished in Light Ivory, as it originally left for the US, a matching numbers 170 bhp Bosch fuel injected example that’s emerged from a $100k, two year, restoration and now back in Europe, completed to Sports GT specification. This includes roll over bar, Recaros with harnesses, extinguisher, cut-off switch plus a lightweight interior, so that the current owner can confidently advise its eligibility for both the Tour Auto and Classic Le Mans. Find it here
1963 Aston Martin DB4 Convertible, DB4C/1100/L – Artcurial, Rétromobile Paris on 5th February 2016. This is one of the most sought after road-going Astons ever built. And a highly desirable, rare, left hand drive model that has surfaced at an auction for the first time. There were fewer of these built than even the legendary DB4GT and this is from the initial batch of Series V cars. Now a very deep blue with tan interior, the car spent the first 27 years of its life in the United States, but has since always lived in mainland Europe, specifically France and Belgium. It has undergone a full restoration by the Works at Newport Pagnell during the 1990s and, more recently, an engine rebuild by Aston Martin France. With optional electric windows, the overall 240bhp original specification remains, and it appears to have covered just 67,000 kilometres during the half century of its active life. I last saw this car about 20 years ago and, like many overseas versions of British classics, it seemed a little bit more special than the higher availability of UK variants. Since then a multi-Concours award winner and thus well worth a look as it could well reach, or exceed, its 1.5 million Euro upper estimate. If not, a private buyer should snap it up for anything below a seven figure sum, as a AM specialist will surely make a grab, overhaul it again, marginally enlarge the engine capacity and have it back on their website with at least another 50% mark up in a couple of months. Find it here
1962 Austin-Healey 3000 Mark II BT7 Competition – Bonhams Les Grandes Marques, Paris on 4th February 2016. An original left-hand-drive Big Healey sent straight to the United States, this BT7 returned to the UK for restoration as the decade of the ‘90s dawned. And not to just a run of the mill British sports car specialist. No, it was faithfully re-constructed to the standards of the original Works Rally cars at the premises of John Chatham. Suffice to say there aren’t many people in the world to match his experience, knowledge and expertise in undertaking such a task. If that wasn’t enough, various component stages of the bodywork were completed by Rod Jolley and the engine by Denis Welch, so I urge any interested party to read Bonhams’ full write up for the impressive detail of its, now RHD, specification. To complete the job would cost £100,000 in today’s money, so if the estimate range of between about a half and two-thirds of that figure is accurate, then this fabulous looking Healey might well be a metaphorical steal. Just a pair of owners since the completed transformation covering very few miles in the Ardennes, this seems a near perfect historic rally car with accompanying FIVA documents and Belgian Carte Grise. Find it here
1971 Lamborghini Miura LP400 S – RM Sotheby’s, Phoenix Arizona on 29th January 2016. Less than 2,400 miles from new and in a private collection for the past 32 years, this late Miura S is back in its original Bianco and the estimate is only about 60% of a same year SV offered a day earlier. Cherished by Japan’s leading advocate of Lamborghinis for over three decades, what better opportunity could there be to acquire such a fitting, matching numbers, symbol of the marque? (I checked the published original records in Joe Sackey’s ‘Miura Bible’ just to make sure, and the figures are all correct.) So, for a moment, imagine your fashionably late arrival at the Casino in Monaco on a Summer’s evening. Between the raucous revving, glitzy modern offerings – all spoilers and air scoops, cotton reel tyres and abrupt angles – bask in the admiration as the uniformed staff scurry around determined to part the Red Sea of carbon fibre and provide a centre stage parking space that your Miura deserves. The car just oozes class. Find it here
