Up for sale: Red and rare classics
Two red and rare classic cars are set to realise their owners some big money.
The cars – a 1961 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 Roadster and a 1963 Ferrari 330 LMB – are being sold on either side of the Atlantic in July and August.
The Ferrari is one of just four ever made and with a 400hp coming its V12 engine, it was the first car to ever hit 300 kmh on the Mulsanne straight of Le Mans.
It was designed to compete in the 4-litre experimental prototype class in FIA sanctioned international racing for 1963.
It still sports its original body, chassis, differential, engine and gearbox.
It is claimed to be more technically advanced than the Ferrari 250 GTO which someone paid $62.6 million for back in 2013. This vehicle is not expected to hit that mark but the price is still expected to be huge with Rick Cole Auctions handling the ‘‘change’’ in a ‘‘private treaty sale’’ during Monterey Car Week in California in August.
Prior to that sale, the Jaguar E-Type will go to auction at Silverstone in the UK on July 30-31.
This E-Type – chassis #62 – was one of the first 92 right-hand models produced and its whereabouts had been a mystery to classic car historians for decades.
With most of the first 20 cars produced being allocated for competition use, the very first road cars, distinguished by their outside bonnet locks, were supplied in July 1961 to Jaguar dealerships to be used as demonstrators. These early cars are considered to be the ‘‘Holy Grail’’ of E-Types’.
This car was dispatched to Scotland in July 1961 for use as a demonstrator vehicle in the Edinburgh area.
It was expressly forbidden that the car be sold until September of the same year, when the car was indeed purchased by its first owner and registered on September 8, 1961, with its 3122 SR registration.
Passed from owner to owner over the years, all within the Edinburgh area, the car travelled north, deeper into Scotland.
The car was acquired by its fifth and current owner in 2013, resident of the small parish of Deskford, Moray, who was unaware that he was in possession of this ‘‘Holy Grail’’ car.
Finished in Carmen Red with a black interior, the car still retains a whole myriad of original, specific, early features.
The car’s estimated price is between NZ$250,000 and NZ$300,000.