Yeahbaby! 60s style for sale at Southward
A vintage car collection that would make a superspy salivate is primed to fetch big bucks under the auctioneer’s hammer.
Wellington philanthropist businessman Roy Savage’s rare and original collection of 30 classic marques is being sold at Kapiti’s Southward Car Museum by Auckland auction house Mossgreen-Webb’s.
With an emphasis on the post-war British period, stalwarts of England’s car industry feature prominently, including Jaguars, Rovers, MGs, Triumphs and Morris Minors.
‘‘The collection has been assembled with passion and love over a 40-year period. Each car has a personal connection to Roy Savage and illustrates a different time,’’ Mossgreen-Webb’s classic car specialist Robert Richards said.
The sale was one of the most interesting car collections auctioned in New Zealand, he said.
Highlights include a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Auto, a 1955 Jaguar XK 140 FHC, a 1969 Jaguar E Type Series 2 4.2 coupe, and a 1965 Austin Healey BJ8 3000 MK III.
Savage built his fortune from his industrial equipment com- pany NZ Safety, but his fascination with machines and motoring started as a young boy spending holidays visiting his cousins’ family farm.
He got his driver’s licence at 15 and ‘‘adopted’’ his mother’s Morris Minor. Soon after, he bought his first vehicle: a James 125cc motorbike, which was later upgraded to a BSA B31 350cc.
Naturally sports cars followed with MG and Jaguar the chosen marques, inspired by boyhood images of Spitfire pilots and racing driver Stirling Moss.
Since 1975, Savage has collected mostly British vehicles.
Each car had the right to be called ‘‘classic’’ because it had achieved some initial acclaim, while maintaining appeal in design and driving, Richards said.
The vintage car auction will be held on December 4 at Southward Car Museum, Paraparaumu.