Get your motors running . . .
Park your money in a classic vehicle — big auction expected to fetch $3.5m
New Zealand’s largest collection of cars, motorcycles and automobilia is set to go under the hammer. Included in the classic collection is a 1989 Lotus Esprit, identical to the car that Richard Gere drove when he picked up Julia Roberts in the 1990 film Pretty Woman.
Roger Moore drove the same vehicle as James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, although in that movie the car was adapted to operate underwater as a submarine.
Eighty-three lots — including 56 cars, 20 motorcycles and a boat — are expected to fetch more than $3,500,000 when they’re put under the hammer at the ASB Showgrounds on Sunday.
Webb’s head of collectors’ cars, motorcycles and singleowner collections, Caolan McAleer, said the auction was expected to be a record sale for the Auckland-based auction house, and likely the country.
Growing from a 17-lot sale in July this year, the offering had quadrupled in size resulting in the flagship event moving out of its usual Mt Eden home with all lots being showcased at Pavilion 2, ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane.
As well as the Lotus, other auction highlights include a 1964 MercedesBenz 230SL, a 1972 Ford Fairmont XYGT Shaker and the Len Pearce Collection of Indian motorcycles.
That would include one of only 280 on the globe and the only one in New Zealand, a Model 401.
Not all the bikes were Indians with AJS, Matchless and Triumph also represented alongside the Italian spectacle of the Moto Guzzi marque at its very best, with two of their finest on offer.
Also on display was a wide selection of prestige marques, including Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes, Jaguar and Aston Martin. McAleer said: “The Covid experience had created a change in the way we lead our lives with many freedoms and the things we take for granted variously curtailed. “Research from across the ditch indicates that folk think a classic vehicle is still a good place to park some money.”
The vehicles can be viewed today, tomorrow and before Sunday’s live auction, which starts at 2.20pm.