Snippets, nips and tucks

The 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II that sold for an applauded auction record of £292,500 including premium during the Silverstone Auctions Saturday sale at Race Retro (page 19) had come to market via Germany, Guernsey and New Zealand ownership with just 2772km on the odometer. Very keen telephone and online competition from all over the world for the rolling asset, which was one of only 502 produced in Stuttgart, resulted in the homologation special fetching more than double the £140,000+ pre-sale estimate.

By close of play, 53 street-legal classics, 655% of the 81 offered at Stoneleigh, had sold for a premium-inclusive £4.25m, an average of £80,175 per road car being spent by a global audience. While an average of £36,808 with the charges was handed over for 15 competitionspec cars, which sold for an additional £552,120 with premium. The three-day sale total for cars therefore amounted to £4.8m, with automobilia and lifestyle items £4.9m, £1.5m up on last year.

Earlier in one of the busiest collector vehicle auction weeks on the UK calendar, there being seven sales in six days, Barons at Sandown Park (in brief, above) sold a 1955 Triumph TR2 with TR3 grille that had once belonged to TR guru and author Bill Piggott. Part-restored 2012/14, and with useful upgrades including rack and pinion steering and front disc brakes conversion, ‘VWB 919’ cost the next owner £20,350 with premium.

The £186,810 results should have been headed by the 1928 Rolls-Royce 20hp ‘BX 99’, which co-starred with Alec Guinness in the To Paris With Love movie. To comply with the wishes of the post-sale purchaser of the car however, the price paid has not been revealed and what must remain a confidential transaction and cannot therefore be included in the published stats for the public auction, which show that 33 or 53% of the 62 classics in the catalogue sold for £186,810 with premium, punters at the Surrey racecourse spending an average of £5661 per car.

The next day in ‘The Engine Room’ Exhibitions Centre beside the Donington Park racing circuit in the East Midlands, Triumph sportscars topped the H&H price list. £22,400 was paid for a 1959 TR3A that had been repatriated from the US in 2005 and converted to rhd during restoration completed in 2007, and £20,720 bought a 1965 home market TR4A IRS that had also been extensively restored during a 32 year previous ownership.

Richard Hudson-Evans has been reporting on classic car sales for more than 25 years.