Auction View by Richard Hudson-Evans

Sale rates soared in London, where West End shoppers spent £2.3m on 92 per cent of the Brighton Run veterans in Bonhams’ annual catalogue. That same weekend, the largest crowd on the auction circuit made the journey to Norfolk to buy 177 of the 210 classics of all ages and for all budgets during the end-of-season ACA Drive Through at King’s Lynn. At Parkstone just outside Poole, meanwhile, a national stats-topping 95 per cent of the lots driven past the SWVA rostrum during the West Country firm’s final classic sale of the year were also hammered away to new keepers.

The highest price paid for a pre-1905 – and therefore London to Brighton Run-eligible – veteran automobile in a packed New Bond Street saleroom this year was £326,667 (including premium) for a 1903 Panhard et Levassor Model B 10hp 4-Cylinder Tonneau with rear entrance. An even older Salveson Steam Cart from 1896 had delighted Mayfair crowds by puffing along Bond Street before steaming to £158,300. An extraordinary £65,340, double the pre-sale estimate, was required to be the new rider of a 1901 Singer Motorwheel powered Tricycle!

‘An 1896 steam cart puffed along Bond Street before steaming to £158,300’

The £30,975 invested in the potentially costly future of a 1983 Porsche 911 SC – a running but seriously corroded restoration project that had been realistically estimated by ACA at £10,00015,000 – was puzzling, when a 1983 911 Turbo 930 with substantial recent invoices provided more instant gratification for £63,000 in Norfolk. Daimler Darts, meanwhile, continue to appreciate, it seems. A 1963 SP250 guided by SWVA at £33,000-35,000, flew through the hall to a £44,280 result (although £53,000 had been spent on restoration).

The buyer needed to spend £1.23m to secure a 1925 Bugatti Type 35 at a 75 per cent-sold £4.75m Sunday afternoon Artcurial sale beside the ChampsÉlysées. The car had been largely undisturbed since discovery in Sicily in the 1940s. It appears that sound stories still sell old motors.