Buyers throng to first sales of 2018

The sale statistics from the first two drive-through auctions of the new buying season for classics in Brexitland were certainly confidence-boosting for stake holders; they spent more than £1.5m on 91 per cent of the 210 cars on offer at Anglia Car Auctions in King’s Lynn, while 93 per cent of the 54 cars in the SWVA catalogue at Poole also sold for another £382,000.

In Norfolk, after 500 punters had checked out the metal on the Friday afternoon, the ACA turnout was truly huge on the Saturday, when catalogues had sold out by the start of the sale, and many stayed until the end, more than five hours later.

A few bidders made the journey from the EU mainland to take advantage of the euro-sterling exchange rate, but 90 per cent of the 190 offerings were knocked down to UK bidders ‘live’ under the hammer, rather than after provisional bids had been converted afterwards.

Even though almost certainly likely to be uneconomic, the contents of several barns, many seemingly without hope or documents, were taken on for extraordinary sums, such as the £16,960 invested in the future of a part-restored and non-running 1974 Escort RS2000 in primer.

Other headliners included a right-hand-drive matching numbers 1971 Aston Martin DBS V8 manual original for restoration fresh out of Japan that topped the results with a £69,960 performance – and an admittedly rare 1968 Jensen FF with severe rust acne that needed £43,460 to be saved for the nation. The all-wheel-drive car had been nowhere for over 30 years. A seemingly sound, but shabby 1964 Austin-Healey 3000 Mk3 BJ8 project, dry-stored since 1972 and over-ripe for restoration, made a strong £39,220.

It was a statistically strong weekend for non-essential vehicles because only 20 classics went unsold in East Anglia and just four had to be returned to their vendors in the West Country, where another Aston Martin V8 non-runner realised £47,520. It’s an encouraging start to the year’s classic auctions.

‘Punters spent more than £1.5m on 91 per cent of the 210 cars on offer at ACA’