£10m Aston Zagato heads July’s top-grossing sale
Percentage of cars sold varies from 97% down to 40%
By far the highest grossing European auction of the year so far and the month’s highest sale rate were recorded in July, when a dozen auctions were held in the UK alone. Bonhams’ £10,081,500 sale of 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato ‘2 VEV’ during a £32.3m Goodwood Festival of Speed auction is unlikely to be surpassed in the UK at least, while 97% of the affordable classics at SWVA in Poole sold.
The late John Surtees 1957 BMW 507 meanwhile sped past a £2.0m-2.5m pre-sale estimate to achieve £3,809,500, a new world record price for any BMW at auction. A 1965 Aston Martin DB5 driven by Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye selling for £1,961,500 in the same tent was also an epic valuation, as was a Spectre- exposed 2014 Land Rover Defender SVX from the Daniel Craig era of Bond films, making £365,500.
At the Le Mans Classic, during another overheated afternoon when £11m was spent on classics, Artcurial hammered away a Mercedes-Benz 300SL driven only 1380k by one owner from new in 1963 for ¤2,702,656 (£2,702,656), a world record for this model at auction.
A fortnight later, Silverstone Auctions sold 86 vehicles during Silverstone Classic, where the Midland firm shifted £6m worth of lots in its highest grossing sales at this event in eight years. There were five particularly high fliers, an £860,625 1958 300SL Roadster, a £343,125 1972 Ferrari Dino 246GTS, a £158,750 1992 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo 2, a £135,000 1990 BMW E30 M3 Sport Evo and a £78,750 1991 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton.
SWVA’s stat of 97% of cars sold again heads the latest sale rates, followed by Brightwells Leominster
(71%), Bonhams Goodwood (70%), H&H Buxton (67%), Silverstone at Silverstone (66%), Historics Brooklands (62%) and Artcurial
Le Mans (54%) – compared to 42% of cars auctioned selling at Sherborne, 41% at Sandown Park and 40% at Chippenham.