BUY A PARTY LEADER’S PLUSH LIMO
Luxury barges of Margaret Thatcher and Jeremy Thorpe on the market
Two classics owned by former political heavyweights are to go up for auction in Bonhams’ 7 September sale at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
The older of the two, a 1966 Humber Imperial owned by embattled former Liberal leader, Jeremy Thorpe until the mid-1980s, became his calling card. Former North Devon MP, Nick Harvey, remarked at Thorpe’s funeral in 2014: ‘He had a style all of his own. Brown trilby hat, waistcoat and gold watch chain, and driving around in a legendary big black Humber, still in a barn not far from Barnstaple.’
Now requiring restoration, having been relegated to said barn with a seized engine, the Humber is
estimated to fetch £3000-4000, but is being sold without reserve. Markets editor, Richard Barnett, said: ‘Imperials get a bit forgotten, but they are underestimated and a more than viable alternative to a simething like a Rover P5.
‘I believe the Humber was a company car of Thorpe’s, as he held a directorship somewhere. With the seized engine, you also have the opportunity to recreate one of the 318 Mopar V8 Imperials, of which Humber made just two.’
Also at the sale is a 1979 Bentley T2, which was gifted to the then-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, in 1980. According to the car’s original chauffeur, Thatcher saw the car at a garden party and remarked that its Peacock Blue colour matched both the Conservative’s blue branding, as well as the outfit she was wearing at the time, prompting friend and prominent London surgeon, Norman Bloom, to give her the car.
The car’s history confirms the car’s registration to Civil Service Supplies and her use of it until 1988, after which the car spent most of its life in California. In very good condition, having recently been resprayed, the Bentley is estimated to fetch a price between £11,000-16,000.
Richard Barnett said: ‘I don’t ever remember seeing Margaret Thatcher in a T2, so this must have been a private car, or for non-official use.
The T- Series is much rarer than a Silver Shadow; the estimate compares well with what good Shadows are getting now.’