HOMEGROWN HEROES
Daimler and E-type pull in strong results, but it’s a mixed outing for other lots
One of the biggest auction stories of the year has been the RM Sotheby’s multievent 140-car strong Youngtimer sale across the globe.
For the London instalment, RM had reserved some of the rarest and most heralded cars in the collection, in particular a trio of double-digit production number Mercedes-Benz AMGs from the 1990s.
British lots proved to be the juiciest fare on the night (October 24). The last regular-production Jaguar E-type roadster Series 3 built smashed its pre-sale £120140k estimate with a hammer price of £165,000 (£189,750 after fees). It was in mint condition after 25 years in single ownership in Hawaii and Austria and fresh from a recent restoration.
Keeping up the British theme, a 1984 Daimler Double Six longwheelbase saloon formerly owned by HRH Queen Elizabeth II reached the top of its £50-70k top estimate on the hammer after some decisive final bidding; with fees it was £80,500. It underwent thousands of miles of factory road testing to ensure perfection and Her Majesty used it as her personal car for three years. It stayed in the royal household, before returning to Jaguar having covered 29k miles. It featured several bespoke features, including an extended rear cushion to home Her Majesty’s three corgis.
It wasn’t all good news for British marques – the penultimate manual 3.8-litre Jaguar Mk2 was bid to £38k against a £50k-70k estimate, and was unsold at the time of writing. This told the story of the sale across the majority of lots – bidding was a good 10-20 per cent short of the lower estimate, and as a result 28 lots were unsold on the night, and several no-reserve sales represented significant savings over their lower estimates.
And what of The Youngtimer collection? Two of the three aforementioned AMGs sold. One of around 50 560SEC AMG 6.0 Widebodys built sold for £161,000 against a £140-175k estimate and one of 12 300CE 6.0 AMG ‘Hammer’ Widebodys sold for £207k against a £180k-220k estimate. However, a 1999 Mercedes-Benz SL73 AMG R129 was bid to £175k against a £200k-240k estimate, and was still up for sale as Classic Car Weekly went to press.