[ Market indicators]

As top-end Ferraris start to dip, other models are coming into their own

1995 PORSCHE 928 GTS £50,400

ANGLIA CAR AUCTIONS, JANUARY 28. Big money for race-bred 911s is one thing, but this astounding result shows just how strong the Porsche market has grown in the past year or so. This was a nice car with 98k on the clock, so the £30-£40k estimate seemed to cover it. But if you want a 928 GTS, pickings are slim with only 100 or so on UK roads, most with autoboxes. Less than a third had manual shift like this car and it just hit that sweet spot. That’s still a lot, though.

1988 FERRARI 400 SUPERAMERICA AERODINAMICO £2,504,000

RM SOTHEBY’S, JANUARY 20. This is a Platinum Award concours car, probably the best of the 17 built, so it should set the market for them. That it came in at around 10% below expectations tells us one of two things: it was a victim of over-familiarity after ten years on the champagne-and-blazers show circuit, or there’s some cooling at the very top end of the market. It always shows with Ferraris first.

1972 CITROËN SM £27,865

BONHAMS, JANUARY 19. Though the notion of selling without reserve can attract attention and strong results for the right cars, it doesn’t always work. This probably seemed like one of those ‘right’ cars, with 41k miles and never fully restored. But most SM buyers want Euro-spec glass-encased headlamps, not Us-spec open peepers, and this SM generally lacked sparkle. All of which is why it ended so far from its £47,500 low estimate.

1983 LOTUS ESPRIT TURBO £19,610

ANGLIA CAR AUCTIONS, JANUARY 28. After we tipped Esprit Turbos as underpriced, one sold at Scottsdale for £35,772. Then this project rocked up at ACA. Pluses? 31,000 on the clock and first owned by Lotus chairman David Wickins. However, it had sat in a barn since 2008 with the cylinder head off. That failed to put off prospective buyers – after all, any old Lotus is bound to need work – and it sold strongly at the top end of its estimate.

1973 BMW 3.0 SI £16,632

SOUTH WEST VEHICLE AUCTIONS, JANUARY 27. Relatively few E3 BMWS were sold in the UK; they rusted and build quality was way off modern BMW standards. This one survived by being in dry storage for over half its life and clocking up fewer than 25,000 miles (although the speedo was out of action for a bit). With no chance of finding another, bidders ignored the £10k top estimate and battled for it. At least we know what a good one’s worth now.