IN THE TRADE

LE MANS LIGHTWEIGHT SALE

Star lot for Bonhams’ Monterey week sale is one of the Briggs Cunningham-liveried Lightweight E-types that ran in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. Still wearing its British 5114 WK registration and the race number 14 it used at Le Mans, the car has most recently been on display at Blackhawk Automotive Museum in California. It was a non-finisher in the 24 Hours due to gearbox failure, and donated its bonnet to help the damaged No. 15 car complete the race.

TORANA BREAKS RECORD

Mossgreen Auctions set a new record price for a Holden Torana at its May 28 sale in Sydney. But the A$705,000 (£409,000) paid for the 1977 A9X was below expectations for a car that is part of Australian motor sport legend. This is the car in which Bob Morris won the 1979 Touring Car Championship, the first time in Australian Touring Car history that privateers had beaten the factory teams. Still wearing its period livery, it has sat in motor museums since its victory and has never been publicly offered for sale before.

XK150 TOPS £500K

This restored XK150 dhc was donated by Jim Byrnes of Byrnes Heritage Motor Trust to the annual Foundation for AIDS Research (amfar) charity auction. It was sold at a star-studded gala dinner in Antibes alongside the Cannes film festival. Vintage & Prestige Cars MD Richard Biddulph had persuaded Nico Rosberg and Nicole Kidman to sign the dashboard. It sold for €600k (£521,740), an XK150 record.