RM to sell French collection

75 of Jean Guikas’ cars to be offered at Paul Ricard circuit

You’d expect a wellestablished high-end classic and race car dealer to handle the sale of his own collection. Jean Guikas has run his GTC in Canouxen-provence in the South of France since 1989. However, in something of a surprise move, historic racer Guikas has delegated the disposal of his 75-car private collection to RM Sotheby’s. The sale will take place on 19 November at the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille.

This is a significant and carefully chosen collection too, featuring more than twenty sports-racers – mostly of the Le Mans variety – many of which have significant race history. There are also three historic F1 cars from Prost, Arrows and March.

Classic Cars readers may be more interested in the road cars, which include top examples of all the usual collectable Italian suspects, including a Ferrari Daytona, Maserati Ghibli Spyder and Lamborghini 350GT. There’s also one of just two Jaguar FT Bertone 420 Coupés built. The other was sold by Bonhams in 2014 for just £50,000, so this could offer some more real-world interest.

However, the star of the show is the 1955 Ferrari 250GT Europa S2 PF Speciale above. One of just four built, and with unique Pininfarina bodywork, this was in effect the prototype for the 250GT Tour de France cars that followed and was displayed at the 1955 Turin Motor Show. It has been out of the public eye for 30 years so would be openly welcomed on the show circuit; something that might help it reach its estimate of €7-€9m (£6m-£7.75m). However, like all 75 cars in the sale it is being offered with no reserve. See rmsothebys.com for details.