Fruits of a collector’s lifetime

Gooding & Company, Somerset House, London, UK, 1 April

DaviD GooDinG always said that it would take ‘an exceptional group of cars’ for his auction house to hold a sale outside the USA. And that is exactly what we have here.

Gooding & Company will hold a one-off auction at the prestigious Somerset House in London on 1 April, offering 16 extremely special cars all taken from a single collection.

British cars are a dominant theme, leading with an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, a DB3S and a pre-war Ulster. Among the Bentley contingent is an R-Type Continental Fastback, a 4¼ Litre Cabriolet and a 3 Litre Speed Model Sports Tourer, while the Vauxhall 30-98 OEType

Wensum and the Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Silver Ghost Alpine Eagle Tourer remain two of the greatest pre-war British cars ever built.

No collection of this magnitude would be complete without some Italians. Lamborghinis include a Miura and 350GT, while Lancia fans are well catered for with an Aurelia B24S Spider America, a Flaminia 2500 Sport and a delightful Lambda third-series Torpédo.

The highlights for us have to be the three Bugattis, starting with a 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante which was delivered new to Earl Howe. The 1928 Type 35C Grand Prix has a fascinating race history, and it looks beautifully patinated thanks to its flaking red paint.

But most exciting of all is the ‘King Leopold’ 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports (pictured). It competed successfully from 1934 to 1937, starting out as a Grand Prix racer and then developed for sports-car racing by the factory. René Dreyfus, Louis Chiron and Jean-Pierre Wimille are among the legendary drivers whose names appear in this Type 59’s race history.

It was then repainted by the factory and sold to King Leopold III of Belgium – and it remains in unrestored but fully roadworthy condition. Gooding estimates a sale price over £10 million.

goodingco.com