AUCTION WATCH
Pavilion Gardens, Buxton July 27, 2022
Some tasty morsels went under the hammer at H & H’s Buxton auction at the end of July. Leading the American contingent was a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette, looking every bit the weekend racer, with its stripes, decals, fat tyres and aftermarket wheels. A four-on-thefloor manual transmission hooks up to a 327cu in V8 and the whole package just screams fun – this one looks like it’s for track days and the like, no concours here! It hammered for a very respectable £46,125.
Another race-inspired vehicle was the 1924 Ford Model T Speedster, a real bare bones racer of a car, but looking like it had just rolled out of a museum rather than off a racetrack. This is one of the rare Manchester-built Model Ts, complete with its original registration (Henry Ford’s first factory outside of the continental United States was actually built in Trafford Park, Manchester). It has been upgraded to 12-volt electrics and whoever acquired it better like polishing – there’s lots of brass on this one. It sold for £19,125.
Another British Ford with an American theme was JK4687, a 1935 Ford V8. Although Britishbuilt it has an American twist, coming up for sale for the first time since 1967, when the previous owner bought it from Bury St Edmunds, where it had apparently been owned by a number of US Airforce pilots (nice story if it’s true). The cast iron flathead V8 engine in this car was tremendous value for the money at the time, offering 75bhp from its 221cu in displacement in 1933. Known as simply the ‘flathead’, this engine would serve as the basis for many hot rods for years to come, although in this case hopefully it will remain in what seems like quite a special understated car.
It seems you can’t have an auction these days without a Mustang appearing at some stage and this one was no exception… and what a cracker. Painted silver blue with just 14,733 miles from new with paperwork to back it up, it sold for more than £25,000. Notchback Mustangs tend to be the Cinderellas compared with their ragtop fastback compatriots, but this one was very nicely optioned, with a 289 V8, power steering, air conditioning and wire wheel covers. Allegedly a little old lady car, it went on to be owned by a judge of the Mustang owners’ club and had been kept in climate-controlled storage. All great provenance and explains why it sold for the sum of £25,312.
There were a few curve balls for American enthusiasts at this auction, including a TR7 with a V8 motor (TR8?!) conversion from Real Steel, presumably a Rover V8, obviously no one was taken with this, as it didn’t sell. Or for RV fans there was a 2004 Country Coach RV which looked more like a National Express coach than a camper. It had four extending rooms and an 8.8-litre CAT diesel engine. It had been used by a racing team when visiting tracks in its former life and it sold for £55,125.
To see H & H’s upcoming auctions or to register to bid, see www.handh.co.uk