Buckley’s market matters
I would never want to own a Mercedes-benz SLR Mclaren anyway, but I wanted to own one even less when I heard the other week that a brake servo – which is ostensibly identical to any other Mercedes brake servo of the period, but with a different part number – will cost you £10,000, and like as not Mercedes-benz will not sell it to you anyway. A service? £35,000 – but then you do have to take the engine out to change the plugs…
There were not many bargains to be found in the car corrals of Techno-classica Essen this year, but then there never are. The only things that caught my attention as being ‘sensible’ money were a clean (but slightly Jimmy Tarbuck in cream with a brown vinyl top) Rolls-royce Silver Shadow II and a smart silver Mercedes 280SLC – at €14,000 apiece they were both substantially cheaper than the poverty-spec two-door Ford Taunus from the early 1980s that lurked in a corner. It was immaculate, yes, but just as miserable now as it was then.
It was the Coys Auction where the bargains were to be found, at least going off the estimates during our pre-sale viewing: tucked away in a room behind the main hall were a Peugeot 404 injection saloon, a Studebaker Champion and Mercury Comète, all clean and original-looking, and estimated at between €5k and €7k apiece.
Is the Lancia Gamma Coupé finally having its day? Gamma Consortium supremo Charles Shelton tells me that several visitors to the NEC Classic Car and Restoration Show in March were offering to sign cheques on the spot for members’ cars on display. He also let slip that a certain personality from a well-known TV programme (he genuinely signed a non-disclosure agreement, so couldn’t say who) has just bought a Coupé for a five-figure sum.
Finally, remember I mentioned the two Zodiac Abbott estate cars in Brightwells’ Bicester sale and reminisced about the one I owned a dozen years ago? Well GTW 100H was my old car and sold for £2640, so it looks as if it has a future.