Busy end to a tricky UK sales year
Historics capped the year with its strongest sale of 2020 on 12 December, as organisers navigated an ever-changing landscape of restrictions and online-only sales.
Attendees were permitted at the Ascot racecourse event, helping to achieve a year’s best 83% sellthrough rate and £4.67m changing hands. A little more than half of the 159 lots, 85, sold to in-person bidders, with 74 won online.
A 1972 Ferrari Dino 246GTS topped the sale, within its £240310k guide at £284,480, while a Lamborghini Countach replica by Mirage sold for £71,680 (£44-54k).
Of 20 cars offered in Bonhams’ Bond Street Sale on 16 December, the Mercury Cougar Convertible XR-7 from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service led the seven sellers. It more than trebled its lower estimate of £100k to hit £356,500, beating a £287,500 1937 Atalanta 2-litre Sports (£300-400k) and a 1959 Ferrari 250GT Coupé that fetched £230,000 (£300-400k).
Bonhams had better luck with its MPH sale on 11 December, where an AC Aceca sold for £94,500 and a 1965 Jaguar E-type bettered its upper estimate by £20k at £74,250.
Earlier in the month, a 1970 Rover P5B 3.5-Litre Coupé made £45,510, for which Classic Car Auctions claimed a World Record, and a trio of Jaguar E-type roadsters led the way with Barons on 15 December. An S1 3.8 came out on top at £90,000, followed by a Series 1½ (£72,000) and a similar left-hooker (£64,900).
Meanwhile, at Brightwells’ online sale five days earlier a Fiat 500F, Jaguar XJ6, Lagonda 3-Litre and 1999 Range Rover were among a number to surpass expectations.