Mini Cooper, one careless owner, no MOT ...or front wings. Yours for £20,000!

The wrecks that fetch astonishing prices at the auction house run by television’s real-life Del Boy

TO THE casual observer, they appear nothing more than old bits and pieces of metal, ripe for recycling. But to connoisseurs of classic vehicles, they are rare, if rusty, examples of automotive history that need to be restored, almost regardless of cost.When the carcase of a rare classicAustin Mini Cooper S featured on Bangers & Cash, it was so eaten away by rust little more than half the car was left, it hadn’t been driven since 1978 and it had spent decades decaying in a barn where it was used to store kindling.

Despite that, it still sold for a staggering £20,000, including fees, when it came under the hammer at Mathewsons Auctions. Restored, it will be worth more like £50,000.

In the new series of the show, starting on TV’s Yesterday channel tomorrow, there’s another terribly tatty but oh-so-valuable vehicle up for grabs at Mathewsons, an Avon Talbot Sunbeam Lotus.

The wreck, which had been rotting away on a farm and had weeds growing in it, and a shell of the same model, sell for a jaw-dropping £13,500 together.

“That’s because it’s the rarest of the rare, with only five of its kind left on the road,” explains Derek Mathewson, the man wielding the auctioneer’s gavel on Bangers & Cash, and quite literally the driving force behind the company at the heart of the show.

He has dozens of cars of his own so he understands why people pay big money for relics of our motoring past.

“Let’s face it, it’s a disease, there’s no argument about it,” admits the grandfather of four. “You can’t help yourself, you simply have to own a particular car. I got the disease years ago and I’m stuck with it.”

PERHAPS surprisingly, it makes for gripping viewing and the first series was watched by more than six million viewers in total, building an audience by word-of-mouth.

More than 1,500 vehicles are auctioned at Mathewsons of Thornton-Le-Dale, North Yorkshire, each year with the most eyecatching bidding battles ending up on Bangers & Cash.

The programme also shows Derek, 68, and his sons Paul and Dave travelling the length and breadth of the UK – and sometimes beyond – to pick up motoring classics that will later be sold at auction, often for restoration by collectors.

Some of the acquisitions are box fresh, such as the 1964 Bentley S3, which Derek travels to France to acquire in the new series, a vehicle subsequently sold at auction for a five-figure sum.

Others – like the Talbot – appreciably more care and attention.

“It needs a bit of weekend work but it won’t take most of you long to do that,” jokes Derek, when the vehicle comes up for auction, well aware that it will need months, if not years, of careful restoration.

Derek is a naturally gifted entertainer and yet he was only drafted in as the auctioneer require after his predecessor proved to have debilitatingly limited knowledge of cars.

Comparisons between Derek and Del Boy Trotter, the character played by Sir David Jason in sitcom Only Fools And Horses, are obvious.

Both are Londoners, both have the gift of the gab, an keen eye for business – and they both sport similar, distinctive flat caps.

aGOLD BANGER: THE Talbot Sunbeam Lotus sold by Derek, right

“I take the comparison as a compliment,” beams Derek. “He’s got a good heart, has Derek Trotter.”

The real-life Del Boy has been in the motor trade since he bought and sold a Riley 468 in the 1970s. “I purchased it out of the blue and it seemed to light a spark. I started trading after that, cars such as Ford Anglias, Cortinas and Vauxhall Victors.”

Derek and his family made the move to Yorkshire from Bedfordshire in the 1980s and eventually bought what had been a blacksmith’s forge during the First World War, in Thornton-LeDale.

The building is now home to not only Mathewsons