THE MARKET
Super Snake tops the sales at mega $105m Barrett-Jackson auction
Sales news; how to buy a Renaultsport Clio
BARRETT-JACKSON DOESN’T do small, and its $105million bonanza at WestWorld of Scottsdale on 20-27 March re-affirmed that. The sale of 1054 vehicles was headlined by the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake (above) at $5.5million. CSX 3015 is one of two 427 competition roadsters officially converted to monstrous Super Snake form. A 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 made $2.475m, while $5.8m was raised for good causes through the sale of charity vehicles.
Mecum’s Glendale auction was also a big hit, with $42.3m in total sales. A total of 712 of the 829 vehicles offered sold, with a particularly special L88-engined 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe achieving $2.69m.
Bonhams held its first Supercars on Sunset auction in Los Angeles, focusing on modern supercars. With few good results and lots of unsold cars, perhaps this wasn’t the best place to offer them. Back in the UK though, Bonhams’ MPH performed considerably better, with a sinister-looking 1989 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC AMG 6.0 ‘Wide Body’ taking the top spot at its Bicester sale with a great £146,250 result. The sale raised just over £1.4m, with a sell-through rate of 83%, the MPH offshoot’s best result yet.
Silverstone Auctions streamed its Race Retro classic and competition car auctions live online and achieved a respectable £8.7m. A £500,625 Ferrari 599 GTO led the way, with a very early flat-floor E-type – chassis number 60 – making £140,625.
The global RM Sotheby’s Open Roads sale offered 94 cars from around the world, with 72% of those finding a buyer. Sales totalled £84,000 in the UK, €1.82m in Europe and the UAE, with the remaining North American lots raising $3.1m.
Dedicated online auction platforms have continued to thrive. Collecting Cars surpassed £10m total sales for the month of March, and The Market managed £1.8m, which is almost £500,000 up on its previous best month. Biggest surprise of the month had to be the Volkswagen Corrado VR6 Storm (below) that sold for a record £27,250. Modern-era heroes like this seem to be in huge demand – for now, at least.
The era immediately after World War Two was also the end of America’s ‘coachbuilt era’. As only a handful of bespoke builders survived, for luxury and performance marques the owner-driver era was starting. Finding late’40s and early-’50s coachbuilt cars is tough, but one such company, JS Inskip, was an automobile distributor as well as a coachbuilder.
The company sold Aston Martin, Riley, MG, Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars, and can also be thought of as the successor to Brewster, the famed carriage and coachbuilder that became a part of Rolls-Royce of America. Inskip was located in a former Brewster building for a time; it’s said that many former Brewster employees worked for Inskip.
This first of two similar dramatic bodies was commissioned from new by Thomas Manville Jr, heir to a $10,000,000 (in 1925) fortune when he was just 31 years old. Married 13 times to 11 different women, it appears that Manville lived life very much on his own terms. This early Silver Wraith, in left-hand drive, was equipped with a manual transmission, though automatic transmissions became available later. It’s quite large in stature, with styling that’s evocative of exclusive French body design, yet this Silver Wraith has quite a sporting air about it.
This example and its sister car, which sold recently, are the final coachbuilt cars produced by JS Inskip. It sold for $700,000.
1952 Frazer Nash Targa Florio “KYN 9”
The Targa Florio was designed as a sports car with competition potential combined with just enough comfort and boot space for touring. “KYN 9” is unique because it was the only Frazer Nash built with a 2.6 litre Austin engine and it was showcased at the 1952 London Motorshow. It was sold to Louis Keller in the USA who competed with it in the 1954 Golden Gate Park Race in San Francisco. In 1986 the car was discovered by the famous British actor, John Rhys-Davies and it came back to the UK and into the care of TT Workshops. In 2008 KYN 9 was fully race prepared by Blakeney Motorsport and enjoyed five years racing. It was bought by the current owner in 2016. Presented in beautiful condition, “KYN 9” is one of the finest post-war Nash’s to come to market in recent years. It is complete with a black hood and tonneau cover and a low perspex screen that can be fitted for sports and racing. A weighty history file accompanies the car with magazine articles, photos, bills and letters documenting all its owners and competition history.
1937 Lagonda LG45 Rapide
A Lagonda had won the 24 Hours race at Le Mans in 1935 and the company decided to capitalise on this sporting success. Accordingly the LG 45 Rapide was launched in 1936 and its 4½ litre engine, uprated by W.O. Bentley, ensured that the car was as quick as its flamboyant coachwork suggested. Chassis 12267/R is the last but one of the 25 Rapides built and it was delivered new in London through Lagonda agents, Keevil and March on 23rd July 1937. Chassis 12267/R is offered for sale in impeccable condition. A fresh restoration was completed in 2014 with paint by MotoTechnique and leather by O’Rourke Trimming. Not surprisingly this stunning car has appeared at numerous international concours events. However, be under no illusion, this is not just a show queen. In 2018 the car successfully completed the arduous “Flying Scotsman Rally”. A fully documented history file accompanies the car listing all the owners and confirming its provenance.The car has matching numbers throughout and in the same livery as when it was delivered .
in a private Southern California collection since the mid-1960s, this 1955 Ferrari 250 GT Europa is thought to be one of the most original and best-preserved examples left anywhere in the world. As the first of the roadgoing Ferrari 250 models, the Europa wears coachwork by Pinin Farina.
Built in October 1955, chassis 0413GT was delivered to its first owner – thought to be Dr Enrico Wax, the official Italian distributor for Johnnie Walker whisky and Moët & Chandon Champagne – painted in Grigio Metallizzato with orange leather. Unique features include a set of special instruments as well as an unusual and very simple taillight arrangement.
There isn’t a huge amount of information about the car’s early history, but it’s thought that it was exported to the USA at some point during the late 1950s or early 1960s, when it was acquired by the current vendor. After a few years of use, it was retired from active service in the mid-’60s and placed on static display in his small private collection.
Very few people knew of its whereabouts and, now showing just 33,671km, it remains in extraordinarily original condition. Gooding says it would be ripe for entry into the Preservation class at Pebble Beach Concours, and it certainly looks to have aged very nicely. A few years ago, it would have almost certainly been restored from the ground-up, but today walking the much more difficult path of preservation is more appealing. Not every car is worthy of such treatment, and finding specimens of this quality is unusual.
Gooding & Co is to offer the Ferrari in its May Geared Online auction, in which this time capsule will be estimated to sell for between $2,200,000 and $2,600,000.