The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Race car sells in a flash for £6m
Auction: Bonhams break world record with sale of Grand Prix 1935 Alfa Romeo
A pre-war Grand Prix racing car sold for nearly £6million yesterday at auction, creating a new world record for an Alfa Romeo.
The 1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo C 8C- 35 ‘ 50013’ – Scuderia Ferrari Nr ‘65’, previously driven by the Italian motorcycle and race car driver Tazio Nuvolari, fetched the hefty price tag at yesterday’s Goodwood Revival meeting in Chichester, which featured collectors’ motorcars.
The previous record for this marque was£4,245,118 for a 1933 Alfa Romeo 8 cylinder Monza 2300, sold in California in 2010.
Yesterday’s auction by Bonhams Auctioneers saw the iconic 330-horsepower supercharged Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car make history again at the scene of its best-remembered post-war exploits, the Goodwood motor sport circuit.
The success of the sale follows that of the F1 Mercedes driven to victory by Juan Manual Fangio in 1954/55, which Bonhams sold at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July this year for £19.6million, the highest price for any car sold at auction.
Combined with yesterday’s result, Bonhams 2013 Goodwood sales have achieved nearly £50million.
James Knight, Bonhams International Managing Director Collectors Motor Cars, said: “Selling something like this, one is aware that history is a guest at the auction, due to the car’s past, its performance today, and what all automotive enthusiasts will say about the car in the future. It is more than a car for all of us who are passionate about cars.”
The car’s exact price tag was £5,937,500.
Bonhams now holds world records for the following 11 marques at auct i o n – Al f a Romeo (£5,937,500, Aston Martin (£ 3,200,000), AustinHealey (£843,000), Bentley (£ 5,000,000), Jaguar (£ 2,655,000), Lagonda (£740,000), Lotus (£ 672,000), Maserati (£4,033,500), Mercedes- Benz (£19,601,500), RollsRoyce (£4,700,000) and Talbot-Lago (£2,597,000). Nuvolari was renowned for his fearless and totallycommitted approach to racing. He is often credited with developing the powerdrift driving style, and as star of the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo team, he led Italian racing’s rearguard action against the statebacked German Silver Arrow cars of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union.
Also yesterday, a roadgoing E-Type Jaguar with a 1961 E-Type 3.8 Series 1 flat floor roadster went for £225,500, another world record. It was owned by one family since 1963.
An ex- Works, Irish Tourist Trophy, Brooklands ‘ Double-Twelve, George Field, Dudley Froy 1931 Invicta 4.5-litre S-Type Low Chassis’ Sports with coachwork by Cadogan sold for £953,500.
A 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV Coupe with coachwork by Carozzeria Bertone, a car delivered new to Rod Stewart, one of jseven right-hand drive examples went for £919,900.
A 1961 Ferrari 250GT Series II Cabrioletwithcoachwork by Pininfarina, which had been in the same family for 40 years, fetched £707,100.