For sale, a Coult classic
Scot’s 200mph Le Mans Jag ‘to fetch £2.8m’
IT’S not the cheapest second-hand vehicle for sale – but it has an impressive track record.
This 200mph supercar was driven in 1993 by Scots motorsport legend David Coulthard in his only appearance in the Le Mans 24-hour race.
Now the high-powered Jaguar XJ220C could fetch up to £2.8million at auction next month.
Coulthard and TWR Jaguar teammates David Brabham and John Nielsen won the GT-Class although the car was controversially disqualified a month later due to a technicality.
It was a blow to Coulthard, from Twynholm, Kirkcudbrightshire, who had fulfilled a lifelong dream by taking part in the world’s oldest endurance race.
Ironically – given the car’s price tag and wealthy prior owners, including the billionaire Sultan of Brunei – the Scot did not see a penny of the prize money.
The stunning green-liveried coupé will be sold at Bonhams’ Bond Street Sale on December 1, with an estimate of £2.2-2.8million. Tim Schofield, director of Bonhams’ Motor Car department, said: ‘This is an extremely important car in modern Jaguar history.’ Coulthard, who went on to win more than a dozen F1 races, was only 22 when he made his Le Mans debut. His victory was even more impressive given that the team endured a vehicle fire, a fuel leak and Brabham pulling out after a jack failed, dropping the Jag on his foot.
In his autobiography It Is What It Is, Coulthard wrote: ‘We were disqualified for not having the right catalytic converter. So I never got my prize money because TWR were never paid. I kept the trophy, though!’
The car was retired after the race and kept in the TWR team museum before being sold to the Sultan of Brunei. It currently belongs to another collector.