Cars for sale

On October 26 RM hosted its annual Battersea sale in association with Sotheby’s and sold £19,147,790 worth of lots. The talk of the night was the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond car, which came complete with machine guns, oil slick sprayer and rear bulletproof shield. The car didn’t reach the heady eight-figure pre-sale estimate some were suggesting, but it was bought by an American businessman for £2,912,000, who plans to “display it in his private museum just as it is”. The past owner of the car, Jerry Lee, has announced that the money will go towards The Jerry Lee Foundation, which is dedicated to solving social problems associated with poverty.

Other cars that sold well included a stunning 1938 Talbot Lago T23 Teardrop coupe (£1,792,000, above), a 2010 Pagani Zonda R (£812,000) and a 1956 Maserati A6G/2000 Competizione Berlinetta (£700,000).

Surprisingly, the Ferguson P99 that Motor Sport featured in the November issue failed to find a new owner, despite reaching a high bid of £410,000 —£65,000 short of its bottom estimate. Another important racer that didn’t sell was the ex-Masten Gregory Jaguar C-type that stopped £150,000 short of its £1.9m low estimate.

Despite these two important cars not selling, there’s no denying the success of the event. In the same auction last year RM Auctions posted ‘only’ £11 million of sales, some £8m short of this year’s event, where eight cars achieved more than $1m (£618,915) and 92 of the 106 lots changed hands.

RM is looking forward to its Automobiles of Arizona auction on January 20/21 2011 at which the company aims to sell over 160 cars. Among those is a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder which was owned by Evel Knievel (estimate £555-680,000) and a 1966 Ferrari Superfast series 1 (also estimated at £555-680,000).

The US company has announced that it will be the official auction house for the Villa d’Este concours on May 22. Starting in 2011, it will host the event every other year on an alternating basis with the Sporting Classics of Monaco sale held on the same weekend as the Grand Prix Historique de Monaco.

—YAMAHA MOTOR EUROPE—

A signed Valentino Rossi helmet, a set of James Toseland’s leathers and a David Philippaerts race shirt are the highlights of a Yamaha online auction on eBay running from now until February 2011. All proceeds will go towards the charity Riders for Health which maintains vehicles, especially motorbikes, that are used for health care delivery in some of the remotest parts of rural Africa. The auction is only available to UK residents, but for more information and estimates please visit www.facebook.com/ yamaharacing.com

—GORRINGES—

A ‘Stig’ helmet worn by Ben Collins fetched an extraordinary £3400 when it was taken to Gorringes by a former production coordinator for Top Gear, who had been given the item as a leaving present. The ex-Stig and presenter Richard Hammond had both signed the lid.

—JAMES ALLEN ON F1—

A Kamui Kobayashi Sauber race suit sold for £1000 in an online auction run by the ‘James Allen on F1’ website to raise money for the Grand Prix Mechanics Trust. The sale ended on November 7.

—WRC RALLYTRAITEL.COM—

A number of World Rally Championship drivers turned out to help raise nearly £5000 in an annual auction run by Rallytravel.com in support of the Richard Burns Foundation and the Michael Park Fund. The evening began with Petter Solberg wrestling host Julian Porter to the ground and announcing the start of the auction, but Sebastien Loeb stole the limelight when he ran off the stage and hugged someone who had bid £775 for a pair of his driving gloves.

—SIEDEL & FRIEDRICH—

The company’s automobilia auction on November 6/7 included an original photo album of the 1925 Gran Premio di Roma, which sold for £2500. There were also some images of Stirling Moss and Motor Sport’s Denis Jenkinson on the 1955 Mille Miglia (£3880) among a fascinating assortment of period photos, magazines, trophies, programmes and posters.

—H&H SALES LTD—

Items belonging to Jenson Button were among £1m worth of cars, motorbikes and automobilia at H&H’s sale at the Haynes Museum in Somerset on October 22. Last year’s F1 World Champion had two lots in the sale a Honda S600 and a VW Kombi van which collectively made over £57,000. The Honda will now go to the Caister Castle Museum in Norfolk where it will be displayed alongside a 1893 Panhard et Levassor and Jim Clark’s Lotus 33 R14.