Alvis tops H&H sale at just shy of £100,000

By James Elliott
Auctions
 | 26 May 2012

This Alvis Speed 25's multiple lives didn't stop it being top seller at H&H's Buxton sale on Thursday (May 24) when it made £94,080.

Starting life in 1937 as an Alvis Speed 25SB Charlesworth saloon, it was rebodied as a lightweight competition machine in the 1960s before being reshelled again in the 1990s with the current Vanden Plas-style coachwork.

In the other lots, the £69,500 taken for a 1968 Aston Martin DB6 Mk1 may have looked like a bumpy return to earth after recent record prices, but the fact that the car was an auto and in need of total restoration instead seemed to shore up the mega-money out there for the Kamm-tailed DB.

Likewise,  Jaguar E-types continue to be strong currency and two examples sold well, a white 1974 V12 Roadster fetching £31,360 and a maroon 1962 4.2 Coupé realising £27,083. 

Biggest project of the sale was an XK150 fixed head that came in at under £6500, but requires a huge amount of work to get it up and running.

Big Healeys also seem to be all-but-guaranteed to find buyers at the moment and a 1956 100/6 that had been treated to a body-off restoration by Resco Auto Restorations found a new home for £24,920, while a younger 3000 MKII of 1961 made £21,280.

A number of lots bust their estimates including a 1972 Triumph TR6 that had been the subject of a restoration back in 2002 and managed £12,600, a 1969 Alfa Romeo Spider that began life in South Africa and doubled expectations by making £13,440, and a 1953 Humber Pullman Limousine that was once employed for Royal occasions which, at £10,304, achieved three times its guide.

Most astonishing result, however, was the £4,480 made by a sub-10,000-mile 1977 Austin Allegro museum piece…  £2,218 more than it cost new.

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James Elliott

James Elliott is a former Editor of Classic & Sports Car