A brace of vintage Bentleys attracted the big money when H&H held its auction in conjunction with the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club at Rockingham on 16 June.
Dubbed the Excellence in Engineering sale, its top-seller was a 1926 6 1/2 Litre that, despite now being bodied as a Le Mans Style Tourer, had once been a breakdown truck. It made £369,600.
Amassing an above-estimate £212,800 was a 1927 3 Litre Speed Model Tourer from 1927 with VdP coachwork and which had once been the property of Sir Malcolm Campbell.
A trio of barnfind Lagondas inevitably got bidders going. Most interest was generated by Hugh Howorth’s much modified M45 competition car (£29,120). His wife once famously lost control of the car in a sprint at Hartlepool and plunged 30 feet onto the rocky beach beyond the finishing line.
A purposeful-looking 1937 LG45 Saloon De Ville that was complete and had reputedly covered just 78,000 miles from new returned £26,880, while a 1952 2.6 Litre Drophead Coupe made £17,920.
Other results of interest include a Weymann-bodied Rolls-Royce Phantom II Short-Coupled Saloon that sold for £91,840, while a Renault Type T Tonneau that had been in the same family ownership since 1959 returned £65,000.
