As predicted, Bentleys dominated Historics at Brooklands’ 26 May sale, with an R-Type coming out on top at a cool £100,000.
A 1933 Vanden Plas was the second highest seller at £98,000, but there was a Bentley for every budget. A 1937 Sport Special sold for £47,500, while the much talked about – and in dire need of help – ex-Woolf Barnato 3.25-litre Derby made £9755. In fact, all 12 Bentleys that crossed the block found new homes.
A Jaguar picked up where the Bentleys left off, with a 1959 XK150S going for £70,000, but an XK120 Drophead coupé, an XK140 and an XK150 Roadster all failed to sell.
Porsches were popular, too, with a 1971 911S (below) selling for £53,000, a 1964 356SC for £34,000 and a 1984 911 Carrera Sport going for £14,250.
Saturday was trumpeted as a day for the youngtimers, with a number of modern classics going under the hammer. A Ford Fiesta 1.3 Supersport sold for a healthy £6600, while a Volkswagen Golf GTI went for £1800 and a Mini 1.3 Sprite achieved £2800. A 1.6-litre Peugeot 205 GTI that carried a £4-6000 estimate failed to sell.
Rally cars also featured, with an Integrale up with no reserve and selling for what looked like a steal at £3300. Meanwhile, an Audi quattro restoration project was snapped up for £1200 by TV presenter Helen Chamberlain.
A Honda NSX – another modern classic – went for a tempting £13,000, while a 1989 Mercedes SL500 sold for £3400. A Ferrari Mondial T Convertible (below) failed to find a buyer.
By the end of the day a total of £1,159,070 had changed hands, with Historics achieving a 58% sale rate. It was the third auction in a row in which the firm had reached a total in excess of £1million.
