Coys closed its 2012 season with a successful auction at London's Royal Horticultural Society on 4 December, selling 34 of the 45 cars offered.
The top result on the night was an immaculately restored 1938 BMW 328 Roadster that eventually sold for £440,000 to a German phone bidder.
Coys had to work hard for some of the other results. A 1933 Fiat 508 S Mille Miglia that the auction house had secured only after protracted negotiations sparked a duel between two interested parties, finally reaching £54,000 after the price had crept up in £500 increments.
A 1961 Mercedes 300SL roadster was the second highest result, but only after a late bid in the room forced the final hammer price up to £385,000. That took it just beyond the total achieved for a beautiful '67 Lamborghini Miura (below) that had been converted in period to SV specification. After looking like the bidding was going to run out of steam at £320,000, a final push saw the hammer come down at £375,000.
That made the non-sale of a '69 Miura S restoration project all the more surprising. The car, which was reputedly presented new to Greek singer Stamatis Kokotas by Aristotle Onassis, reached what looked like a very generous £300,000. Apparently, however, that was not enough to secure the sale.
