A mint early Toyota Land Cruiser helped Bonhams to a £700k sale total when it doubled its top estimate at the auction house’s annual Yorkshire fixture on 16 November.
The 1963 FJ40 – which was purchased new by Rover for evaluation, but has been unused since 1970 – sold for £16,675, bidding buoyed by a recent 500-hour refurbishment and the fact that it’s one of the oldest running example in the UK. Even Toyota UK was bidding on it.
Also busting its guide price was the salehouse’s top-seller: a 1953 Bentley R-type Special Roadster (below) that sold for a massive £27,500 over its £45,000 top estimate.
Other strong performers included a 1936 Riley 12/4 Lynx 4-seater Sports-Tourer that had been expected to change hands for £12-16,000, but which crossed the block at £22,425 all in, while an ex-South African 1964 Porsche 356 Coupé made a mid-estimate £28,750.
Bidders’ pre-war interest extended to a rare 1923 Bean Twelve Sports Tourer (below) that was up for £8-10,000 but found a new owner after bidding reached a lofty £15,100.
There were mixed results for modern classics, though, with a 1991 Ford Sapphire RS Cosworth (below) selling just over its £6-8000 guide price at £8280, and a 1988 BMW 750iL (estimate £1400-1800) going to one bidder for £575.
There were other bargains, too, including a 32,000-miles-from-new 1976 Jaguar XJ6 that sold for £1495 (against a £1800-2000 estimate) and a 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E (below), that had been predicted to sell for £3-5000 but ended up making £460 after being entered without reserve.
Most remarkable result out of Bonhams’ many project lots was the £8280 the salehouse took for the remains of a 1954 Jaguar XK120 Coupé (below) that was laid up and forgotten about for 30 years before being revealed after a passing car collided with its garage.
See: Bonhams Harrogate for more.
