20 of the best cars from Bonhams’ Festival of Speed sale

Multi-million pound auction will take place next week

The 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed is almost here and for most of us that means the chance to spot some rare metal and maybe the odd famous motorsport face.

But while we’re opening our wallets for a programme and a burger, some well-heeled visitors will be opening their wallets much wider and splashing out on a new classic.

That’s because Bonhams will be hosting an auction at the event next Friday (5 July) – and it’s packed with brilliant classic cars. Here are 20 of our favourites.

1958 Ferrari 250GT

Estimate: £420-500,000

Looking at this graceful Pinin Farina-bodied two-door coupé, it’s hard to believe they were once butchered to create replicas of more famous, more valuable 250s.

Fortunately, cars such as this GT – which runs a derivative of the same basic 3.0 Colombo V12 you’ll find in the £50m GTO – are now themselves recognised as worthy of saving and celebrating.

1972 BMW 3.0 CSL

Estimate: £90-100,000

Desperate to stay ahead of the Ford Escorts and Capris in early 1970s European Touring Car races, BMW created a faster, lighter, more powerful version of its E9 CSi coupe: the CSL.

Standing for Coupé Sport Leicht, the CSL gained aluminium panels and thinner glass, and lost 136kg as a result. And that was about the only losing it did: the CSL scored six ETCC championships in seven years.

This stunning Fjord Blue car is one of just 500 right-hand drive cars built, of which only 100 are believed to have survived.

1992 Williams FW14B

Estimate: na

Where were you in ’92? If we’re talking Sundays you might well have been glued to BBC1 watching Britain’s Nigel Mansell thrashing this very car in the opening rounds of his championship-winning 1992 season.

Powered by a 700bhp V10 and fitted with an advanced active suspension system, it still wears its iconic cigarettes’n’alcohol livery and is described as ‘ready to go’ (though not down to the shops, obviously).

1964 Gordon-Keeble

Estimate £70-90,000

Like Bristol and Jensen, Gordon-Keeble looked to Detroit to answer its horsepower prayers. But instead of knocking on Chrysler’s door, GK went to Chevy’s, pinching the 327cu in (5.4-litre) V8 from the Corvette for its Bertoné-designed GT.

Financial meltdown meant that only 99 of these elegant 140mph cars were built in period, and today they make a great-value alternative to an Aston Martin.

1960 Bentley S2 Continental

Estimate: £220-280,000

Switching from six-cylinder power to the new Rolls Royce V8 for the S2 gave the Conti the performance boost the US market had been crying out for, while the addition of power steering and an automatic transmission made it as effortless to drive as any upstart Lincoln or Caddy.

This car’s first custodian was Hector Lang, CEO of United Biscuits in the UK, and it still sports the compass he had fitted to each of his cars.

1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 ‘Long Chassis’

Estimate: £4-5m

Vittorio Jano’s eight-cylinder engines powered Alfa Romeo to multiple Mille Miglia, Le Mans, and grand prix wins in the 1930s.

This 2300 road car’s supercharged straight-eight was expanded to 2.6-litre during a recent £60k engine rebuild and produces around 140bhp beneath the gorgeous replica Touring body – enough to propel it to a genuine 100mph.

We were lucky enough to drive it recently, and you can read more about that here.

1962 Aston Martin DB4 Series IV Vantage

Estimate: £400-500,000

Often overlooked in the rush to heap praise on its rare Zagato-bodied sister and the later DB5, the DB4 is a hugely important car in its own right, being the first to benefit from Touring of Milan’s ‘Superlegerra’ body technology.

Rare Vantage-spec cars featured triple SU carbs and a special cylinder head to lift power closer to the 302hp of the DB4GT, whose faired-in lights this car borrows.

This one is made more useable by the fitment of a five-speed ’box, power steering and air-conditioning, and will likely set you back a cool £200k less than a DB5.

1960 Cooper Monaco Climax MkII Type 57

Estimate: £300-350,000

By the close of the 1960 season John Cooper’s mid-engined F1 cars had revolutionised motorsport’s top tier and bagged two F1 championships. But the Cooper team still had time to race sports cars, too.

This Cooper Monaco competed at the Nürburgring 24hr, and twice at Le Mans, wearing its Ecurie Ecosse livery before being entrusted to a young Jackie Stewart, whose winning performances captured the eye of Ken Tyrell, so kick-starting Stewart’s career.

1960 Lancia Flaminia Convertible

Estimate: £90-120,000

If you fancy yourself in a Maserati 3500GT but are only disgustingly – rather than obscenely – wealthy, this Flaminia is the car for you.

Sporting a handsome body designed by Touring and powered by a 2.5-litre V6, it’d be just the job for a late-summer tour of the Italian Lakes. Better start working on your Marcello Mastroianni smoulder.

1907 Métallurgique-Maybach

Estimate: £800,000-1m

Not satisfied with this Belgian Métallurgique’s original 10-litre, 100bhp engine, an early owner had the chassis lengthened to accommodate the only sensible upgrade – a 21-litre straight-six from a Maybach-Zeppelin airship!

The colossal engine delivers its 195 peak horsepower at just 1350rpm – which equates to 110mph in fourth, thanks to transmission ratios that would make a salt flats racer feel undergeared.

1972 Ferrari 365GTC/4

Estimate: £270-330,000

Forever in the shadow of its ‘Daytona’ sister, the GTC/4 was heavier, uglier and slower, but much less of a pig to drive, thanks to its standard ZF power-assisted steering.

Pininfarina designed the coachwork, taking advantage of a switch to side-draught carbs to create a plunging bonnet line, but few got to see it.

Its brief existence from 1970-’72, sandwiched between the classically styled 365GT 2+2 and three-box 365GT4 2+2, meant only 500 were built.

1966 Ford GT40

Estimate: £850,000-1.25m

This fascinating car is the result of one man’s 10-year quest to recreate a GT40 using original or new-old-stock parts scavenged from around the world.

And remarkably, his quest succeeded: everything from pieces of original chassis to the engine, gearbox, wheels and steering wheel once belonged on a true GT40.

Estimated to fetch up to £1.2m, it’s not cheap for a bitsa, but on the other hand it’s a whole lot less expensive than the $8m paid for a genuine ’66 Le Mans GT40 last year.

1979 Maserati Khamsin

Estimate: £110-150,000

Needing a replacement for the Ghibli, Maserati repurposed the mid-engined Bora’s 4.9-litre V8 and Citroën-derived hydraulic brakes and steering to create the front-engined Bertoné-bodied Khamsin.

This is one of only 23 UK cars and comes with the desirable manual gearbox. All things being equal you’d probably not pick it over a prettier Ghibli. But they’re not equal – the Khamsin looks strong value at around two-thirds the price.

1995 Aston Martin Vantage V600

Estimate: £250-300,000

Derived from the unloved and ugly Virage, the 1993 Vantage was monstrous for an entirely different reason: the bolting on of a pair of superchargers to Aston’s 5340cc V8 transformed its output from 330bhp to 550bhp.

But for those who just can’t get enough of a good thing, Aston’s Works Service department would massage that to 600bhp, while also upgrading the brakes and suspension.

1948 Delahaye Type 135M

Estimate: £240-280,000

Less flamboyant than some coachbuilt versions of Delahaye’s mid-century cars, this Pennock-bodied 135M still oozes glamour.

Called a three-position coupé, it can be configured with the hood up, down or with just the rear section in place.

It’s right-hand drive, like most posh French cars of the period, and powered by a 3.2-litre straight-six delivering 113bhp.

1995 Lancia Delta Integrale Evo 2 ‘Dealers Collection’

Estimate £75-100,000

Not a reference to the queue of cars outside the showroom waiting for warranty work, the ‘Dealers Collection’ was just one of several special editions Lancia created from its wide-arch Evo and Evo 2 Integrales.

A total of 180 were built exclusively for Lancia dealers, each finished in metallic red and featuring beige leather, a starter button and an aluminium dashboard panel.

1993 Jaguar XJ220

Estimate: £350-450,000

The XJ220 never did deliver on the prototype’s V12, four-wheel drive promise – the 1992 production car was powered by a turbocharged V6 and was rear-wheel drive. But it certainly delivered when it came to performance.

A 217mph top speed made it the world’s fastest production car for a time, although the XJ220 was soon forgotten when McLaren unveiled its seminal F1 in ’94.

You’d need to spend 20 times this car’s estimate to bag an F1 today, though.

1964 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII

Estimate: £200-250,000

This genuine works 3000 was the last Healey to win a European Rally Championship event, placing first at the Spa-Sofia-Liege race in 1964.

Restored to the spec it wore for that event, it features aluminium body panels, a glassfibre hardtop and a triple-Weber carb setup, works aluminium cylinder head and straight-cut gears.

2001 Lister Storm GT1

Estimate: £450-550,000

Lister was well known in the 1950s for its Jag-powered ‘knobbly’ racers, but the name disappeared for decades before reappearing on a run of highly tuned XJ-Ss in the 1980s.

Lister finally returned to high-level competition in 1993 with the Storm, a bespoke aluminium-and-carbon V12 beast that battled with initial reliability woes before hitting a purple patch that resulted in a second place in the 2003 FIA GT championship.

1927 Bentley Jackson Special ‘Old Mother Gun’

Estimate: NA

One of the most important Bentleys ever built, and certainly the most famous Bentley ‘special’, Old Mother Gun appeared three times at Le Mans, taking first place in 1928 in the hands of Bernard Rubin and Woolf Barnato, who came up with the nickname.

Later, it was also a regular at Brooklands – both before and after its transformation into a single-seat special thanks to a new chassis and bodywork – once recording an outrageous 148mph on the railway straight.

There’s no estimate available, but you can bet the price will be equally outrageous.