From Ferraris to Ford Escorts, the cars gracing the Silverstone Classic Auction
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The Silverstone Classic Sale on July 29/30 will be held in the Wing building at Silverstone Circuit, and is open only to people with an event ticket and an auction catalogue. Smaller than major events in, for example, the US, it still features many fascinating cars, some of them sure to increase in value over the coming years.
The following list of sixteen lots gives some idea of the tremendous variety of cars on sale.
BMW 3.0 CSL
The CSL (standing for Coupe Sport Leicht, the last word being the German for ‘light’) was part of the BMW New Six range manufactured between 1968 and 1975. It was a homologation special created specifically to allow BMW to compete in the European Touring Car Championship, which it did with enormous success.
The example for sale at Silverstone is a road version rather than a racer. Sold to a UK buyer in March 1973, it went through a restoration in 2011 which included taking the bodywork back to the metal and respraying it in period-correct Taiga Green. The recorded mileage of 75,000 can not be confirmed but is believe to be genuine.
Estimate: £70,000-85,000
De Tomaso Pantera
The Pantera was De Tomaso’s most successful model, thanks partly to a very long production run from 1971 to 1992. This 1973 car was under the same ownership for 25 years until 2011, when it was bought and put through a comprehensive restoriation. It has since made many appearances at shows.
The lot includes the original glovebox manual and workshop manual and a copy of Auto Italia magazine which includes an article about the car.
Estimate: £90,000-110,000
Ferrari 308 GTB QV
The QV in this car’s name stands for quattrovalvole, an Italian word denoting four valves per cylinder rather than the two used in earlier 308 engines.
Only 748 GTB QVs were built in three years, compared with over 3000 of the GTS with its removal roof panel, and very few of them were right-hand drive. The auction car is one of those. In September 2016 it was given a major service costing around £15,000 to bring it up to its current excellent condition.
Estimate: £80,000-90,000
Ferrari 430 Scuderia
Late in the five-year life of the F430, Ferrari produced a lighter and more powerful version called the 430 Scuderia. There are various claims for its 0-60mph time, but all of them are under four seconds.
This car was supplied to the Ferrari importer in Riyadh in December 2008. It was transferred to the UK in 2012 and re-registered here. By no means simply a car to be stored and looked at, it has covered 31,661 miles, more than 9000 of them in the past two years.
Estimate: £110,000-130,000
Ford Capri 280 Brooklands
Ford built its last Capri in December 1986, but sales of the 280 Brooklands were slow, and several were registered long after that date. This example was registered in 1987 and has had only three owners since then. It was refinished by Sussex-based specialist Restore-A-Ford in 2010 at a cost of over £10,000 and has more recently had further money spent on it to keep it in excellent condition.
The car has 14,680 miles on the clock and is being sold with a full dealer service history and all its MOT certificates and tax discs.
Estimate: £35,000-45,000
Ford Escort Mk1 Mexico
Named to commemorate Hannu Mikkola’s victory with an Escort in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup endurance rally, the Mexico was the second fastest car in the Mk1 Escort range, fitted with a 1.6-litre Kent engine rather than the RS1600’s more powerful Cosworth BDA.
A genuine Mexico built by Ford’s Advanced Vehicle Operations in 1973, this car was modified in 2006 in much the same way that it might have been three decades before. Its maximum power output is now 155bhp, nearly double the standard figure.
Estimate: £27,000-30,000
Ford GPW Jeep
Along with Willys-Overland, Ford was commissioned by the US Army to build Jeeps during World War II. Ford versions were named GPW, and this example was at one time owned and restored by the President of the Ford GPW Owners Club in the US.
It was imported to the UK in 2012 and bought at a Silverstone auction last year. During his brief ownership, the buyer balanced the propshaft and replaced the fuel gague and one shock absorber. He also fitted a dashboard-mounted rifle holder complete with replica rifle.
Estimate: £23,000-28,000
Healey Silverstone
The Silverstone was a dual-purpose road and race car built in very small numbers around 1950, and notable for its odd appearance caused by the headlights being mounted behind the front grille for aerodynamic reasons.
The car at auction, a wide-bodied version from late in the production run, was discovered in poor condition in 1998 and completely restored over the next five years. It has 10,501 miles on the clock, a figure believed to be genuine.
Estimate: £165,000-185,000
Jaguar E-Type Series I Coupe
This is a very early E-Type, built for the UK market in 1962 and fitted with a 3.8-litre XK six-cylinder engine rather than the later 4.2. Restored to excellent condition, it has had several upgrades, one being the fitment of a five-speed gearbox. The original four-speed is included in the lot.
Within the last year, over £45,000 has been spent on rebuilding and lightly modifying the engine and retrimming the interior.
Estimate: £100,000-120,000
Jaguar XK120 Roadster
Sold to its first owner in January 1951, this XK120 has had work done on it over the years by many Jaguar specialists. Though still usable on the road, it has been highly modified, with all-aluminium bodywork, several engine upgrades and a revised chassis, and has had considerable success in motorsport.
According to Silverstone Auctions, building an XK120 to this specification today “would certainly cost over £175,000”.
Estimate: £90,000-110,000
Land Rover 90 Heritage Edition
The Heritage was one of thre limited-edition Defenders (along with the Adventure and the Autobiography) which marked the end of original Land Rover production after nearly seventy years.
This one was delivered new on 28 November 2015, almost exactly two months before the very last example came off the line at Solihull, to actor Rowan Atkinson. It has since covered 2260 miles and has only just been in for its first service.
Estimate: £38,000-45,000
Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
The 190 SL was a cheaper and less complex version of the slightly earlier 300 SL. The 1955 example on sale at Silverstone was the 514th of nearly 26,000 built, and was delivered new to its first customer in Texas.
In 1994 it was imported to the UK, where 190 SL expert Brian Gunney, owner of Redcastle Classics, thoroughly restored it for his personal use. Its V5C document, issued in 2005, refers to it as a 1956 car, but the current owner is applying for this to be corrected.
Estimate: £105,000-120,000
Porsche 356 Cabriolet
The 356 was the first model Porsche sold under its own name. and the immediate predecessor of the 911. The Cabriolet version being sold at Silverstone dates from 1962 and is one of the earliest based on what is known as the T6 body, with twin rear grilles and an external fuel filler in the right front wing.
It was delivered new to the US but later returned to Europe, where its body was restored in 2006. The engine is not original, but it is a Type 616/1, identical to the one that would have been fitted in the factory.
Estimate: £100,000-120,000
Porsche 911 2.7 MFI
MFI stands for mechnical fuel injection, a system Porsche would stop using when this car went out of production. It was almost identical to the slightly earlier Carrera RS, but unlike that car it did not have bumpers that could meet US legislation.
A very rare right-hand drive version, the car shown here was built in 1975. It has recently been completely restored, but the engine, the gearbox and nearly all the bodywork are original (though rebuilt in the first two cases), and while the car has been repainted it still features the Ice Green colour scheme it was given in the factory.
Estimate: £190,000-230,000
Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
There are two 1991 Lotus Carltons on sale at Silverstone. This one, the 28th right-hand drive built, is the more valuable since it has an exceptionally low mileage of just 4500.
Preparation for the acution has included replacing all the fluids at a cost of £1900. The tyres are original and reportedly in excellent condition, though Silverstone Auctions recommends replacing them before the Carlton’s performance, which is mighty even by modern standards, is fully used.
Estimate: £60,000-65,000
Volkswagen Type 2 Samba
The Samba was a luxury model produced early in the complicated history of the Type 2. Its features included two-tone paintwork, a fabric sunroof and a roof which extended beyond the top of the windscreen to help keep the sun out of the driver’s eyes. The auction car is based on the 23-window Type 2 – on later versions, Volkswagen was less extravagant and provided just 21 windows.
This example was imported to the UK from South Africa and was completely dismantled for a restoration which took until 2005 to complete. The engine and gearbox were sourced from later VWs, but otherwise this Samba is as near as it can be to the way it was when Volkswagen built it in 1959.
Estimate: £45,000-55,000