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Many collectors' vehicle auction records were smashed at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale. Not only did the ex-Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin 1929 4½-liter 'Blower' Bentley, which raised the Brooklands Outer Circuit record to 137mph, sell for £5,041,500 to become the
most expensive Bentley and, indeed, British motor car ever sold at public auction, but "The Corgi" Rolls-Royce, a 1912 40/50hp 'Silver Ghost' Double Pullman Limousine, also sold for an Rolls-Royce record-breaking £4,705,500.

With so many fine motor cars consigned from major collections, the sale itself was a record-breaker too. It was not only the largest by appraise for a Bonhams car auction, but the £22m sale total was the highest ever achieved for a motor car auction in the UK

Only two weeks before, a 1950 Healey Silverstone for restoration made £64,200, one of four Warwick Healey projects all of which were taken on by clients at a newly combined classic car and bike fixture during VMCC Banbury Run weekend at Bonhams Oxford, where 80% of entries sold for £1.15m.

The previous month saw the largest turnout yet for the 13th consecutive Bonhams sale at the recently refurbished Aston Martin Works Service. The £1.2m paid for a 1991 DB4GT Zagato Sanction II Coupé was a new record price for an Aston at what has become the major
annual selling and buying opportunity for the marque. This year, 89% of the catalog contents sold for £6.67m, a record for the sale.

Richard Hudson-Evans,
Editor, Ignition