Barons’ Spring Classic sale last Saturday, April 21st saw bidders ignoring the bright sunshine of one of the hottest days of the year to head into the saleroom at Sandown Park and bid with vigour for the varied selection of high quality lots on offer, with a number of notable results including a 1964 Morris Mini Cooper S, which achieved just under £43,000.
The star lot on the day was the beautiful 1965 Mercedes 230SL Pagoda. With the sunny weather possibly influencing buyers in favour of this stylish convertible, it eventually sold for £51,700.
Second past the post was the 1966 Jaguar E-type FHC restoration project. Stripped down, partially restored and ready for the new owner to complete and rebuild, this sold for £45,650. If the buyer puts his or her foot down, they could have this fabulous machine back on the road before the summer is over.
Early cars proved popular, with the 1930 Nash 494 Straight Eight Sedan finishing closely behind the E-type, selling for £44,000, while the 1926 Morris Cowley Bullnose, 1935 Talbot AC65 and 1933 Austin 10/4 all found keen new owners.
The 1965 Mini was one of the last 1071cc Cooper S’s made - the 54th last from the 4,000-strong production run. This most sporting little car sold for £42,900.
Among the cars selling for well over top estimate were the 1972 Triumph TR6 (£28, 325), the 1966 Jaguar MkII 3.8 (£22,500) and the 1970 MG CGT (£17,050).
Barons’ Auction Manager Tim Gascoigne was in a buoyant mood: “Despite the weather working against us again, but this time with blazing sunshine instead of snow, the cars on offer were enough to tempt buyers down to Sandown Park. We had some great cars that were very reasonably priced, and the results reflected the high quality.
“We sold an E-Type restoration project for the second sale in a row, all four vintage cars found a new home, and there were some very strong prices achieved on a number of lots. Bargain of the day definitely has to be the XJ6 restoration project at £450, as the manual gearbox with overdrive is worth over £1,000 alone!”
One interesting lot that won’t take up much garage space was the complete, boxed collection of miniature BMW Art Cars, including the very rare #17 Jeff Koon BMW M3 GT2. This lovely little set sold for £3,300.
Barons returns to Sandown Park on Tuesday, 5th June, for its British Heritage, Classic and Sports Cars sale, early entries for which include a lovely 1969 Daimler V8 250 which has covered less than 2000 miles in the past ten years.
