With on track practice from 7.30am on Saturday morning and 2 auctions to visit…it was going to be a busy day! The Monagasque suburb of Fontvieille was like a classic car corale with Coys in the local circus’s permanent home and Bonhams nearby at the late Prince Rainier’s car museum ……..if that wasn’t enough Royal Motors (equidistant from both locations) tried to tempt auction goers with an F50, 2 Enzos, a 250PF cabriolet and a Mercedes 300SL.

Coys
Coys was offering 119 lots of automobilia and the Big Top was space enough for almost 80 cars with the centre stage reserved for their “star lots”, the Willi Kauhsen owned from new Porsche 917-10 – a 1000 + bhp CanAm monster resplendent in orange and the superbly restored ex King Farouk Mercedes 540K Carbriolet. The overall appearance of lots was good, but why someone hasn’t devised a checklist to ensure quality of presentation remains a mystery – several cars had excess polish remaining, more were being hastily prepared on the morning of the auction – it just looked disorganised!

That said the range and quality of lots was good, with cars to suit every pocket whether for everyday or collector use. There was plenty of Italian metal consigned with a touring rally prepared Lancia Flaminia Zagato an excellent buy at a “snip” under £40k and a superb condition, faithful recreation of the simply gorgeous pre war Alfa Romeo 1750 Grand Sport £84.7k. There were several Ferrari s consigned and these were the results:

Thankfully for the Kensington, London based auction house some of their more expensive consignments sold very well with the aforementioned Mercedes finding a new home at £556k, a Maserati 150S sports racer with Mille Miglia history £542.5k and a concours winning 1954 Mercedes 300S Cabriolet £268.2k; amongst others. The attendance mid auction was very good with plenty of bidding activity in the room and via the telephone, but for the last 25 + lots people had already started to make their way to Bonhams and the auctioneer was on the back foot.

OVERVIEW – Coys presented an eclectic catalogue and the cars that sold well were in exceptional condition, had unquestionable provenance or were historically significant – if it didn’t achieve these criteria it was unlikely to sell.

Prices quoted are in sterling and are “hammer price”, buyers premium (10%) and TVA (19%) on premium need to be added

Bonhams
10 mins walk away at the Motor Museum 90 lots of automobilia and 114 cars had been squeezed in alongside the permanent exhibits. With the recent sale of the renowned Rosso Bianco collection to the Louwman family in the Netherlands, the sale included 23 unwanted lots from this collection combined with 24 cars from the Vitor Ribeiro (a Porto based new car dealer) collection and the balance from private /trade entries.

The Rosso Bianco (RB) cars sold well with estimates realistic bearing in mind their uncertain mechanical condition and based on current market values a “tidy ” Ferrari 250 Lusso (RB) looked a good buy at €200k, but sadly Ribeiro’s collection fared less well with only 3 lots making their reserve. Bonhams did however achieve some excellent results in this “monster “ sale with the evening’s most expensive car being the the ex Briggs Cunningham 1935 Maserati 4CS(RB) at €580k. All of the Ferraris consigned sold, here are the results:

Elsewhere an excellent pre war Delahaye 135M found a new home at €300k, an example of the rare BMW M1 at €71k caught the eye and my favourite of the day, a superbly restored 1936 Lancia Astura has a new custodian after a €70k bid.

OVERVIEW – Bonhams presented a large catalogue where the consigned lots ranged in condition from the tatty Lamborghini Espada to the excellent 275GTB/6. In the heady days of the late 80’s you couldn’t attend a classic auction without viewing the omni present Jaguar E type or Austin Healey 3000 ……are the Maserati Ghibli, Khamsin and Mistral their replacement? The sales criteria in evidence at Coys was equally true here and judging by results the European Ferrari V12 market place continues to gather momentum as new buyers chase finite stock…the Daytona especially!

Prices quoted are in euros and are “hammer price”, buyers premium (10%) and TVA(19%) on premium need to be added