Given the woes of the British economy—now officially in a recession—and a signs of a slowing collector car market on both sides of the Atlantic, Silverstone Auctions’ sale in Birmingham, England, was primed to be a classic example of “wrong time, wrong place.”
Yet that’s not how things turned out. Silverstone reported £7.3M ($8.5M)in total sales and a 75 percent sell-through rate, with more than 100 classic sports cars, rally cars, trucks and even an impossibly clean Mk 1 Ford Transit Van crossing the block.
These results were surprisingly good. The auction house itself practically admitted as much, with Sales Director Rob Hubbard noting: “Given the tough economic situation the country currently finds itself in, this sale was a vote of confidence in classic car collecting.”
A claimed seven record prices were achieved, including a 100-mile 1989 Jaguar XJ-S convertible for £131,625 ($153,699, and over 5x its #1 value in the Hagerty UK Price Guide), a 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII MR FQ-400 for £72,000 ($84,074), a 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth for £132,750 ($155,012, and over £30k more than its #1 value), and the aforementioned Ford van for £61,875 ($72,251). We take a look at some of the most interesting and significant sales from Silverstone on the pages below.