Bonhams is simply part of the Goodwood events, in fact the 30th auction took place on July 14, 2023 on the occasion of the Festival of Speed. The company has been involved since the beginning and has now held 66 auctions as part of Goodwood events.
Around 150 automobilia and 79 cars with a value of almost £20 million were offered on the rather nasty Friday. On average, the vehicles are just over 44 years old. 29% of the vehicle lots were offered without a reserve price.
Picky bidders
On average, the highest bids for the 79 cars were around 81% of the median estimate. The spectrum ranged from bids below half the estimate to bids at more than one and a half times the estimate.
For example, £ 327,750 (EUR 380,190, CHF 370,358) was paid for a 2008 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster, even though the estimate was only £ 150,000 to 200,000.
Two Aston Martins from the 1970s, on the other hand, were sold for around half their estimated value, with less than £50,000 being paid.
DB4 GT by Peter Sellers not sold
The Aston Martin DB4 GT with chassis number DB4GT/0157/R from 1961 was clearly announced as one of the highlights of the auction. One of 57 RHD examples built, it was used in the film "The Wrong Arm of the Law" and driven by Peter Sellers. After the filming, Sellers is said to have used the car himself for a while, followed by a further 13 owners. Now £2.2 to £2.6 million is set to change hands for the purchase.
The bidders did not want to call for quite that much, at exactly £ 2.020 million it was over, the car was not sold.
The rare Aston was not the most expensive car, however, as the Koenigsegg CCGT GT1 was expected to cost a little more at £ 3 to 4 million as a "Competition Coupé" from 2007. It just about managed that, as the hyper sports car was eventually passed on to a new owner for £3.319 million.
Aston Martin at the front
Aston Martin was the undisputed leader of the brand hit parade at Goodwood, with 27 cars bearing the famous trademark and an average age of 47 years. 19 were sold, helped by the fact that 12 of them were offered without a reserve price. On average, 82% of the median estimate was offered.
Jaguar and Porsche were in second place in the brand hit parade with six cars each. Only a third and half of them respectively were sold.
AC and Mercedes-Benz fared much better with five cars offered and four sold each, even if the highest bids for AC in particular were significantly lower than expected on average.
Better a restoration object than an almost perfect DB5
It is interesting to compare the results of two similar Aston Martin DB5s, both built in 1964.
Lot 222 was a professionally restored example over four years with only 48,000 miles on the clock, while Lot 270 was a restoration object in dismantled condition that was announced as a "potentially most reward project".
£ 625,400 (EUR 725,464, CHF 706,702) was paid for the restored car, slightly more than half, namely £ 326,600 (EUR 378,856, CHF 369,058) for the project. Could the restoration be carried out for the difference?
For a little less money than for the dismantled DB5, you could also buy two DB4s or a DB6, while the DBS variants were rather more difficult to find.
Unsold factory Quattro
It's not every day that one of the 20 factory Audi Sport Quattro S1 Group B rally cars comes onto the market. Chassis SQ85EA905108 from 1984/85 won the Welsh International and the 1986 National Breakdown Rally, among others, has been with the current owner since 2003 and has been completely restored.
Instead of the expected £ 1.2 to 1.4 million, however, nobody wanted to bid more than a million, so the car was left standing.
Exotics mostly sold below expectations
In addition to many super classics, some very rare cars were also on offer at Goodwood.
For example, the Trident Venturer from 1971, once the result of the discontinued TVR Trident project. Equipped with a Ford Essex V6 under a yellow plastic body, the coupé failed to meet expectations and was sold for just £14,720.
A Unipower GT is probably just as rare today, if not rarer still. The car on offer was a competition model with a racing history, had recently been rebuilt and could also have competed in the Le Mans Classic. However, instead of the expected £50,000 to £70,000, only £38,000 was offered. The car was left standing.
Just over 50 AC 428 Coupés with Frua bodywork were built in total, two of which went under the hammer at Bonhams. The 1969 example with chassis number CF42 is super rare, as it is equipped with a manual gearbox, while most of them, including CF46 from the same year, were automatic. A price of £80,500 was paid for the manual transmission, while the automatic version, which according to Bonhams still required "recommissioning", came to £59,800.
Speaking of the AC, the MA-200 prototype from 1963 was an alternative for those for whom 50 built examples were still too many. It can be seen as a precursor to the AC 428, but it looks more like a Maserati Mistral, which wouldn't be a bad reference. In the end, £ 368,000 (EUR 426,880, CHF 415,840) was paid for the Concours participant, which was well below expectations.
The Facel Vega 6 Coupé from 1964 was also extremely rare. Only 35 such six-cylinder coupés based on the small Facel with Volvo three-liter engines are said to have been built. The car was extensively restored in 2010 and seemed comparatively cheap at £ 50,000 to £ 80,000. The bidders saw it differently, no one wanted to risk more than £45,000 and the car remained unsold.
Things went better for the apparently very popular Lagonda Taraf from 2015; only 120 examples were built on the technical basis of the Rapide. A few of them have come onto the market recently and they usually fetched prices above expectations. This example did not quite manage this, with £ currently coming onto the market at an accelerated rate, it seems. However, at £ 224,250 (EUR 260,130, CHF 253,403) it at least equaled the estimate.
Whether it was due to the weather or the constantly circulated fears of recession is unclear, but things certainly didn't go quite as well as hoped at Goodwood. Interesting cars were left standing, expectations were not met. However, with a total turnover of over £10 million, Bonhams could not complain in the end, even if the Koenigsegg was responsible for almost a third of this.
Offered and Sold Vehicles
The following table lists all offered and sold vehicles with estimated prices, highest bids, and sale prices. The price conversion was made at the exchange rate valid on the auction day. All information is provided without guarantee.
| Lot | Car | Year | £ Est from | £ Est to | £ HP | £ SP | CHF SP | EUR SP | % Est | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | Land Rover Series I 86" 4x4 Utility | 1954 | 25'000 | 30'000 | 18'200 | 20'930 | 23'650 | 24'278 | -23.89%
|
V |
| 202 | William Guthrie C-Type (Rec) (1962/70) | 1962 | 60'000 | 80'000 | 50'000 | 44'167 | 49'908 | 51'233 | -36.9%
|
V |
| 203 | Longline/Ricardo MkII Light Strike Vehicle | 1990 | 28'000 | 30'000 | 27'000 | 31'050 | 35'086 | 36'018 | +7.07%
|
V |
| 204 | Trident Venturer Coupé | 1971 | 18'000 | 25'000 | 12'800 | 14'720 | 16'633 | 17'075 | -31.53%
|
V |
| 205 | Lotus-Mugen Honda Type 107C Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater (1993/94) | 1993 | 70'000 | 100'000 | 84'000 | 96'600 | 109'157 | 112'055 | +13.65%
|
V |
| 206 | AC 428 Coupé | 1969 | 90'000 | 130'000 | 70'000 | 80'500 | 90'964 | 93'380 | -26.82%
|
V |
| 207 | Aston Martin V8 'Series 3' Sports Saloon | 1976 | 50'000 | 80'000 | 32'000 | 36'800 | 41'583 | 42'688 | -43.38%
|
V |
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All information is provided without guarantee.
Legend: Column S = Status (V = Sold, N = Not sold, Z = Withdrawn, U = Under reserve)
Est = Estimate, HP = Hammer Price, SP = Sale Price
