How much more are cars from famous owners worth?
Over the past few months, a whole series of cars belonging to well-known personalities, namely from the film, entertainment and music industries, have been auctioned off. These cars almost always achieve higher prices than "normal" classics, but hardly anyone can beat the celebrity effect of Steve McQueen from 2011. His 1970 Porsche 911 S was sold by RM in Monterey for USD 1.375 million, which was certainly ten times the value of another 911 of the same type.
The Volvo 262 C, which the Oldtimer Galerie auctioned in December 2017, came relatively close. Here, the celebrity bonus also reached over 10, if you compare the sales price with Classic Data's standard market valuation for a similar car.
Things did not go so well last weekend when Silverstone Auctions auctioned off cars belonging to Jay Kay/Bruce Willis (musician/actor), Elton John (musician) and Rowan Atkinson (actor/comedian).
Nevertheless, these cars also sold for very good prices: the Mercedes-Benz 500 E from 1993, owned by "Mr. Bean" Rowan Atkinson, achieved £ 71,300 in LHD configuration, i.e. EUR 80,569, which would be almost three times higher than the current market value (Classic Data, condition 2).
The 1969 Dodge Charger in "Bullit" specification (pictured above), which Bruce Willis once gave to Demi Moore and which musician Jay Kay later took over (and optimized for a lot of money), was sold for £ 94,500 (EUR 1067,875), about twice the price of a "normal" Charger.
Around two months ago, Bonhams put cars belonging to Elton John and the Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr under the hammer. At the time, McCartney's Aston Martin DB5 and drummer Starr's Mini were particularly impressive.
We have compiled more recent auction results in a table, but of course it is not possible to determine the celebrity bonus with certainty.
| Lot | Auction house | Vehicle | Year | Ex-owner | £ VPrice | € VPrice | € CD 2 | PromiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 510 | Silverstone | Aston Martin V8 Vantage V550 (manual) | 1997 | Elton John | 219375 | 247894 | ||
| 542 | Silverstone | Lancia Thema 8.32 (LHD) | 1989 | Rowan Atkinson | 29813 | 33689 | 21800 | 1.5 |
| 501 | Silverstone | Mercedes-Benz 500E (LHD) | 1993 | Rowan Atkinson | 71300 | 80569 | 28100 | 2.9 |
| 506 | Silverstone | Dodge Charger "Bullit Spec" (LHD) | 1969 | Jay Kay, Bruce Willis | 94500 | 106785 | 54900 | 1.9 |
| 111 | Bonhams | Bentley S2 Continental Saloon | 1960 | Elton John | 180700 | 203375 | ||
| 119 | Bonhams | Bentley S1 Continental Sport Saloon | 1956 | Elton John | 366666 | 416737 | 255000 | 1.6 |
| 132 | Bonhams | Aston Martin DB5 | 1964 | Paul McCartney | 1345500 | 1529237 | 642000 | 2.4 |
| 136 | Bonhams | Mini Cooper S Radford | 1966 | Ringo Starr | 102300 | 116269 | 34200 | 3.4 |
| 140 | Classic car gallery | Volvo 262 C Bertone | 1981 | David Bowie | 183008 | 16600 | 11 |
In simple terms, however, Steve McQueen (not included) and David Bowie would top the auction hit parade, while Elton John would be near the bottom.
But there are also many other factors that can make a car more or less expensive. And at auctions in particular, the results can be linked to the mood on site and special factors that do not always follow purely scientific cause-and-effect relationships.
As always, you can find more auction analyses in our auction reports and in our announcements.
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