This is actually another blast from the past article, remembering the best moments I did not have time to report earlier. A part of this post has been published on Drivetribe, but some of it stayed in the bottom drawers. Usually, the first quarter of the year is so intensive that I did not manage to put all my experiences into articles. But now, that everybody’s bound to the living room, it is time to catch up with the backlog.
Last year, the Techno Classica upped its game in an area where some of the leading shows were far ahead. Thus, its household Auctioneer Coys received competition with the arrival of RM Sotheby’s. They both prepared an impressive selection of classics, exotics and extravaganza and visitors.
In addition to the two household names, other Auctioneers usually join with a small stage to showcase some of their cherished trophies. The usual suspects are Artcurial, RM Sotheby’s, and Aste Bolaffi’s Milan auction.
They do not organise auction sales in Essen however, like the Auction capital during the Rétromobile.
Sotheby’s kicked the door on Germany’s Auction world in Essen.
Entering Sotheby’s chambers at the Techno Classica 2019 proved to be another ultimate car spotting experience. Classics and legends from all era, a Landy personally wrecked by James Bond in the movie Spectre or one of five Italdesign Zerouno hypercars, best things in life are for free, but not here…
The chambers of the prime auctioneer always prove to be an ultimate carspotting experience. Last year, there were even two, as Sotheby’s embarked in Essen and raised the game.
Sotheby’s arrival was an important premiere for the Techno-Classica. I always enjoyed the colourful and diverse fleet brought together by the British Auctioneer Coys for their annual Essen auction. Still, their offering never quite kept up with the flashy stages of Artcurial in Paris.
The most awesome carspotting experience at Rétromobile is the Auction
They embarked big time, taking the entire underground level of hall 1, filling it with a massive and genuinely diverse fleet. Cars from Pre-war era (WWII that is…), and also a few youngtimers in the more affordable range.
That means under 30.000 euros, in case you were wondering), but those rather parked in the open space outside. Given the number of cars, the auction was extended from one to two auction days.
In the end, Sotheby’s reported total sales of €18.7 million with 86 per cent of all 229 lots sold. The two-day sale represents one of the most successful and significant collector car auctions ever held in Germany in terms of both total value and number of cars sold.
The auction took place in a packed room on both days and drew bidders from 46 countries, with more than 40 per cent of participants being first-time RM Sotheby’s clientele.
The top result of the entire sale was a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Cabriolet A topping at €2.255.000. The highlights by the stage included a trio of legendary Lancia rally greats, each exceeding estimates.
The well-preserved, Azzurro-painted 1975 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale with a mere 11,800km arrived at €545.000.
The 1982 Lancia 037 Rally Stradale with the lowest mileage in existence with just 3,500km on the tacho soared to a final €770.000, nearly doubling its estimate.
The 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale, a quite original, 2,200km-example of Lancia’s iconic Group B homologation Special, shattered its pre-sale estimate of €450.000 – €550.000 to achieve a final €1.040.000.
Both the 037 Rally Stradale and Delta S4 Stradale achieved world-record prices by a significant margin over any examples previously sold.
Sotheby’s report also noted a few remarkable highs for youngtimers, such as the 1990 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC AMG 6.0 ‘Wide-Body’ brought a €149,500 revenue for the owner. There was an (at least for the Essen fleet) unusual amount of Japanese cars, a highly original 1992 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo sold for a final bd of €32,200.
The fleet consists mainly of classic cars, the few recent models include rarities, like a Veyron or Italdesign’s first Hypercar the Zerouno (that is a somewhat optimistic 01 in Italian).
For those unaware, in 2017, Italdesign came out with its first wholly internally produced supercar, the Zerouno. It was developed and built by its ‘Automobili Speciali’ division, which specialises in handcrafted and highly exclusive limited-edition vehicles. The Zerouno boasts unique styling and futuristic technological solutions, the Zerouno benefits from the advantages of being a substantially hand-made supercar.
Needless to say, the performance figures were quite impressive. Powered by a 5.2-litre, naturally aspirated V-10 engine mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the engine produces 610 bhp and 560 nm of torque at 6,500 rpm, with power driven to all four wheels. The company quotes a 0–100 km/h time of just 3.2 seconds, leading to a top speed of 330 km/h. Best things in life are free, but according to press reports, a new Zerouno cost 2 million euros easily.
The other tall order was a Defender from the set of the James Bond movie Spectre. The lucky bidder paid over 115.000 euros for the car with a few slightly dents, caused by her majesty’s slick trigger finger. The car is one of 10 Landys built for the movie.
For this particular series, Jaguar – Land Rover’s special operations team commissioned specialist Bowler to help with the preparations, given its experience with the preparation of Defenders for off-road motorsport and for defence clients, including the British Government.
The firm required ten regular Santorini Black crew-cab 110s, transformed into the SVX Concept, or Spectre Defender. The cars featured colossal 37-inch tyres, heavy-duty roll cages plus toughened suspensions and fitted Recaro seats. Three ‘halo’ cars with high finishes were created for close-up shots while the rest were destroyed during the filming.
This particular vehicle was fitted with specialist hydraulics to ensure it flipped at precisely the right moment upon collision with the aircraft piloted by James Bond. It did, leaving the chassis bent with just 16 miles on the odometer. Though fully functional, the car is unsuitable to be driven on the road but is preserved exactly as the moment filming stopped.
The home turf did not help Coys – but that does not mean anyone would leave disappointed…
Techno Classica’s official auction house has traditionally been Coys, and they still enjoyed the benefits of home turf with a dedicated hall.
The exhibited a wide selection of cars in the Gruga Hall of the Essen expo, similarly to previous years.
The flagship lot was a special BMW M1 that was later used as a speed record chaser. Originally, it was built to standard specification in 1979 and delivered to its first owner in Berlin.
In 1981 the car was purchased by racing driver, Harald Ertl, and went through an extreme makeover, to break 300km/h to set a new record for natural gas propelled cars. With twin KKK turbochargers developing about 410bh, Ertl managed to achieve a record-breaking 301.4km/h in 1981. This aggressively-styled M1 had been unearthed from a garage in East London, lost for decades. Despite being a piece of motoring history and the subject of several magazine articles, the car did not fare particularly well finding a new owner how paid 153,000 euros.
The other interesting lot was a 1950 ‘Berlin III’ E2 Class BMW 328 Racing Boat, that did not find a new owner.
