Sprint sold at auction

[jimj]

http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1973 ... head-coupe

[terryp]

Why is it only responsive when photographed?

Terry

[billwill]

Sold for (?): 46,575


Will it even be a trailer-queen after this or will it be locked up in a collectors giant garage for ever?


<later>
Talking of collectors garages etc, how about this presumably loved car.

[Elanintheforest]

Will it even be a trailer-queen after this or will it be locked up in a collectors giant garage for ever?

Does it matter Bill? Some folks get great pleasure in tucking away their perfect cars, and collecting the best of whatever their interest is. I bought a motorbike from a chap last year, who showed me his collection of around 40 1970s Japanese bikes. Each one restored to perfection with new-old-stock, and the definitive example of the make and model. And none of them have even been started since having a complete restoration.

He's also one of THE authorities on one model, with engineers coming out from Kawasaki in Japan to study his rare bikes and learn from him how they developed!

We're all interested in the cars, and in different ways, and you can't have one-owner low mileage barn find cars without some of them being tucked away for most of the time.

Otherwise we would all have Elans like Brian Buckland's with 800,000 miles plus on the clock, and the world would have run out of usable twincam engines!

Mark

[Spyder fan]

Otherwise we would all have Elans like Brian Buckland's with 800,000 miles plus on the clock, and the world would have run out of usable twincam engines!

Mark,
Brian says it's the original engine..... I call it the woodsman's axe.

On topic
It's official that top condition cars now cost in excess of ?50,000:
?46,575 plus buyers premium of 12.5% + 20% VAT on that amount totals ?53,561.25, you could buy a new one for that money

[Spyder fan]

Sold for (?): 46,575


Will it even be a trailer-queen after this or will it be locked up in a collectors giant garage for ever?


<later>
Talking of collectors garages etc, how about this presumably loved car.

Bill,
That's an early mark 1 Mini, you can tell by the full width front valance; slightly later cars had scallops out of the edges of the valance. Snowberry white over Island Blue, most likely a Morris Super model going by the wheel trims and bonnet badge, these were basically a 997 Cooper with an 850 engine ad running gear. It could be badged Cooper and have a Cooper 997 engine, brakes and speedo, these being virtually the only differences between the cars (100mph rather than 90mph speedo, puny 7 inch disc brakes instead of drums up front, remote gearlever rather than the pudding stirrer) this could all be done over a weekend and makes me wonder how many of the surprisingly large amount of early Coopers that survive are ringers. Nice conversation piece to have in the lounge though

[elansprint71]

A shame they could not stick the stripes on correctly.

[jimj]

?46,575 did include the buyer`s premium, of course. The car looked superb but, was it Tim or Mark, who commented earlier that the car was not quite the 100 pointer in the provenance department?
Jim

[billwill]

Will it even be a trailer-queen after this or will it be locked up in a collectors giant garage for ever?

Does it matter Bill?
Mark

Yes it matters to me, because I'm basically an engineer.

Putting a car away in a collection, other than finally in a museum (when they become very rare), is to me something like building a new Severn suspension bridge and then not letting anyone drive over it in case they scuff the road surface.

[Spyder fan]

?46,575 did include the buyer`s premium, of course. The car looked superb but, was it Tim or Mark, who commented earlier that the car was not quite the 100 pointer in the provenance department?
Jim

What was the hammer price?
The nearest logical figure I can get to is ?39625 (which seems an odd ending bid, but so does ?46575) + 12,5% buyers premium = ?4953.12 + VAT on the premium = ?990.63 making a total of ?45568.75, are they rounding up?

I'm a bit of an auction virgin as far as buying cars is concerned, do the published sold prices always include the buyers premium? I would have thought that was misleading to prospective sellers who also have to pay the auctioneers commission.

[jono]

...nice Mini

It's a Morris Cooper judging by the grille and chrome door frame surrounds

[au-yt]

?46575 I am not at all surprised even if its not 100 points, given the what the rest of the collectable market is doing .

Graeme

[pharriso]

So if you missed that Sprint at auction you have another opportunity in a couple of weeks - http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1973-lotus-elan-sprint-drophead

Guide price is 35,000 - 45,000 GBP but who knows? prices at all auctions have been crazy these last few weeks!

[nebogipfel]

Why is it only responsive when photographed?

Terry

The blue one is too .....must be some kind of observer thing like Schr?dinger's cat

It's difficult to judge from photographs but the blue one looks like an averagely tidy car, certainly nothing particularly special.

I wonder how long this new price bubble will last before it goes ping?

[jimj]

Well, on the one hand I`m disappointed to find another monotone Lagoon Blue Sprint extant, hoping that our`s was now unique. On the other, as you may recall, I worry about how much we paid, so it`s pleasing to see this estimate. But, based on the pics. that flatter anyway, it`s hardly mint, I`d say around ?25K would be more realistic but I hope I`m wrong.
On another much discussed subject; I see the build date was Aug. `72 whereas our`s was built on 25th September `72 according to the original build sheet. As you can see on the pic. below, there`s no awkward flange on our`s, underneath ahead of the silencer, and never was as I recall, unlike this one and many others. Strange?
Jim