London, 05 November 2022

The grounds of Marlborough House in St James, London, just off The Mall, played host to RM Sotheby’s traditional late season London Auction on Saturday 05 November. The façade of the house was lit-up to provide a splendid backdrop to the cars on display outside the main auction pavilion. The auction comprised of 54 lots, all but four of which were for cars. A number of the offerings were from The Gran Turismo Collection, which apart from a raft of supercars including a number of Ferraris and the likes of a pair of Bugatti EB110s and a Chiron, a Lamborghini Miura and Countach also featured a trio of iconic rally cars. These comprised of an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 Group B, a Lancia 037 Group B Evo 1 and a Lancia Delta S4 Group B, the latter pair in the attractive, red and blue stripes over white, Martini livery.

Overall, within the 50 cars on offer there were 16 Ferraris, ranging from a 1973 365 GTB4 to the full complement of supercars in red, namely GTO (288), F40, F50, Enzo and a LaFerrari. Along the way there was also a 1990 Pininfarina special production Testarossa Spider, also in red, carrying a Pininfarina chassis number, which had never been road registered and only showed just over 400kms on the clock. Yellow was a popular colour in limited edition Ferraris from the collection, with a trio comprising of a 550 Barchetta Pininfarina, a 575 Superamerica and a 599 SA Aperta all finished in that hue. Of all the Ferraris on offer only three didn’t sell, the GTO (288), the F50 and the 365 GTB/4, although the latter was sold post auction.

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The auction had a strong sell-through rate on the day, with a couple of cars not quite reaching their reserve, but sales were negotiated post auction, these being the Ferrari 365 GTB4 mentioned and a Peugeot 205 T16. At the opposite end of the spectrum there were cars that exceeded their estimate. These included a 2001 Rover Mini Cooper Sport 500, estimated between £30,000 - £40,000, which achieved £57,500, a 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R V Spec, estimated between £120,000 - £160,000, which sold for £303,125, and a 2009 Ferrari F430 Scuderia 16M Spider, which was estimated between £180,000 and £220,000, which went for £303,125. However, the biggest leap over estimate was a 1974 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, once owned by Queen front man Freddie Mercury, which had an estimate of between £20,000 - £30,000, but sold for nearly ten times the high estimate at £285,000, obviously the star factor had rubbed off on it! The proceeds from the sale of this car, which the star owned from 1979 up to his passing in 1991, all went to a charity, Superhumans of Ukraine, to help build a new hospital.

The top sale of the auction was a 2022 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which sold for £4,195,625, with the second highest sale being a 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV, which achieved £2,058,125, closely followed by the 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari at £1,973,750, all being within their individual estimate bands. The sale grossed over £27.2 million, with an 83% sell-through rate, attracting bidders from 35 countries.