Bonhams Zoute Sale - Review of Sale

 As we reach the back end of the year, the auction calendar is thinning out as many of the main events such as Monterrey and the Goodwood events have concluded but despite the weather getting colder and car events becoming more sparse, there are still a few auctions that can blow any petrolhead away. Bonhams recently held a sale in Belgium at Knockke-Heist which had a couple of heavy hitting sales as well as some more interesting cars that don't often cross auction blocks, plus some cars that have truly hit future classic status with some of the prices they are reaching. This piece will go through each of these categories of sales cars, giving some in depth detail into some of the lots. 

Beginning this article we have to start with the two top sellers which are two iconic supercars from the 1990s. The first of these cars is the 1994 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport which was for a brief period of time, the fastest car in the world with a top speed achieved of 218mph. The EB110 came at a funny time for Bugatti as they had recently resurfaced thanks to the endeavours of Romano Artioli of bringing back the Bugatti brand. It was launched in 1992 as a fresh start into the supercar market and the Super Sport was the third model in the EB110 line up following the standard car and the GT. The EB110 Super Sport launched in 1993, a mere six months after the initial models with over 600hp thanks to new fuel injectors attached to the ECU. The horsepower figure of this car was 611hp and with weight being decreased by 202kg due to carbon fibre bodywork and magnesium BBS wheels. Speed wise, the EB110 SS could get from 0-60mph in 3.14 seconds and up to a top speed of 220mph. This specific EB110 is finished in Grigio Chiaro and had just under 30,000km on the odometer before the sale. When taking into context that the new price of an EB110 SS was £380,000, a price which would later lead to Bugatti going bankrupt until VW saved them in 1998, the sale price of this car was £1,900,630. EB110 prices have been increasing a lot over the last five years and soon I would predict these cars reach the same price status as 90s rivals such as the Ferrari F50 or the Jaguar XJR-15. The second top seller is a car that always stars at auctions and seems to be a staple of every top auction, being the 1989 Ferrari F40. The car that is regarded as the prettiest supercar of all time, the most complete supercar of all time. Built to celebrate 40 years of Ferrari manufacturing sports cars and was the final Ferrari car to be approved personally by Enzo Ferrari before his death. It is therefore seen to be the ultimate Ferrari supercar, the first car to breach the 200mph barrier, albeit only by one mile per hour, all finished in Rosso Corsa and in left hand drive. The 3.0 quad cam V8 is seen to be one of the best engines that Ferrari ever made and due to that engine's success, they even took the F40 racing in the BPR World Series where they would often challenge top spec McLaren F1 GTRs and sometimes even the Porsche 911 GT1s. The final sale price of this F40 was £1,559,492 which is a high price for an F40 but due to the fact it was initially sold to Garage Francorchamps, the legendary racing team which ran 512BB/LMs and significantly a 250 GTO at Le Mans. It also had only 1,790km from new which would have helped with the value. 

The next category of cars featured in the Zoute sale are the cars that did not sell via not meeting their reserve prices. There are a few big cars that did not sell to the surprise of many people especially some of the classic cars and a few modern classics. The first of these cars is the 2018 Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Speedster. This is the rarest version of the Vanquish Zagato series made up of the Coupe, Volante, Speedster and Shooting Brake, with all versions having 99 examples except the Speedster with only 28. It is believed that 99 of the Speedster variants were planned but only 28 of these 99 were completed. This example is finished in Solar Bronze Satin and is number 25 of the 28 built. With a new list price of just over £1,000,000, plus this version being a collaboration with German bicycle manufacturer Storck to create the Vintage Edition of the Zagato Vanquish series with only three being made, it was thought that this car would reach its estimate of £720,000 to £1,100,000. However this car did not hit this reserve as the Zagato Vanquish series are still to live up to their high list price at auctions. The main manufacturer that did not sell too well at the Zoute sale was Lancia, with four of their cars not selling at reserve price. Two of these cars were estimated at over £700,000 being the 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America at a top estimate of £1,000,000 and the 1959 Lancia Flaminia Sport Zagato with a top estimate of £700,000. Both of these cars are usually desirable classic cars that often sell but with the luck of the auctions they both did not unfortunately sell. There were two other Lancias that failed to sell, being another Aurelia, the smaller and more pedestrian B20 model which failed to sell with the top estimate of £300,000. The final Lancia that failed to sell was a very early Lancia being the 1949 Lancia Aprilia which failed to sell at a top estimate of £120,000. Other cars which failed to sell in the Zoute sale were the 1957 Alfa Romeo 1900C Super Sprint, two Facel Vegas being an FV1 Cabriolet and an FV2 Coupe, a 1954 Jaguar XK120 SE Roadster and the 1937 Lagonda LG45 Rapide Tourer Replica.

There was another car that failed to sell at the Zoute sale but I did not include as it would feature in the future classic and interesting car section. That car is the 1990 Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo Evoluzione IMSA racing car, which was the first Alfa Romeo works team to race in the Italian Superturismo Championship. This championship would race under Group A rules and so would host the likes of BMW M3s, Audi A4 Quattros and the occassional BMW 320i. This particular car was raced by a host of Italian drivers such as Gianni Morbidelli and Nicola Larini who was racing for Ligier in F1 in the 1990s. This car had good results winning five races in the 20 race campaign in 1990 and managed to finish third overall in the standings. Unfortunately this car did not sell especially finished in an incredible Martini livery, but that's the way of the auctions but it had a fairly high reserve of £160,000. The next interesting car to cross the block was a 1991 BMW Z1. The Z1 is most memorable for it's doors, as some cars are, but the Z1's doors don't go up or go out, they go down. The BMW Z1's party piece is that the doors move down into the chassis and disappear into the body of the car. An incredibly unique car which is also fairly rare, with only 8000 examples made. This particular car is finished in Magic Violette metallic and only shows 16 kilometres on the odometer making it one of the lowest, if not the lowest mileage BMW Z1's on the market. Low mileage aside, the price this car sold for is utterly ridiculous price of £89,321 which is close to Ferrari F430 money. This car may be a future classic but with prices such as that, it is unimaginable where the prices will go. The final interesting car is a very very special car as it's a barn find. There's nothing more incredible than finding an amazing classic car in a vegetative state especially a car as special as this one. The car in question is the 1956 Paris Motor Show Jaguar XK140 by Ghia. This is the exact car shown by Jaguar at the 1956 Paris Motor Show and is one of only four Ghia bodied XK140 Coupes produced making it even more special. The state of the car is fairly poor but also very beautiful with rust affecting all of the exterior body elements, but compared to images in period it looks sad. Jaguar in the 1950s sent many coachbuilders XK140 bodies to redesign their car and Ghia and Bertone are possibly the most famous of these coachbuilt cars. The sale price for a rusted XK140 by Ghia was £242,000, which is a decent price considering the restored cars can go for £450,000.