AUCTION NEWS Silverstone Auctions / A year in review
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ilverstone Auctions have had a pretty busy year and pretty good one at that. Whilst 2020 has not been what anyone anticipated, the UK classic car auction house was quick to adapt to the restrictions and precautions that came with Covid-19 – and with great success. Just one sale went ahead in their traditional event-based format back in February and after this point all their sales have been in the live-online format. Despite this change, Silverstone Auctions have continued to achieve great results and over the course of 2020 sold £33million worth of classic, competition and collector cars. One of the key changes that the Midlandsbased auction house implemented was an extended viewing window in the weeks
preceding the auction day(s). Previously the viewing opportunity was just one day, whereas this year viewings have been available for two, sometimes three weeks with the cars have been in one central location – offering greater flexibility to the customer. Just one viewing window was cut short by the second lockdown and even when this happened, they moved to virtual, one-to-one viewings via FaceTime.
Some of the standouts include a toolroom copy 1962 Jaguar D-Type Short Nose Recreation (£390,500, May 2020), the stunning 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV (£1,912,500, August 2020) and a period-upgraded 1980 BW M1 (E26) (£382,500, November), not forgetting the 1995 Rover Mini Cooper ‘Monte Carlo’ which sold in November for £37,125, with all proceeds going to the wonderful Sporting Bears Charity.
Their successes this year do not end there, their August sale was their highest grossing sale in their ten-year history, more recently in November they achieved a world record auction price – this time for a low-mileage 1988 Porsche 928 SE (£129,375), the August sale was the largest auction in Europe behind closed doors this year and they sold some absolutely beautiful cars!
Next year the Silverstone Auctions team plan to have a combination of live online sales and event-based auctions, with their first sale being The Race Retro Live Online Auction (5 – 6 March). Classic and competition cars are now invited and if you are considering selling you can talk to a member of the team on 01926 691141. www.silverstoneauctions.com
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