Formula 1 car and Austin-Healeys the latest to go under the Bonhams hammer

15 September, 2015

It must be quite a job working at London’s Bonhams auction house, with some of the world’s most lauded motors constantly streaming through their extensive line-up of auctions. This will once again be the case on December 6, as the Bonhams auction house plays host to the world’s greatest collection of Austin-Healeys. But that won’t be before they auction off another rather special car in Singapore, a Lotus Formula 1 car, on September 19.

The Lotus is an E20-specification car, from the sport’s recent era of slanted ‘platypus-nosed’ front ends. The car was kindly donated to the auction house by Lotus, with all of the proceeds from the auction going to Peace One Day — a non-profit organization that celebrates and pursues global unity. This particular car was campaigned in 2012 by former Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikonen, as well as current Lotus driver Romain Grosjean, and reserve driver Jerome d’Ambrosio.

But the car’s prospective buyer won’t just be purchasing a piece of motorsport history, they will also be purchasing a piece of art, as the car will be transformed by Brazilian artist Romero Britto prior to auction. Britto is famed for some of his other automotive works of art, including this bold Porsche 911 he completed in 2012. His work on the Formula 1 car will only be released one and a half hours before the auction begins, which will no doubt make for some interesting discussions come auction time.

At the opposite end of the motoring spectrum lies the Austin-Healey collection. These neat little Healeys are, or were, part of Arthur Carter’s illustrious collection of sports cars and military memorabilia. Arthur specialized in Austin-Healeys, amassing arguably the world’s greatest collection of the wee British sports car.

One of the headline acts from the collection will be this gorgeous, yet innocuous, 1953 Austin-Healey 100 coupé. It was formerly owned by Donald Healey — the man who founded the Austin-Healey marque, and as a contrast to most of the pristinely immaculate machines with minimal kilometres under their belts, it was used extensively by Donald over a 10-year period. Produced as somewhat of a production mule early in the 100’s life cycle, Donald eventually loaded this example with mechanicals out of the 100S — in effect making this the only Austin-Healey 100S coupé on the planet.

Another car in the collection sure to catch the attention of the Austin-Healey set will be this Works Rally 3000. It is the last of its kind in the Arthur Carter collection, having been formerly raced by the likes of Jack Sears and Pat Moss — the sister of legendary racer Stirling Moss. It was also used by John Gott, a rally driver who lived his day-to-day life as a police officer. Gott tragically died while at the wheel of this particular 3000, crashing it during a race after a suspected heart attack. Arthur subsequently purchased the car, and restored it to its Modsports configuration as a tribute to the fallen racer.

While price estimations on these potentially priceless cars have not been released, it’s a safe bet that they won’t be selling for tiddlywinks. We can only hope that the buyers can appreciate them as well as we would.

Grand Routier — in the french tradition

Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Lago-Record Factory Berline sedan, to give its full name. Daughter Cath let us know how proud she was of her dad, who had been tinkering away in his garage on this car for so many years.
Without exaggeration, it has been a mammoth task. I first saw this Talbot-Lago in mid 2019. The long-nosed, sweeping, curved four-door saloon, clothed in its misty green metallic paint, was quite breathtaking. There’s more than a little English influence in it, too, harking back to company owner Tony Lago’s involvement in the Clement-Talbot-Darracq era. The long front wings and bonnet, usually multi-louvred, highlighted with artful touches of chrome bling, are typical of the era, but these were indeed luxury length. Interiors provided leather-clad, armchair-style seating and ample legroom, with touches of wood and surprising details such as dainty childproof interior locks — a far cry from today’s lozenge boxes.
Paddy, a retired civil and structural engineer, knows his way around a lathe. He has a well-equipped garage-workshop to assist in any machining tasks along with his other passion for restoring classic motorcycles.

The Great River Road

A few years ago my family, knowing my fondness for driving, gave me the book Unforgettable Road Trips: Thirty-Six Drives of a Lifetime by Martin Derrick. Most of the road trips listed take less than a day in places like Scotland, Monaco, and Australia, plus one in New Zealand. Most of these places were too far to go just for a short drive but four of them would take several days. My interest was piqued, and those four drives were added to the bucket list. To date, I have done three of them: ‘Route 66’ (USA 21 days), ‘State Highway 6’ (NZ 10 days) and ‘The Great River Road’ (USA 22 days). You can drive all of them in less time, but you could also fly over them. We wanted a decent immersion in their charms.
The great river referred to is the Mississippi. While the name conjures the deep south, the river actually starts at the bottom of the great lakes, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 3800km later. The great road is more of a concept than a specific strip of tarmac, as you can drive down either side of the river on various routes. Regardless of which side you drive, time should be kept aside for detours to places such as Nashville, which is famous for something or other.