Aston Martins, Scarabs, re-creations do well at Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival auction

Aston Martins did very well at Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival auction last weekend. So did Scarab racing team vehicles, a car with rock ’n’ roll history, and even a couple of re-creation cars. On the other hand, only half of new Top Gear host Chris Evans’ 12-car consignment went to new owners.

Bonhams annual sale during Goodwood’s autumn auto-racing reunion weekend totaled $19.71 million in sales, led by a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 convertible that sold for $1,676,426 and a 1935 Aston Martin Ulster 2/4-seater tourer that brought $1,141,399 (prices include buyer’s premium).

Third-highest sale was the ex-Keith Richards “Blue Lena,” the 1965 Bentley S3 Continental Flying Spur that took the Rolling Stones performer on what he has termed “many an acid-fueled journey,” including one particularly notable drive from England to Marrakech with model Anita Pallenberg. The car sold for $1,175,917.

Three cars and a racing car transporter from American Lance Reventlow’s Scarab racing team were offered up for bidding. A 1960 Offenhauser-powered Grand Prix racer and the team’s iconic 1956 Fiat-Bartoletti transporter each brought more than $1 million. The Scarab-Offy was driven by Reventlow and Chuck Daigh. Another 1960 Offy-powered Scarab single-seater racing car, a “re-assembly of chassis 002 which was severely damaged at Silverstone in 1961,” Bonhams catalog said, sold for $506,271.

Meanwhile, a reproduction of a 1958 Chevrolet-powered Scarab Mark I sports racer (two-seater) did not sell during the auction but was purchased after the auction for what Bonhams said was more than $1 million.

A couple of other reproduction cars did sell during the sale, including Evans’ 1963 Ferrari 250 GT SWB alloy-bodied Berlinetta that brought $934,292, and a re-created 1967 Jaguar XK SS 3.8-liter sold for $556,107.

Meanwhile, Evans’ personal automobilia brought more than $101,000 that he will donate to the BBC charity Children in Need. However, six of the 12 cars he was trying to sell did not sell, including an alloy-bodied 1966 Ferrari 275 GT4/6, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT “Lusso,” and a replica of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie car.

Top 10 sales, Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival auction, 2015

1. 1965 Aston Martin DB5 convertible, $1,676,426
2. 1935 Aston Martin Ulster 2/4-seater tourer, $1,141,399
3. 1965 Bentley S3 Continental Flying Spur sports saloon “Blue Lena,” $1,175,917
4. 1960 Scarab-Offenhauser Formula 1/Intercontinental Formula racing single-seater, $1,037,846
5. 1956 Fiat-Bartoletti Tipo 642 diesel-engine racing car transporter, $1,011,958
6. 1963 Ferrari 250 GT SWB “alloy” Berlinetta re-creation, $934,292
7. 1938 BMW 328 sports roadster, $830,739
8. 1967/1968 Jaguar XK SS 3.8-liter re-creation, $556,107
9. 1937 BMW 328 cabriolet project, $502,820
10. 2005 Ford GT, $502,820

    1935 Aston Martin Ulster

Bonhams next sale is September 26 with the auction of the Frederiksen Collection at Lyngbaekgaard Manor in Denmark.