From Vintage Sports-Car Club hillclimbing at Prescott to Super Touring Cars at Brands Hatch and almost everything at the Le Mans Classic, the numbers of historic racing competitors and spectators continue to grow, sustaining an activity that has long been at the heart of the classic car industry.
“Historic motorsport is on the up,” says Chris Green of Jim Stokes Workshops. “Our direct experience is pretty constant, but ours is not an ʻemergingʼ class of racing… Our experience when supporting our clientsʼ cars at various events is that there is real growth, particularly in the post-historic Le Mans and F1 categories.”
Across the past decade, for example, Group C sports-racers have established themselves in historic motorsport. They are now a regular fixture at classic meets around the world, and their values have increased accordingly.
At Bonhamsʼ Goodwood Revival sale in 2013, the Spa 1000km-winning 1987 Jaguar XJR-8 was left unsold against a £900k-1.2m guide and was said not to have been raced since 1991. Yet two Le Mans Jags recently offered advertised their competition credentials – in the case of the ʼ91 XJR-12 sold by RM Sothebyʼs in June (for $2.7m), its fastest lap at the 2018 Le Mans Classic was a selling point.
Increasingly, racers from the LMP era are appearing, such as the 2002 Audi R8 at the Le Mans Classic and the 2011-ʼ12 Peugeot 90Xs at Silverstone Festival (p29). “The popularity of LMP sports cars has grown exponentially,” says Mark Osborne, Bonhamsʼ global director of motorsports. “They are relatively easy and inexpensive to drive, and well supported with parts and events.”
While modern-era Formula One cars are more complex machines to run, values are also on the up. Bonhams failed to find a buyer for the ʼ92 ex-Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford in 2014, estimated at £240-300,000, but sold the same car, chassis B191B-06, in 2016 for €1,058,000. Most of the top five F1 deals have occurred in the past four years, from the £5m sale of a 1998 Ferrari F300 to the £12.7m 2003 Ferrari F2003-GA (although the 1954 Mercedes W196 sold in 2013 for £19.6m still tops them all). However, RM Sothebyʼs hasnʼt revealed the results of its sealed-bid auctions of the 2000 and 2001 ex-Schumacher F1 Ferraris from earlier this year.
Bonhams could rejig the order on 25 November at its inaugural Grand Prix Circuit auction in Abu Dhabi, with Kimi Räikkönenʼs 2006 McLaren MP4/21 and Mario Andrettiʼs 1978 John Player Special Lotus-Cosworth Type 79
