STAVELOT.- Today, 21 May, saw Bonhams triumph once again at its fourth Spa Classic Sale, held at the legendary Circuit de Spa Francorchamps, Belgium. The deafening roar of 250 GTOs, McLaren F1s and 300SLs at full throttle around the track provided the perfect background for the sale, which saw an impressive 80% of lots sold.

German motor cars proved particularly popular today, with half of the top ten lots coming from the Mercedes and Porsche marques. The star of the show was the perennially popular 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster, which achieved an astonishing €1,127,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €600,000-800,000. After a lengthy duel between two keen bidders, the hammer finally fell to an international buyer on the phone to a tremendous round of applause.

No Bonhams sale would be complete without a barn find, but the Spa Classic auction offered an even more exciting opportunity – a ‘castle find’ collection of twelve of the most iconic motor cars ever created, all of which were offered at no reserve. The temptation of such a unique offering was too strong for the crowd, and all 12 cars found new owners. The 1969 Maserati Ghibli SS 4.9-Litre Coupé sold to a telephone bidder for €174,800 against a pre-sale estimate of €100,000-150,000, the 1980 Aston Martin V8 Volante Convertible achieved €172,500 against €90,000-140,000 and the 1933 Rolls-Royce 40/50hp Phantom II Roadster realised €111,550. The collection achieved a total of €2,026,300.

Bidding throughout the sale was keen and exchanges prolonged, as was the case with the 1958 Porsche 356A Super Speedster, which eventually achieved €322,000 after auctioneer Rupert Banner presided over a lengthy three-way bidding war with aplomb. Indeed, Porsches were popular throughout the sale: the 1989 Porsche 911 3.2-Litre ‘Narrow-body’ Speedster realised €280,000 and the 1993 911 Turbo 3.6-Litre Type 964 Coupé sold for €195,500.

Ferraris were as popular as ever, with three entering in to the Top 10 lots and all those offered selling on the day. The 2006 Ferrari 575 Superamerica F1 had just one owner from new and had covered a mere 21,000km, which was reflected by its final price of €293,250. An example of ‘the finest GT in the world,’ a 2003 Ferrari 456 Modificata GT Coupé with, aptly, only 456km on the odometer, achieved €120,750 and, perhaps inspired by the roar of the track outside the saleroom, a beautiful race-ready 1996 Ferrari F355 Challenge Coupé sold for €158,500.

Bonhams Head of Motoring Europe, Philip Kantor, commented: ‘Holding a sale at such an adrenaline-fuelled location is always a privilege, and we were delighted to bring such a varied selection of motor cars to Spa once again. Bonhams proved its expertise in offering significant single-owner collections, indicated by the 100% sell rate of the Swiss schloss collection.’

Rupert Banner, Group Motoring Director and the auctioneer of the sale, added: ‘There was a lively atmosphere in the packed saleroom - the broad range of collectors' motor cars proved very popular with the assembled crowd. Our European sales continue to go from strength to strength and illustrate the global reach of the Bonhams motoring department.