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Historics

04 March 2017

The breadth of cars available in Historics first sale of the year has provided a good sign of how well the classic car market is performing at the start of the year and the conclusion has to be that it has made a relatively good start. The proverbial canary in the coal mine has to be the E-Type Jaguar. Many of us still remember how values went from on average around the £20k mark in the late 1980s to around £70k and then straight back again. Given the exponential rise in some of the rare variants such as the early cars in recent years it is always worth keeping a close eye on prices paid as a sign of cracks in the market. This sale had a 1962 barn find roadster with an estimate of £90,000 to £110,000 which eventually achieved £145,600 which really answers the question of whether or not the market is weak at the moment. There were in fact several E-Types in this sale, all of which achieved good money and a Series 1 Coupe made £125,000 which was within its estimate. Another Jaguar which did very well was a MKIV 3.5 litre that made a very strong £69,440 which was above the top estimate of £65,000. We have noticed in recent years that these cars have not been an easy sell with prices generally floating around the £25,000 to £35,000 mark. The car in this sale was described as near to concours condition which explains the premium but it also shows the appetite for these cars has far from disappeared. Other notable results in this sale include the £40,040 paid for a Triumph TR2 which judging from the narrative was a top example. Austin Mini Coopers have been going for big money in recent months which mean't a rare Morris Mini Cooper in this sale which was largely original was going to be the in demand and the final price of £56,000 certainly reflected that. Jaguar XKs have been following E-Type valuations in recent years and in this sale a rather nice XK120SE roadster was the subject of some spirited bidding which took the price to £128,800 some way above the top estimate of £90,000. Overall this was a very good sale with strong bidding for the right cars.