“Following the record sale of last year, this year’s Bonhams sale at Beaulieu will once again offer the full spectrum of motoring from the past 100 years. A full day of selling is anticipated with over 125 motor cars offered alongside 35 motorycles and 174 lots of automobilia.” – Bonhams.
Having remained in Norfolk for over half a century, a 1920 Vauxhall 30-98 E-Type (above & below) will be venturing south for the Beaulieu sale offered at auction for the first time in 62 years. Carrying an estimate of £150,000 – £180,000, the side-valve engined sports tourer features most unusual Grosvenor two-seater plus dickey coachwork, and remains in wonderful patinated condition.
Introduced initially as a 4½-litre side-valve model, and clearly developed from Pomeroy’s iconic pre-Great War Prince Henry, the 30-98 quickly made its mark in the quintessentially 1920s pastimes of speed hill climbs and endurance trials.
The designation 30-98 comes from the 30bhp developed at 1,000rpm and the 98bhp developed at 3,000rpm. When fitted with lightweight coachwork – and most were – few contemporary motor cars could match the performance of the early E-type 30-98. To the connoisseur and purist the exceptionally nimble E-type remains the definitive 30-98.
Further pre-war highlights of the sale include a superbly restored 1933 Alvis Speed 20 SA Tourer sporting original coachwork by Vanden Plas. The car was restored by marque expert Keith Taylor and is a most useable motor car with 3 position bodywork by one of the more favoured English coachbuilders. This rare collectors’ car is estimated at £80,000 – £100,000.
Also in the sale, another ‘Super Excellent’ Vauxhall. A true barn discovery, the 1923 Vauxhall 23-60 has languished in a North London garage for almost 30 years, finally extracted earlier this summer by Bonhams. It awaits sympathetic restoration, holding an estimate of £25,000 – £30,000.
Elsewhere, the Davey Collection of 6 Alvis Motor Cars will be offered, including some of the rarest models such as a 1934 Crested Eagle TE Tourer Project, entered at £10,000 – £15,000. Further highlights include a matching numbers 1924 Bentley 3- Litre Blue Label with original Gurney Nutting coachwork, one of the top lots in the sale with an estimate of £220,000 – £280,000; a 1922 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, estimated at £110,000 – £140,000, and a 1909 Stanley Steam Car 10hp Runabout with an estimate of £50,000 – £60,000
