Three cars to watch at the Bonhams Quail Lodge Auction

From Laguna Seca to Carmel, Seaside to Pacific Grove, it’s a week of shows, reunions, rallies, gatherings, cruises and concours events, most famously the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance where a prize can add tens of thousands to the value of a car. Then there are the auctions…

There are lots, many of them quite small and specialised, but the headlines are always generated by three big sales, the ones collectors from around the world flock to to keep their collections bang up to date. These sales, which all happen over the weekend of August 15/16^th, are the Bonhams Quail Lodge Sale, the RM Sotheby’s Monterey Sale, and the Gooding and Co Pebble Beach Auction.

We’re going to take a look at the top three lots from each sale, starting here with Bonhams. This is Bonhams’ 21^st year at the Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel, and its claim to fame this time is more one-owner cars among the 220 lots on offer than the auction house has ever offered before. Here are three you should be interested in.

1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder, guide price unknown

What makes this Spyder stand out is its centre-seat layout, of which only around six were made out of 35 718 RSKs. Without the centre steering, the 718 RSK would be merely the ultimate development of the Spyder, a proven race winner that just got better and better with each new version. With the centre seat, it is all of that plus incredibly rare… and hugely valuable. The centre seat layout meant the RSK could be adapted to form the basis of Porsche’s grand prix-winning Formula 2 single seater.
The car in the sale, with coachwork by Wendler, was delivered new to a Belgian owner whose first race in it was the 1959 Leopardville Grand Prix in the Belgian Congo where the Spyder’s giant-killing form was quickly realised. The 1,587cc four-cylinder car put its 150bhp at 7,2000rpm to great use by taking overall victory ahead of cars that included Ferrari, Aston Martin and Jaguar.

Other notable victories in its early years included the 1,000KM Buenos Aires while today it has an impressive record in historic racing, taking part in more than 100 race meetings as well as all five Porsche Rennsport reunions. It is also a concours class winner.

Desplte being lost in the years between Europe and turning up in the US, the Spyder retains its original four-cam Typ 547/3 engine, transaxle and Wendler bodywork.

Bonhams isn’t saying what it might fetch, but for a guide take note of what it was exchanged for back in 1993: a BMW 507 and a pair of Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs, a Roadster and a Gullwing!

1931 Bentley 4.5-litre Supercharged Birkin Le Mans Replica, guide £2.2-3 million

Original factory Blower Bentleys with Brooklands race-winning history don’t come up for sale that often, says Bonhams. When they do, they tend to command attention, and this one in the Quail Lodge sale will surely do that.

It is one of the 50 works 4.5-litreBlowers built by Bentley Motors to homologate the car for Le Mans. It originally had two-door Vanden Plas coachwork and in that form, with the addition of cycleguards, it was campaigned extensively at Brooklands by Sir Westrow Hulse.  Victory came in the Easter Short Handicap on April 18^th 1938.

After the war the car was rebuilt and, to make it easier to handle for its then owner, had chassis and body shortened to the length of the two Birkin Team road-racing cars. Scroll forward to the 1980s and the Blower was rebuilt as a Birkin Short Chassis replica, which is how it presents today. The car has been in single family ownership for the past 30 years, the last 20 of them in storage.

Now recommissioned, the 4.5-litre with its supercharged 182bhp and close-ratio  ‘box is said to beautifully set up with excellent road manners for, as Bonhams puts it, an “utterly seductive driving experience”.

1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic, guide price £1.4-1.6 million

The Supersonic’s Ghia coachwork is as incredible today as it was in the early 1950s. You’re not likely to have your thunder stolen by coming up against another one either, since just 15 were ever made.

It is powered by an alloy 2.0-litre V8 delivering 110bhp to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual ‘box. Independent suspension and drum brakes all round, but mainly this car is all about the fab ‘50s futuristic style. The car Bonhams is selling has had a nut and bolt restoration and boasts an impressive concours competition history.

Photography courtesy of Bonhams.