An ex-racer’s imaginatively curated collection of close to 100 cars, comprising some wonderful sporting oddballs and rarities as well as blue-chip classics, is about to go under the virtual hammer in the latest online auction to go live. And with a few days to go yet before bidding closes, it’s proving difficult to resist taking a peek and playing spot the bargain…
The collection, which embraces a wide spectrum of mostly road racing cars from a Mini Marcos to a Porsche 904, is being sold without reserve to the highest bidders, so watch what you do with your mouse-click finger… The auction closes at 1pm GMT on Wednesday 10 June.
RM Sotheby’s view that the Petitjean Collection has something for everyone is easy to prove: just browse through the lots (see the live auction and latest bids here). Guide prices start around €2,000 and finish around the million mark, but the majority of the machines are nearer the affordable end. The quid pro quo is that while the cars are all original, unrestored and have been dry stored, they have not been driven for a while so will need recommissioning for the road. And some will need more than just recommissioning; among the pictures on the RM site are some very honest ones pointing out the blemishes.
The collection is said to be very much a reflection of its owner, the French ex-racer Marcel Petitjean. He is said to have bought the cars he likes but never paid more than a third what they cost new, one reason perhaps there is not one Ferrari in the collection. If that is indeed what he did, Monsieur Petitjean is very smart for his collection is valued at around £8m. All the cars date from between the 1950s and the ‘90s.
Petitjean originally wanted to group his cars by country in a museum he planned to set up in his home town of Strasbourg, but he never got round to it. Most of the cars are either Italian (lots of Lamborghinis including a Miura P400, but also Maserati, de Tomaso, Alfa, Lancia, Bizzarrini and Intermeccanica), British (plenty of big names but also the minnows like TVR, Marcos, Ginetta, Panther and Jensen), or German – from the Porsche 904 and Mercedes 300SL roadster to the more modern, and rare, Bitter CD. Curiously French cars do not feature much, though a Citroën SM and Alpine-Renault A110 1600S do it for us.
Perhaps in view of their recommissioning needs, plus general market uncertainty, guide prices appear set to tempt, whether it is an Austin-Healey Arkley (€2-3,000) you are after or a Lamborghini Countach (€250-300,000). Or, come to that, a Matra D-jet, Fournier-Marcadier Barquette, Neckar Mistral, Glas 1300 GT or Ligier JS2 coupe – just some of the lesser-known models up for grabs.
This much-anticipated sale was meant to have been held as part of RM’s auction in Essen in March at the Techno-Classica, cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been incorporated into RM’s online European sale (which closes a day later, at 1pm GMT Thursday 11th June) and has as its highlights some very special cars including a 2020 Porsche homage to the mighty 935 ‘Moby Dick’ racers of the ‘70s, a pre-war Bugatti Type 57 Cabriolet, a Lancia 037 Stradale and a rare Aston Martin V8 Zagato.
Online auctions are proving successful as auction house doors remain firmly shut. Last week a Ferrari Enzo became the online auction world record holder when RM sold it for £2.1m.
A few of the cars in the Petitjean Collection whose bids we can’t help but keep checking on (just in case, you understand…) are listed below; the bids as shown were correct as of 8th June. Remember all the cars are being sold with no reserves…
Images courtesy of RM Sotheby's.
For Sale
Lamborghini
Miura
Porsche
904