Motoring with Paul Jolly: Happy days - an auction success story

A few weeks ago, I wrote about this remarkable and truly unique Meteor Special.

This behemoth features a 27 litre Rolls Royce V12 engine from World War Two vintage which was used in Centurion tanks and the Spitfire fighter aircraft.

The latter had a supercharger to boost power from an already huge 600bhp.

The owner decided it had to be sold and approached me for guidance. My recommendation was to place it in front of an audience for the maximum exposure and effect.

Modelled on the Napier Railton of the 1930s, an example of which is housed at Brooklands museum, there was no more perfect an auction than the Historics Sale at Brooklands.

I was required to transport this three-tonne load by trailer a week beforehand to get it into position in the exhibition hall.

The delivery time slot for entrants was very tight so it necessitated a pre-dawn departure from Barnstaple on icy roads. The 4x4 tow car worked hard that day!

There was only going to be one shot at selling this masterpiece and I truly did not relish the idea of a return journey if it did not sell. Nor did the owner. Then what?

So with much trepidation, I advised my client that to be absolutely certain of a sale, we needed to be very brave and instruct a no reserve sale.

Doing this a week before the sale gave the auctioneers time to refresh the marketing, blitz emails and advertising which had the desired effect.

Come auction day, we all stood by our exhibit fielding the many questions. Men of a certain age and disposition were swarming around our monster all morning and this revised strategy seemed to be working.

We needed at least two bidders to get things moving.

As one man said to me: “I am only here because of no reserve, I know I have a chance.”

Bidding started at £50,000 and the hammer fell at £115,000. The final price with commissions and VAT was £129,000 - so a very satisfactory outcome all round.

On this occasion, no reserve strategy worked.

Written by Paul Jolly, Classic car specialist and valuer