36-year-old Alfa Romeo sells for R1.1m at South African auction

1985 Alfa GTV 6 3L | image supplied

High Street Auctions director and lead auctioneer Joff van Reenen, who led the Legends & Classics Auction at the Creative Rides showroom in Bryanston, Johannesburg, at the weekend, says 106 collector cars and motorcycles were sold in a thrilling auction that smashed records set at the Louis Coetzer Collector Car Auction last year.

“The star lot of the day was, without doubt, the Alfa GTV 6, which was also the last lot in a packed catalogue of some of the rarest collector cars I’ve ever seen.

“Lot 106 was a trans-Atlantic bidding war between collectors in Australia and South Africa and the bids climbed rapidly from R200,000, with the hammer eventually falling at R1.1m.

“The good news is this extremely rare 3l beast that was originally designed for the Group 1 local racing circuit is going to be staying in South Africa.”

After the Alfa, the next highest prices achieved on the day were:

• R915,000 for a 1960 Chevrolet El Camino;
• R900,000 for a 1972 Ford Fairmont GT;
• R825,000 for a 1966 Ford Mustang Notchback;
• R800,000 for a 1970 Mercedes Benz 300 SEL; and
• R780,000 for a 1971 Ford Capri Perana.

Two other stand-out lots with fierce international bidding were for a 1958 Chevrolet Apache and a 1953 Mercedes Benz W186 Model 300 Adenauer, both of which achieved sale prices of R600 000.

Creative Rides Owner and CEO Kevin Derrick says 80% of the buyers were South African.

“The remainder of the classic cars were bought by collectors in England, Australia, New Zealand, Zambia and Botswana, and we’ll be shipping those vehicles to their new owners in the next few weeks.

“Among the South African buyers, the majority were from Gauteng, with fairly strong representation from the Western Cape as well.

“Numerous bidders also made multiple purchases at the auction, with one very avid local collector snapping up eight cars for his private collection.

“Several buyers have indicated to us that their purchases this weekend will be going to private car museums across the country.”

Van Reenen notes that while strict Covid protocols limited attendance at the live sale to 150 bidders, scores more were bidding online throughout the day, while the 15,000-strong global audience of the live stream broke last year’s viewing record by 3 000.

“The pre-sale online public interest in these cars also far exceeded the records set last year – by some two million views! By Saturday morning 3.5 million people had viewed the image carousel of the auction cars and watched the video.”