A special Tesla Roadster, driven by Michael Schumacher and used in the 2010 Race of Champions, is up for auction next month.
The bright orange electric sports car is just one of the stars at the Bonhams Les Grandes Marques à Paris Sale.
It’s also one of two cars in the auction with a link to seven-time Formula 1 World Champion, Michael Schumacher.
Electric orange
Akin to a ‘World Cup of motorsport’, the Race of Champions is designed to put the world’s best racing drivers head-to-head in identical machines.
For the 2010 edition, held at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, four electric Tesla Roadsters were added to the selection of vehicles. Each car was fitted with a roll cage and carbon fibre racing seat, then stripped of unnecessary interior trim.
The Tesla’s 288hp electric motor was left unchanged. Being able to sprint from 0-60mph in less than four seconds, it was more than fast enough for the twisty confines of the Esprit Arena.
Compared with the other vehicles, the Tesla’s appearance at the Race of Champions was certainly quieter. However, with drivers like Michael Schumacher behind the wheel, it would be no less exciting.
Victory charge
Schumacher was partnered with fellow German Sebastian Vettel for the 2010 Race of Champions. The duo would win the ROC Nations Cup competition, defeating the British team of Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato in the final.
Following the Race of Champions, the Tesla was sold to its current vendor. Other than removing the fire extinguishers, the car is still the same as when it competed.
Racking up 15,000km (9,320 miles) on the roads of France, the Tesla has not been left as a museum exhibit. The signatures of Sébastien Loeb, Travis Pastrana and Andy Priaulx on the rear wing will certainly add to its collectability.
Accordingly, Bonhams has given the Tesla a pre-sale estimate of £110,000 to £170,000.
A genuine Schumacher original
The Bonhams Les Grandes Marques à Paris Sale will also feature a car actually owned by Michael Schumacher.
During his time as Formula 1 driver for the Mercedes team, Schumacher had this 2010 C63 AMG Estate as his company car.
A 451hp 6.2-litre V8 engine might seem a little slow compared to Schumacher’s weekend ride. However, for most drivers, it would feel more than fast enough on the road.
Heading for the chequered flag
Schumacher specified €20,000 (£16,650) worth of options on the C63 AMG. He would use the car until July 2010, before it passed through a number of other owners.
Between them, they have added 152,000km (94,000 miles) to the AMG’s odometer.
Bonhams suggests a potential sale price of £42,000 to £83,000 for the V8 estate. Although this may seem high for a leggy Mercedes, the appeal of a legendary F1 owner is hard to ignore.
Set to be held on 3 February, we will have to wait and see if the two Schumacher-related cars reach expectations.
Another classic car from the huge fleet of vehicles previously owned by Elvis Presley is currently up for auction online with Car & Classic.
The ‘King of Rock and Roll’ built up an extensive collection of cars during his lifetime, and was reported to have once purchased 30 Cadillacs in a single morning.
This car may not be from that particular set of Caddys, but the King’s 1975 Fleetwood Brougham is still an imposing piece of automotive history.
Big Boss Man
Measuring more than 5.9 metres (18.6 feet) in length, the 1975 Fleetwood was big even by American ‘land yacht’ standards.
For 1975, the Fleetwood gained an equally huge 500-cubic inch (8.2-litre) V8 engine. An output of 210hp, combined with a kerb weight in excess of two tonnes, made for leisurely progress.
A three-speed automatic transmission also contributed to the Fleetwood’s relaxed driving manners. Fuel economy is something best not mentioned.
Still, we don’t imagine the King was troubled by the price of fuel when he purchased the Brougham.
Not quite a king’s ransom
Documentation with the Fleetwood’s current owner shows Elvis purchased the car on 26 September 1974. Bought from Madison Cadillac, he plumped for options including a sunroof and a bonnet-mounted ‘Goddess’ mascot.
Costing a total of $12,512, Presley drove the Cadillac for just over a year. He then gifted it to his doctor in 1976.
Dr G. Nichopoulos used the car until 1985, when it was sold to the current owner for the first time. Now located in Sweden, the Cadillac has been with its keeper since 1990.
Let Yourself Go
Never restored from new, the Fleetwood is best described as being in ‘survivor’ condition.
The seats still wear their luxurious velour upholstery, although the deep carpets are said to be a little faded. There are also cracks in the steering wheel and other vinyl trim.
All the original equipment, including the radio, air conditioning and electric seats is still present.
On the outside, the big Caddy is noted as having a few parking dents. The huge V8 engine is currently not running, but the seller says this is due to a lack of use.
Finders keepers, losers weepers
Regardless of whether the Fleetwood needs some light restoration work, its main appeal to collectors will be the accompanying paperwork. The seller has a copy of the original order form, showing Presley’s name and signature.
Extensive provenance, including a number of photographs and a gold key, will all be included with the sale.
The Car & Classic auction for the Cadillac is set to conclude on Saturday 15 January. With plenty of bids already made, the King’s Caddy looks likely to find a new owner.
The dipstick. It used to be one of the simplest parts of any car and, even today, when most cars’ engine oil level is measured electronically, it’s still a pretty uncomplicated thing. Back in the early 1960s a dipstick was exactly that – a stick sunk into the engine’s sump to measure the volume of oil in there.
The stick is stamped with ‘min’ and ‘max’ lines on it, a collar fixed to the upper part of its stem ensuring that it stops at the correct point when pushed home. Not much to go wrong there, you’d think – unless the markings are in the wrong place. And that was one of several engineering errors that stifled the success of the 1964 Austin 1800. There were quite major errors from other British Motor Corporation departments, too.
Still, after three massive hits and one miss, it was easy to think that Mini designer Alec Issigonis could produce another runaway winner with his largest front-wheel-drive model yet. The hits were the Mini itself, which after a slow start was now selling fast, the Morris 1100, which rapidly became Britain’s best-selling car, and before these the Morris Minor, which was the first British car to sell more than a million.
The miss was a V8-powered Alvis with rubber suspension, development of this big, expensive and complex saloon fortunately abandoned before it made production. Issigonis had gone to the luxury carmaker after designing the Minor, but was later lured back to BMC where he would eventually be given the task of engineering the Mini.
Before that, he worked on a replacement for the Pininfarina-styled Austin Cambridge and Morris Oxford, these stolid saloons (and their pricier Riley and MG stablemates) as British as pie and drizzle. That car was codenamed XC9000, and would probably have emerged in 1960 had it not been for the 1956 Suez crisis and the petrol scarcity it provoked. BMC switched its efforts to building a small car – the original Mini – in favour of XC9000, followed by the 1962 Morris 1100.
Austin 1100 – undressed for success
The 1100 was effectively a bigger, more sophisticated Mini, and the 1800 would be a still-bigger version of that. The 1100 had the same transverse engine as the Mini, the same astonishing roominess and the same grippy, low-roll handling. The differences were four doors, a flourish of Pininfarina styling and engineer Alex Moulton’s ingenious Hydrolastic suspension.
Hydrolastic combined rubber springs and interconnected, fluid-carrying pipes to produce a ride vastly less painful than the Mini’s, even if an 1100 turned almost comically bouncy at times. BMC engineers nicknamed it the shirt-lifter (the term had yet to gain seamier resonances) the 1100’s jiggling occupants likely to have their shirts untucked from their trousers.
Despite the ability to part-undress its passengers, the 1100 was the most advanced car in its class and had dynamics to match. But before this or the Mini were launched, the XC9000 project was revived and converted to front-wheel drive, prompting a codename change to XC9001. The idea was still to replace the Oxford and Cambridge with a medium-sized, front-driven 1,500cc saloon, but that ambition was soon critically deflected.
Morris 1800
BMC was also developing a larger version of its so-called ‘B’ Series engine, which propelled a wide variety of models including the MGB (its 1,622cc version was being expanded to 1,798cc). Issigonis figured that this engine would make a better job of hauling XC9001 along – and he was right – but the capacity increase would push the car away from its target market. Worse still was that the car grew, and in unusual ways that made it look distinctly bigger than the Farina saloons it replaced.
Too much for Middle England
In fact it was almost a foot shorter, but XC9001 looked longer because its wheelbase had grown six inches, and it was also much wider. The result was spectacular interior space, but a car of unconventional proportions and a radical mechanical layout likely to deter Farina saloon buyers. These folk would have felt as uneasy driving the 1800 as they would leaving the house without a jacket, tie and trilby.
Not that this was apparent as the project evolved. The task of styling the car fell to both Austin Morris’s own designers and Pininfarina, and this time it was the in-house team proposal that got the go-ahead, the Italian coachbuilders cleaning up this version’s details. The end result was more appealing than the prototypes, but unlikely to be called beautiful.
More likely, once it was launched, would be the mouthing of curses as disappointed owners discovered that BMC had, once again, failed to finish the development process. Launched in October 1964, XC9001 had undergone a codename change to ADO17 and built on the innovations of the smaller 1100. But the new Austin 1800 was not undone by these features, but that pesky dipstick, whose faulty calibration caused the engine to be overfilled with oil, which it burnt in ominous plumes of blue smoke.
Other problems included failing engine mounts, scuffing front tyres, rattling steering racks and a gearlever that couldn’t resist a fight. Once you’d actually battled your way into first or second, the lever would often jump back out.
Infuriation would be heightened by the Austin’s switchgear, which was so distant that when you were strapped in with static seatbelts, you couldn’t reach much of it. A distant under-dashboard handbrake and an awkwardly angled steering wheel made this supposedly luxurious saloon a physical battle to drive.
All of which smothered a long list of positives. Apart from its almost improbable interior space, the 1800 had roadholding, handling and steering vastly superior to the wallowing Ford Zephyrs and Vauxhall Veloxes it ended up competing with. It also made the Farina saloon feel as wieldy as an encyclopaedia-packed bookcase.
Its body was immensely strong to compensate for the deletion of suspension subframes, it mostly rode without too much shirt-lifting, and it performed decently with its 1.8 engine. But proof of BMC’s unfinished work came mere months after the launch, with the rapid addition of reclining seats and a rear armrest as options, a change in the final-drive ratio to quieten the engine at a cruise and a series of modifications to fix its mechanical maladies.
But the biggest modification of all was to BMC’s production forecast. Doubtless boosted by the success of the 1100 and Mini, its dealers reckoned they could shift 4,000 Austin 1800s a week. Without investigating much further, BMC tooled up to produce just that number. Had they done more market analysis – incredibly, BMC had no market research department at the time – it would have uncovered the fact that cars in the 1,700-1,800cc category accounted for five percent of new car sales, while those in the 1,400-1,500cc class accounted for almost a fifth.
The 1800 also cost 14 percent more than a Farina saloon, which by the time of the new car’s launch BMC had decided to keep in production, having recognised that it had not produced a replacement. It didn’t take many seasons to also realise that it had not produced a winner in the 1800, which managed no more than 40,000 sales per year at its peak, compared with the predicted 200,000.
The 1800 was the wrong size, the wrong shape and the wrong price, a hurricane-force set of headwinds that its not inconsiderable qualities couldn’t overcome. Proof of its toughness came with a near-victory in the gruelling 1968 London-to-Sydney Marathon, and it was in Australia that the 1800 sold best, achieving a much healthier market share than it ever did in Britain. Indeed it was later facelifted into the Kimberley and Tasman models, which the UK never got.
The 1800’s failure marked the start of designer Alec Issigonis’s gradual fall from favour, and was the first of many serious mistakes that drove BMC into a merger with British Leyland and yet more trouble. But that’s another disaster story.
Nissan has marked 35 years of its Sunderland plant with a one-off electric version of the Bluebird – the first car to leave its UK production line in 1986. The ‘Newbird’ is powered by the drivetrain from a Nissan Leaf.
In place of a four-cylinder petrol engine and gearbox, the 1989 Bluebird hatchback uses the Leaf’s electric motor, inverter and 40kWh battery pack. The battery modules are split between the engine bay and boot to improve weight distribution.
Although it hasn’t been subject to official WLTP tests, Nissan estimates a range of around 130 miles for the Newbird. Zero to 62mph takes an easygoing 15 seconds, with top speed limited by the car’s bluff aerodynamics.
Acceptable in the 80s
The restomod Bluebird is recharged via the fuel flap, which now houses a charging port. The battery accepts up to 6.6kW, with the former petrol gauge now displaying the level of charge.
To cope with the extra weight of an electric drivetrain, the Nissan’s suspension has been completely replaced. Other components such as the brakes, power steering and heating have also been upgraded to offer a safer, more comfortable driving experience.
Conversion work was entrusted to Kinghorn Electric Vehicles of Durham, which specialises in electrified classic cars. The Newbird’s exterior graphics are by Nissan Design Europe and ‘inspired by 1980s consumer technology’. An LED-backlit Nissan badge on the bonnet is a more modern touch.
Built in Britain
The original Bluebird wasn’t the first Japanese car built in the UK (that title goes to the Honda Ballade-based Triumph Acclaim), but it proved the efficiency of a British workforce and opened the floodgates for more factories and much greater investment.
Today, Nissan builds the Leaf, Juke and Qashqai in Sunderland. The site produces around 500,000 cars a year, or approximately two every minute, with exports to 132 countries around the world.
The classic car industry reports it is attracting growing numbers of young people, who are bringing renewed dynamism to the sector.
Gen X and Gen Y enthusiasts are finding a welcome home for their digital-native skills, keeping alive interest in older cars.
Many who are drawn to the industry to deploy their digital knowledge then become interested in more traditional skills, say industry leaders.
“Developing young enthusiasts across the spectrum is key,” said Historical and Classic Vehicles Association CEO, Garry Wilson.
“Selling, maintaining, storing, insuring, financing and more around these vehicles is substantially enabled by the enthusiastic worker. It needs knowledgeable young folks to carry the baton forward.”
You’re hired
Online marketplace Car & Classic currently has a team of 60 people, the average age is 36, and one in three is under 30.
This is “contrary to the popular misconception that the classic car industry fails to attract young people,” says CEO Tom Wood.
The fast move online for classic car transactions is creating further opportunities, explains Wood. “Marketing, finance, sales, legal, strategic planning and customer support opportunities have risen out of our expansion.
“Matching classic vehicles to their ideal owners online is attracting young talent alongside experienced industry colleagues.”
Proof of how quickly the online classic world is growing comes from a Car & Classic recruitment drive, which will double its team to 120 within a year. Wood expects the proportion of young people within the company to grow accordingly.
A £7.2 billion industry
Merlin McCormack of London dealer Duke of London says young people “bring their own expertise, comfort in working with virtual teams and modern entrepreneurship” to the classic car sector.
Such retailers “offer the ideal environment in which a traditional industry and young minds can benefit from the interaction”.
The industry isn’t just attracting more young people, either – it’s growing itself, with spending on historic vehicles up from £5.5 billion to £7.2 billion over the past five years.
It also supports 113,000 jobs and constitutes a fifth of the entire UK heritage sector. Now the classic car industry is committed to both preserving jobs and encouraging new generations into pursuing careers.
Classic cars still “light up a child’s face in wonder when they glide by,” said HVCA founding partner, Emma Crickmay. “I’ve been that child, and now I’m that enthusiast.”
The Porsche 911 Turbo used in the Bad Boys movie, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, heads to auction next month.
Having played a major role in the 1995 film, the 964-generation Turbo 3.6 is likely to attract bids from cinema fans and Porsche enthusiasts alike.
Fittingly, given the Miami location of the Bad Boys movie franchise, the Porsche will be sold at the Mecum Auctions event in Kissimmee, Florida.
Rear-driven riot
Taken from the final year of 964 Turbo production, this 1994 model uses the more powerful turbocharged 3.6-litre flat-six engine. This means 355hp, sent solely to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual gearbox.
Compared to the earlier 3.3-litre version, the larger-displacement model is notably rarer. The car up for auction is one of just 350 produced for the American market, making it a collector’s item in its own right.
Painted in black, it also features a a black leather interior. The 911 wears a French number plate on the front, as seen on screen. At the rear is a Florida-issued plate that reads ‘BAD BYS1’.
A concours winner
The Porsche was originally owned by the director of the Bay Boys movie franchise, Michael Bay. The car then passed to producer Pat Sandstone.
The 911 Turbo returned to its current custodian for a second time in 2014. It has since appeared at numerous car shows, winning the 2014 Pinehurst Concours d’Elegance and the 2017 Amelia island Werks Reunion.
In 2020, the Porsche took to the red carpet for the premiere of the latest Bad Boys for Life film. Preparation work was undertaken last year, with the total mileage recorded at 34,396.
Certificates of both Porsche and movie authenticity will be included in the sale.
Men in Black
Given the current enthusiasm for cars from the 1990s, a 964 Turbo is already be high on the list for Porsche collectors. Being a late-model 3.6 only adds to its appeal.
However, as the car driven by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, this example is uniquely desirable.
The Porsche is due to cross the auction block during the epic Mecum Kissimmee sale. This 10-day event begins on 6 January 2022, and will see some 3,500 vehicles up for grabs.
A 2000 Mini Cooper Sport, owned from new by actress Britt Ekland, goes up for auction this weekend.
The rare Mini will be offered as part of the Winter Sale, hosted by Classic Car Auctions at Stoneleigh Park.
Although the auction features numerous classic Minis, the celebrity story behind this example is likely to attract bidders.
A 1960s icon
Ekland rose to fame during the 1960s, appearing in films with then-husband, Peter Sellers. During the 1970s, she starred in Get Carter, was cast as a lead Bond Girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, and appeared in cult horror film The Wicker Man.
Sellers was responsible for introducing Ekland to the joys of Mini ownership. The car up for auction is one of many Minis enjoyed by the Swedish star.
The Cooper Sport was bought new by Ekland in December 2000. It has remained in her ownership since, having covered some 44,500 miles. This included being driven all the way to Sweden in 2014, plus a return journey to London in 2019.
No Stockholm syndrome
A flagship model of the Mini range in 2000, the Cooper Sport was one of the final iterations of the British classic. Just 2,200 examples were made, distinguished by their flared wheelarches, four spotlamps and 13-inch alloy wheels.
Finished in Solar Red, the Cooper Sport has its roof and body stripes in Platinum Silver. The full-length sunroof was a factory option, with the interior finished in silver and black leather.
As a relatively rare example from the end of Mini production, the Cooper Sport is already sought-after. Being owned by one of the 20th century’s most high-profile celebrities will only add to that.
Ahead of the sale on Saturday, 11 December, a pre-auction guide price of £10,000 to £12,000 has been set.
England versus Germany. Blur versus Oasis. Still versus sparkling. History is littered with great rivalries, yet few have been as hard-fought or divisive as Evo vs. Impreza: battle of the Japanese super saloons.
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Subaru Impreza Turbo (latterly WRX) employed four-wheel drive and highly-tuned turbocharged engines to deliver Porsche-baiting pace. They fought on the stages of the World Rally Championship and on the streets of Saturday-night suburbia. They influenced popular culture, too – including the Gran Turismo PlayStation games and Fast and Furious film franchise.
The heyday of Evo versus Impreza was the late 1990s. By the time the 10th-generation Evo X arrived in 2007, these road-going rally cars had fallen from fashion. Yet their spirit lived on in cars such as the Ford Focus RS and Volkswagen Golf R: four-wheel-drive hot hatchbacks that pushed 300hp+ performance even further into the mainstream.
The (deep breath…) Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ-440 MR I’m driving is perhaps the ultimate Evo, one of 40 built to mark 40 years of Mitsubishi in the UK – and the end of the Evo bloodline. As the badge suggests, it packs 440hp: an incredible 220hp per litre from a 1,998cc turbocharged four-pot.
And the ‘FQ’? Popular wisdom says this stands for ‘flipping quick’, or a rather less printable version thereof – something Mitsubishi has never officially denied. Let’s discover just how ‘FQ’ it is…
Bring on the boost
Wait for it… wait for it… BOOOOST. That’s the old-school turbocharged experience, and one you might reasonably expect to find here. After all, this upstart family four-door produces as much horsepower as an Aston Martin DB9 from an engine a third of the size.
In truth, there is some lag: the 4B11 unit feels a little flat below 3,000rpm. But beyond that, the FQ-440 wakes up with relentless, sledgehammer shove that bludgeons your brain. From 5,000rpm to the red paint at 8,000rpm, it’s utterly manic: the real-world equivalent of the Fast and Furious nitrous-button boost. You won’t even blink.
Zero to 62mph in the low threes is impressive, but doesn’t do justice to how quickly you can – to use that phrase beloved of driving instructors – ‘make progress’. The Evo, remember, is a relatively compact car with an upright driving position and good all-round visibility. It has beefed-up Alcon brakes and four-wheel drive with Active Yaw Control to aid stability. Hell, this version even has Mitsubishi’s SST semi-automatic gearbox. Your nan could drive it.
Whether she’d want to is another matter. With a custom intake system, intercooler pipes and exhaust manifold from Janspeed, plus four bazooka-sized tailpipes, the FQ-440 is LOUD. And it hardly looks subtle either: spot the lowered suspension, BBS alloys, carbon front spoiler and air-cleaving vortex generator on the roof.
Inside, the Evo feels markedly less exotic, with plenty of brittle black plastics and naff orange logos on the seats. Even the plentiful standard equipment (sat-nav, climate control, Bluetooth and an eight-speaker Rockford Fosgate audio system) can’t hide its humble origins. An Audi RS4 this ain’t.
Somebody’s watching me…
When the final Evo was launched, internet forums were abuzz with talk of its ‘data recorder’. This electronic device stored data on how and where the car was driven, and its fitment was a condition of the warranty. However, all 40 cars are now well beyond their three-year factory warranty period, so you no longer need worry about Mitsubishi snooping on your antics. Even if you do have have to worry about servicing bills.
Ah yes, servicing. After the initial 1,000-mile oil change, Mitsubishi recommended a workshop visit every 4,500 miles or six months, whichever comes first. The engine is highly-strung, and tyres, clutch and brakes will all take a pounding. So an Evo won’t be cheap to run – but neither is any car with comparable performance.
The FQ-440 cost a not-inconsiderable £50,000 when new, and a good example won’t have depreciated much – if at all. Finding one may be your biggest problem: there were just three for sale at the time of writing, priced between £45,000 and £125,000. Yes, really.
Most FQ-440s will have low mileages and fastidious enthusiast owners. Nonetheless, a history check is essential, and we’d also suggest a professional inspection to rule-out crash damage. Avoid any cars that have been modified or used on-track, and insist on a meticulous service record.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ-440 MR: Verdict
This may be the ultimate Evo on paper, but most critics (ourselves included), consider the 1999 Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition the best of the breed.
Sure, the FQ-440 is fun, but it’s more of a point-and-squirt machine; the delicious balance and throttle-adjustability of older Evos, or indeed the Focus RS, isn’t quite there. And while it’s blisteringly quick, it doesn’t leap into hyperspace like a Nissan GT-R: a car that’s available used for similar money, remember.
Nonetheless, the mighty Mitsubishi is a formidable and genuinely exciting car. Its place in history is assured, buying one bestows God-like status among JDM fanboys, and you’ll probably never see another on the road.
The 1997 Lancer Evo was once used by the late World Rally Champion, Richard Burns.
Fresh from refurbishment work, the Mitsubishi will be sold as part of the Bonhams MPH auction on 11 December.
Not a normal company car
Richard Burns drove for the Mitsubishi Ralliart World Rally team between 1996 and 1998. He took his first WRC victory with the works outfit, winning the 1998 Safari Rally.
As part of his role with Ralliart, Burns was given the use of ‘P66 MRE’ as his company car. Owned by Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe, the Lancer Evo IV was also used for road tests and reviews by various motoring magazines.
Robert Reid, Burns’ long-serving co-driver, made use of the Lancer Evo IV later in the duo’s time at Mitsubishi. Reid has been able to add provenance to ownership history of the car, cementing its importance.
First launched in 1996, the Lancer Evolution IV introduced major changes for the performance saloon.
The 2.0-litre turbocharged engine was rotated 180 degrees, with Mitsubishi’s trick Active Yaw Control for the all-wheel drive system made standard. All versions made use of a five-speed manual gearbox.
Compared to previous versions, the Evo IV gained extra weight. However, the standard power output was increased to 276hp, with a substantial 260lb ft of torque.
GSR versions, like the one being auctioned, came with large PIAA front fog lights, OZ Racing alloy wheels and Recaro sports seats.
Refurbished and ready to roll
After Burns and Reid left Mitsubishi in 1999, the car was sold into private ownership. Rather than being stored away in a collection, P66 MRE has racked up more than 126,000 miles since.
More than £28,000 is said to have been spent on the car, including a complete engine rebuild in 2012. Printouts from Group B Motorsport, which undertook the rebuild, show an impressive output of 350hp.
Extensive work covering the engine, running gear and bodywork was undertaken between 2019 and 2020. This cost more than £11,000, with a complete respray last year at a further £3,100.
An iconic example
As the first (and only to-date) English World Rally Champion, Richard Burns’ place in motorsport history is assured. Tragically, the driver died from a brain tumour in 2005, aged just 34.
His use of this particular Lancer Evo IV makes it hugely significant, adding to its overall desirability. The substantial amount of recent maintenance and refurbishment work furthers its appeal.
This is reflected in the pre-auction estimate given by Bonhams, suggesting a price of £50,000 to £60,000.
Due to be held at Bicester Heritage on Saturday 11 December, the Bonhams MPH sale also includes a Plymouth Superbird and a BMW 3.0 CSL.
Fans of retro Porsche paint colours will now find it easier to order new cars in classic hues.
Porsche has updated its custom colour ordering option, renaming it ‘Paint to Sample’ and ‘Paint to Sample Plus’.
Both open up a world of choice to Porsche customers and, more importantly, include three historic colours from the 1990s.
Retro colours reunited
Porsche highlights that Rubystar, Maritime Blue and Mint Green are all available through the Paint to Sample range.
As approved colours previously used by Porsche, these can be chosen when ordering a car through the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur department.
Buyers considering a new 911 or 718 have 100 predefined colours to pick from. Taycan customers can pick from 75 shades, with the Panamera, Macan and Cayenne limited to 50 options.
It means our dream of owning a Rubystar Porsche Taycan to match the iconic 964 RS could finally come true (subject to a lottery win, of course).
The colour of money
Opting for the Paint to Sample range is not cheap, though. Most 718 and 911 models incur an extra cost of €8,806 (£7,500), with 718 GT4/RS and 911 Turbo models adding €9,877 (£8,413) to the bill.
Porsche will also paint your new car in any shade you want… within reason. The Paint to Sample Plus process can capture the colour of any item, then turn it into a brand new paint shade.
Feasibility testing is undertaken to ensure your favourite colour can actually be applied to a car.
The entire Paint to Sample Plus process takes several months, with prices starting from €17,612 (£15,000).
