Rare Metro and Ferrari fetch hundreds of thousands at Autosport show

A rare MG Metro 6R4 with just 175 miles on the clock was among the cars going under the hammer with Silverstone Auctions at the Autosport International Show.

The car on offer – built in 1985 – was a road-legal version of the famous Group B rally vehicle. Bought by Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1988, as the iconic F1 team was part of the car’s development process, it was then auctioned off in 2005, passing through a handful of owners since then.

It sold for £168,750 at the event held at the NEC in Birmingham, and Silverstone Auctions operations manager Harry Whale said: “In general, these cars are very topical at the moment. They’re mad, they’re rare and collectable.

“To find one in the road-going ‘Clubman’ spec with only 175 miles from new was something we were really excited about.”

Silverstone brought dozens of spectacular cars with it for its first appearance at the show, with keen bidders taking part in person, on the phone and online from around the world.

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A Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 – one of just 52 built for the UK – was the highest earner of the day, going for £200,250.

Not far behind the grand tourer from 1970 was something far more modern – a 2005 McLaren-Mercedes SLR, which fetched £196,875. This example had only covered 6,700 miles in its lifetime, making it one of the fresher SLRs on the road today.

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Other notable lots included an ex-works Mk1 Lotus Cortina racing car, which also sold for £168,750, and a Ducati 906 Paso motorcycle gifted to Nigel Mansell by the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, which went for £7,313.

Silverstone Auctions managing director – and father of Harry – Nick Whale tweeted after the auction: “I really want to congratulate my whole team for their collective performance today. A sales rate of 60 per cent with a hammer of £2.5m in this current uncertain economic climate is a truly outstanding result.”