The MG SV-R was supposed to be a sort of halo car to fill the bedroom walls of kids and empty the pockets of the gentlemen wanting a bit of ‘ugly but brutish’ in their driveway. With the chassis from another car you’ve never heard of, the Qvale Mangusta, and the 4.6-liter and 5-liter V8 engines from a Ford Mustang, this cocktail of all world was good for either 320 hp or 385 hp.

With strange looks and lack-luster performance figures, it’s no wonder that only 82 were ever sold, of which 42 were the SV-R version with 385 hp, like the one in the picture. However, that doesn’t mean that this particular one, which will go under the hammer early next month, isn’t worth your time.

Expected to fetch somewhere in the region of $55,000 (about €44,000), this example is a left-hand drive model that should make some lucky owner happy if he decided to buy it at the upcoming Silverstone Auctions on November 4, 2011.

It’s got lots of quills on the side, a badge few people will know outside Britain and track car looks, so there’s plenty of reasons to like it.

A brief (?!) inventory listing of the auction…. Cars – 1966 Austin Healey 3000, 1962 Triumph TR4 vintage race car w/race history, Land Rover Series IIA, Morris Minor 1000, 1979 CJ5 Jeep & P/A plow, off road ATV like new buggy, Areins 14 hp Hydrostatic garden tractor & cart; Lucas items; hundreds of  vintage oil cans & oil & gas station items; British car parts; grill badges & rally plates; collection of vintage British car toys & slot cars; original sales brochures (Triumph, Morgan, Sunbeam, Humber, Morris, HRG, MG, Lea Francis, Jaguar, Austin Healey, Austin etc.); restored 1950s Texaco gas pump; working traffic light; lighted Triumph Import car sign; Dunlop Tire signs; Castrol signs & items; glass oil bottles; car & gas station adv.; collection of vintage license plates; garage items; tool boxes & machinist & air tools; air compressor; British car counter stools; steel work bench;  British car memorabilia; British car books & shop manuals; owners manuals; Check Point Turbo Boost pin ball machine (car game); original dealership flags & banners; orig. factory MG-Rover coveralls from car line; adv. signs & thermometers (MG, Jaguar, Jeep etc.); tin British car signs; sets of tires & wheels (Triumph, MG,  Land Rover etc.); car prints & posters; British items; Ford 1930s wire wheels; British motorcycle items & literature; helmets & goggles; Atlas battery & Jaguar novelty radios; maps; jacket patches; British police hat; street signs; small household oil cans; Mobil drinking glasses; oil can banks; & other car related items too numerous to mention.

Anyone who knows more about this auction or attends it, please let us know the details!

Max Girardo, Managing Director, RM Europe says, “What is nice about this sale is that we have selected some genuinely rare and interesting cars and motorcycles while also offering a very comprehensive selection of British marques that represent a wide cross-section of some of the best loved and most keenly collected models.”

The star Rolls Royce lot is unquestionably the unique and historic 1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Experimental Sports Tourer, ‘10 EX’, the first prototype Phantom I Continental to be fitted with sports body ‘torpedo’ coachwork by Barker. This unusually rakish and sporting pre-war Rolls has a fascinating and well-documented history and is estimated to fetch between £400,000 – £800,000. It is fitting that in Rolls-Royce’s centenary year, the iconic British manufacturer is represented in the sale by a total of nine exquisite examples, ranging from an1924 Rolls-Royce 20 HP Open Tourer (Estimate: £60,000 – £85,000) to a late 1993 Rolls-Royce Corniche IV Cabriolet (Estimate: £58,000 – £70,000). Other Rolls’ highlights include a 1926 Rolls Royce Phantom I Tourer with coachwork by Smith & Waddington (Estimate: £100,000 – £140,000), once driven by Prince Michael of Kent during a visit to Australia, and a desirable 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Drophead Coupé, (Estimate: £380,000 – £420,000), one of just three produced with attractive Freestone & Webb coachwork.

No less than 16 Aston Martin cars feature in the auction, with two very fine pre-war examples on offer including the one-off, ex-works 1939 Aston Martin 2-Litre Speed Model, chassis number 727U, originally built by the factory for outer circuit racing at the historic Brooklands. Now fully rebuilt and prepared by one the world’s leading marque specialists, the car is estimated to achieve between £320,000 – £380,000.

“Aston Martin is brand famous for its well-built, high-performance GT cars, and the marque is currently one of the most collectable in market place”, adds Girardo. “Post war DB cars have, in particular, rallied in value in recent years, and we are truly delighted to be able to offer such a broad spectrum of desirable Aston models.”

Early DBs are represented by three DB2s in Drophead Coupé, Coupé and Saloon body styles alongside two DB Mark III Coupes. There are also three DB4 examples, the highlight of which is a simply beautiful 1962 Aston Martin DB4 Vantage Convertible, a very rare example in left-hand drive and one of only 74 Convertibles made. With a fascinating documented history behind it, the car was once owned by the famed actor and diplomat, Sir Peter Ustinov (Estimate: £250,000 – £320,000).

No sale of ‘Quintessentially English’ cars would be complete without Jaguar cars being well represented. Indeed, RM has brought together a fantastic cross-section of 11 of the most desirable models from the Coventry-based car maker, including both pre- and post-war examples. The SS100 is considered by many to be one of the most iconic examples of pre-war sports car design – the sale features a wonderful 1937 Jaguar SS 100 2.5 Litre Roadster, chassis number 18116 (Estimate: £200,000-£230,000).

The sweeping good looks of the post war ‘XK’ sports cars are also well represented by a solitary XK120 and four XK150 models. The undeniable highlight of these is the 1959 Jaguar XK150 3.8S Roadster, the ultimate evolution of the XK-Series cars of the 1950 and a matching numbers example that boasts a service book signed by company founder William Lyons. It is estimated to bring £180,000 – £240,000.

In its 50th anniversary year, it’s only fitting that the sale should include three outstanding examples of the E-Type, from an early 1966 Jaguar E-Type Series I 4.2 Fixed Head Coupé (Estimate: £40,000 – £50,000) to one of the last of the breed, a 1974 Jaguar E-Type Series III Convertible (Estimate: £38,000 – £45,000).

Motorcycles are a new feature of the sale for RM, with seven examples on offer from historic British manufactures such as BSA, Triumph and Brough Superior. Worthy of particular note is the 1960 BSA Gold Star, fully restored and in desirable Clubman’s configuration (Estimate: £14,000 – £18,000), and the 1939 Brough Superior 11.50 V-Twin, an excellent, late example of one of these highly desirable machines (Estimate: £35,000 – £45,000).

Other notable entries include:

- a 1929 Bentley Speed Six “Le Mans” Style Tourer, chassis number FA 2518, a faithful recreation of the 1930 No 3 Speed Six Le Mans team car (Estimate: £450,000 – £570,000);
- a highly-desirable 1955 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback, (Estimate: £325,000-£425,000);
- a historically-interesting ex-Works Le Mans entrant 1961 Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Coupé, chassis number B 9102730/OD/HRO (Estimate: £58,000 – £70,000); and,
- a 1933 Lagonda 3-Litre Tourer, a quintessential pre-war touring car with an award-winning restoration (Estimate: £150,000 – £200,000).

For further information on RM’s inaugural Salon Privé sale or to view the complete digital catalogue, please visit www.rmauctions.com or call RM’s London office at +44 20 7851 7070. For further information on Salon Privé, please visit: www.salonprivelondon.com.

BRX 854B was one of two MGB rally cars built by BMC’s competition department in 1964, when the road car was priced at £850 (the equivalent of R1700 at the time).

It made its racing debut in the Spa-Sofia-Liege rally in August 1964 and went on to compete a further five times as a works entry, in the Tulip, Acropolis, Geneva, Danube and RAC rallies, all in 1965.

It was retired in 1975 and has since then had a meticulous restoration, overseen by MG historian John Baggott and legendary MG racer Barry Sidery-Smith with meticulous attention to detail. Existing parts have been painstakingly restored or replaced and some non-standard period competition parts have been sourced with no expense spared.

Its first public appearance after restoration was at the Le Mans Classic in 2008 and it has the historical technical passport, meaning it’s eligible for other such prestigious events, including the Goodwood Revival, Monaco Classic GP and other pre-65 invitation races.

The MGB will be offered up on June 2, complete with documentation – including letters from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and the BMC competition department – original handbooks, racing instructions, receipts, restoration archive photographs, magazine articles and newspaper clippings from 1964 and 1965.

The dark blue DB2 Team Car came fifth and third in the French 24-hour race in 1950 and 1951 respectively. It was offered with a low estimate of 250,000 pounds by RM Auctions, in association with Sotheby’s, at its annual “Automobiles of London” sale in Battersea Park.

The classic British racer had been owned by Aston Martin’s chairman David Brown, who coined the “DB” marque, and had been kept unrestored in the same private collection for the last 52 years.

“It was a strong price,” said Simon Kidston, a Geneva- based classic car adviser. “The purchase will give the buyer instant access to exclusive racing events like the Le Mans Classic,” Kidston said in an interview.

The sale raised a total of 10.9 million pounds with fees, with 81 percent of the cars successful, RM said. These figures include lots that were sold after the auction, such as a 1925 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS that found a buyer later in the evening at 522,500 pounds, said RM. No figures were available for the number of lots left unsold at the end of the auction. The presale estimate for the event, which included 84 cars and 37 lots of memorabilia, was 10 million pounds.

It would take a book to detail the convoluted history of this car; in fact, a book has been written. Magnette-ised: The Pedigree of MG K3015-2 from 1934 to 2007, written by the seller, details the many changes the car has been through in the decades of its existence. H&H themselves described it as “the antithesis of a ‘matching-numbers’ car,” although it possesses an unbroken history as a genuine K3. The car is sort of like grandpa’s axe; the original frame was replaced with an unnumbered frame supplied by the factory, as was the original 1,086cc straight-six engine, and the body was changed from two-seater to single-seater, and back again. Further complicating matters is that the car’s original chassis, discarded in the late 1930s, has since been built up as a complete car.

There have been some lively discussions about the car’s authenticity on the website of the Triple-M Register, but the car’s long and colorful history has never been in question. For more, see the H&H website.

From: Hemmings Motor News

Check out the full story here at Autoweek, and please let me know what you think!

The ERA marque played a pivotal role in British motor sporting history. From 1934- 1938, these British racing cars toppled the former supremacy of the Italian Maserati cars in their International ‘Voiturette’ competition class – effectively Formula Two or Grand Prix Two level. They performed incredible service, also graduating to contemporary Grand Prix racing pre-World War Two and then from 1948-51 to Formula One.

Chassis no. ‘R1A’ – to be sold by Bonhams – was first driven by Raymond Mays at ERA’s public debut in testing at Brooklands on 22 May 1934. Trouble in practice for its first race in the Mannin Moar event at Douglas, Isle of Man on 30 May saw Raymond Mays non-start but he and Humphrey Cook then co-drove the new car in its true race debut, the British Empire Trophy at Brooklands on 23 June. There again on 6 August, Raymond Mays finished 2nd in an Esher Mountain Handicap, and set the class lap record at 76.31mph.

He subsequently broke further records at Brooklands in September with a class victory in the Shelsley Walsh hill-climb, then – on 6 October 1934 – winning the major Nuffield Trophy race in the car at Donington Park.

During 1935 Humphrey Cook won at Brooklands, and this car was also successful in the hands of Richard Seaman – future Mercedes-Benz works team driver and winner of the 1938 German Grand Prix – Tim Rose-Richards and Raymond Mays himself. The car was also campaigned by the diminutive but dazzlingly glamorous Mrs Kay Petre in 1936, and was raced in the Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, New York, USA by the Hon. Brian Lewis (later Lord Essendon).

In 1937 ‘R1A’ was sold to Norwegian private owner/driver Eugen Bjornstad in whose hands it beat the Maseratis in Turin, Italy, and was 3rd at Naples and in the Finnish Grand Prix in Helsinki.

After World War Two ‘R1A’ remained in frontline competition, being owned and driven by such contemporary a household name as Reg Parnell. It was also campaigned by the brothers Joe and Fred Ashmore, David Hampshire, Phillip Fotheringham-Parker and Alistair Birrell before being entrusted in 1952 to a newcomer named Ron Flockhart. The fair-haired young Scot would become a leading British racing driver, winning the Le Mans 24-Hours in Jaguar D-Type cars in both 1956 and 1957.

‘R1A’ became one of the truly iconic cars of the Vintage Sports Car Club’s racing scene from 1956 to date, and occupies a unique place in any review of British and European motor racing history.

The prototype chassis was constructed by specialists Thomson & Taylor at the Brooklands Motor Course near Weybridge, Surrey, England, designed by Reid A. Railton and detailed by his assistants Ralph Beauchamp and John Perrett.

Final assembly and race preparation was undertaken at Bourne, Lincolnshire, in a purpose-built factory neighbouring company founder Raymond May’s home, Eastgate House. He had been Britain’s star sprint and hill-climb Champion during the 1920s/early ’30s, and his exploits in the ‘White Riley’ sports car heavily-modified by Peter Berthon and Tom Murray Jamieson had earned financial backing for the new ERA project from wealthy London drapery heir Humphrey Cook. Mechanical design of the new ERA was supervised by Peter Berthon, and the new car attracted enormous interest within the tight-knit British motor sporting community.

In recent years ‘R1A’ has been a regular – and successful – sight in historic motor car racing events and this summer, the car is expected to fetch £400,000-500,000. It will be sold without reserve.

Further information: bonhams.com

According to their site they put together Bring A Trailer to showcase the best of the US classic car marketplace to the enthusiast, investor, and racer. They’ve found that the prime ownership opportunities aren’t usually found in the glossy pages of the well known classic mags or at the fancy auctions, and are often sold far quicker than classifieds can get to print.

A sample of the cars you will find on their front page? How about a V-6 Sunbeam Alpine, a TR4 vintage racer, a 1969 Bugeye Sprite, plus Alfas, BMWs and some great others. You can waste literally hours here.