Below is a first hand account from the Coys auction on 14 May by Chris Lackner* where the yellow Iso Grifo sold for £164,850 ($267,000)! Quite a great price considering how it was seriously damaged in an accident. It was however, restored to as good as new condition.
This is one of the highest prices paid for an Iso Grifo in a public sale and may be an indication that Iso Grifo prices are increasing.
by Chris Lackner
I've just got back from the Coys auction at Ascot Racecourse where the ex-Mike Hailwood Grifo #162/D had pride of place right in front of the auctioneer's podium. Pretty stunning it looked too, in its dazzling Giallo Limone paint and brand new chromed Borranis.
The Grifo was quite late on in the programme, Lot 149 out of 160 lots, and it had a 4 page spread in the catalogue, whereas most cars just had a single page, or sometimes two, with 5 large colour pictures and a couple of small ones, of which one was a black and white of Hailwood with the car in the 1960s, and the other being a slightly fuzzy still from the Beatles film "Magical Mystery Tour".
After mistakenly referring to it as the Mike Hawthorn car, the auctioneer got on with the sale. There were multiple phone bidders, plus some in the room, and the bidding started at £90,000. It quickly got up to £130,000 then slowly crept up to the hammer price of £148,500, well into the £140,000 - £170,000 estimate. With buyer's commission added, the final price was £164,850 or about $266,990!
There were only a couple of higher prices realised, a 1952 Frazer Nash Targa Florio with good competition history which made £200,000, and a quite superb 1971 Mercedes 280SE 3.5 convertible, which made £170,000, a new world record, they said.
Incidentally, the gentleman sitting beside me bought the Frazer Nash, and turned out to be none other than John Coombs, famous for his Jaguar racing team in the early 1960s, with Mark 2 and E-Types, notably one of the first E's registered "BUY 1". A real legend in Jaguar circles. So, quite an exciting afternoon!
*Chris Lackner is a well known Iso collector, Iso/Bizzarrini historian and president of the Iso/Bizzarrini Club in the United Kingdom.
My other posts on this Grifo are here, here and here.
Click on the images for a larger view.
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A VERY exiting afternoon. A lot of money for a Grifo.And a beautiful car. Did they produce any more in this colour?
ReplyDeleteGabriele,
ReplyDeleteYes, a few were made in this yellow. You can see another one here at this post:
http://mycarquest.blogspot.com/2011/01/iso-bizzarrini-what-class.html