RM Classic Cars is leading the way in the collector car hobby by offering buyers and sellers of vintage and special interest automobiles a convenient and credible means of conducting business over the Internet with the production of its exclusive online auction, Sunday, August 9, 2009.

“We’re thinking outside the auction block,” said Dan Spendick, Consignment Specialist, RM Classic Cars, Inc.  “RM’s 30 years of experience in the collector car hobby is being extended into the realm of e-commerce by offering our valued clients a cyberspace alternative to traditional auction venues.”

Benefits of RM Classic Car Online Auction:

RM’s expert Car Specialists, providing a third-party assessment of each vehicle’s condition with verification of proper titles and ownership, promote confident bidding and buyer satisfaction;

Detailed condition reports and extensive photography of each consignment are featured at www.rmauctions.com for consideration weeks in advance of the sale;

Transactions are conducted from the comfort of home or office, and without the expense and time commitment of travel to a traditional auction venue;

Consignors’ transportation costs are eliminated; and,

 

Bonhams is delighted to have been instructed to handle the dispersal sale of reserve vehicles from The Ward Brothers’ Collection – one of Europe’s foremost groups of early automobiles – at 2pm on Saturday 18th July at Henley-on-Thames. The brothers, Toby and Daniel, have a motoring heritage and both have gone on to amass a unique collection of early vehicles which they actively campaign both nationally and abroad. To enable this to further develop, the dispersal sale represents a rationalisation of the vehicles, removing duplication and releasing projects to the market which would not otherwise be completed.

The sale includes a series of outstanding lots, highlights of which include a 1901 Panhard-Levassor 2.4-litre Forward Control Cab Phaeton, the only one of its kind still in existence. The Cab is in exceptional condition and eight years ago was the second finisher in the annual London-Brighton Veteran Car Run, demonstrating that it still has good power. The guide price for this lot is £200,000-250,000. The 1896 Benz 5hp Victoria – from literally the dawn of motoring - is another important veteran, estimated at £140,000-180,000.

Another leading lot is the outstanding ex-Alf Briggs and Eric Houseley 1928 McEvoy-JAP motorcycle with a 980cc vee-twin engine. This exquisite motorcycle is estimated at between £120,000-150,000. The colourful 1899 Panhard-Levassor Wagonette is also worth highlighting, with the guide price similarly set at between £120,000-150,000.

Some of the cars in the sale have colourful histories, such as the 1911 RMC Seabrook 20hp Roadster. A top endurance racer – it won the Essex Motor Hill Climb in 1911 – the car was later donated to the War Department. Post-war, the car became a fixture at a boy’s prep school in Kent where it was adapted to roll the cricket pitches. It was from its position on the outfield that the car was spotted, in the 1960s, by a diplomat from the Foreign Office who acquired the vehicle for the princely sum of a pitch-roller and a jar of sweets for the pupils. He lovingly restored the car to its former glories and it is now expected to fetch between £25,000-35,000 at auction.

 

Motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss will launch his latest book, the Stirling Moss Scrapbook 1956 – 1960, as part of his eightieth birthday celebrations at the Silverstone Classic, 24-26 July 2009.

Sir Stirling will also be busy racing his red Osca in the Silverstone Classic’s RAC Woodcote Trophy, a series dedicated to post-war, pre-1956 sportscars racing to period specification at high profile historic motor racing events.

The fourth in the acclaimed Stirling Moss Scrapbook series covers one of the most challenging and successful periods of Moss’s career, including his début victories for Vanwall, Cooper and Lotus, and his contribution to Aston Martin’s 1959 World Sportscar Championship win.

Silverstone features prominently in the book: “During my career, I raced at Silverstone more than almost anywhere else, some 46 times,” Moss states. “A particular Silverstone landmark for me was the International Trophy race in May 1956, which saw the first appearance of the Vanwall. It was this race win that gave me the confidence to sign with the team.”

The Vanwall, of course, went on to become a motor racing icon: it transformed Britain's involvement in Grand Prix racing and began the country's domination of the sport at the highest levels.

When not seen racing in the Osca, Sir Stirling may be spotted at the Silverstone Classic signing copies of his new book.