H&H Auctions held a small but profitable sale at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire, England on June 16. The sale seemed to be mostly Rolls-Royces and Bentleys – and in one instance, a combination of both. Top sale went to a 1926 Bentley 6.5-Litre Le Mans-style Tourer at about $575,000. “Le Mans-style” means that this isn’t the original body – but it is a popular style commonly fitted to period Bentleys because everyone wants to feel like Woolf Barnato or one of the other Bentley Boys. The original body was a sedan, so changing it to this open tourer did not hamper the price.
One car that I had actually planned on featuring before I ran out of time prior to the sale, was this 1904 Renault Type T Tonneau. It’s a rear-entry tonneau and, because the body sits so high on the chassis, the back door is rather tall, resembling a full size door – for an open bodied car. This one has been in the same family since 1959 – which might seem like a long time, but it’s less than half of the life of the car, which is pretty amazing. It brought about $100,000.
And finally, the oddball of the show: a 1985 Rolls-Royce Bentley Jankel – which sounds like something that was built in someone’s backyard. It began life as a 1985 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur sedan. A little while later it was converted into a limousine by the coachbuilder Jankel. In about 2002 it was again converted – this time into a Bentley – meaning the badges, grille and wheels were replaced with the appropriate Bentley parts. All I can think of are those people who turn their Chevy pickups into “Cadillacs” by strapping the grille of an Escalade to the front of their Silverado, which is probably where I made the backyard connection. It sold for a little less than $25,000 and doesn’t look too bad.
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