Car Royalty is on Offer at RM Sotheby’s London Auction
From Nigel Mansell’s Testarossa to a Land Rover designed for the Queen, there is something for everyone.

If you like cars, one way to spend an afternoon is to peruse RM Sotheby’s auction listings. Regardless of where the next auction is taking place, or what its theme is, you are guaranteed to get lost amidst a sea of interesting and rare machinery. These are cars that belong in Gran Turismo rather than someone’s actual, real-life garage. They typically span every decade of car making, from the early 1900s through to present day hypercar royalty, with consignments representing every automotive genre, from Japanese hatchbacks to Italian sports cars and American muscle. RM Sotheby’s latest auction, which takes place on 1-2 November at the Peninsula in London, is no different.


One of YouTube’s greatest videos features Ayrton Senna pushing the limits of a Honda NSX, a car he helped develop, around Suzuka. Sunglasses on, he is wearing loafers and white socks, and stabs at the pedals through corners before heel-and-toe shifting under braking. It is a visceral display of the man’s incredible talent, and the car’s high-revving agility, which made him, and it, two of the best things about the early ‘90s. The car Senna drove on that day was white, and he owned no less than three; two in black and one in red, which he kept at his home in Portugal. There is a car for sale with RM Sotheby’s that is a better spec than any of them. It’s a 1994 NSX-R (one of 483 made), finished in Charlotte Pearl Green over a black alcantara interior, and with factory-option seven-spoke wheels in Championship White. Estimated to fetch between £230,000 - £290,000, it could be the perfect NSX, and it is far from the rarest and most hyped cars of the auction.
That trophy doesn’t go to the 1924 Bentley 3-41/2-Litre Speed, the 1973 Porsche 911 RS 2.7, or the ’71 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, which is one of just 158 made in right-hand drive. It goes to the 1957 Jaguar XKSS, the first ever XKSS to be offered at auction in Europe.






Preserved and retaining its matching numbers chassis and body, this XKSS is one of just 18 examples ever made. It is essentially a road going D-Type, and is among the most lauded of all Jaguars. Steve McQueen famously owned a British Racing Green 1956 XKSS, but the car didn’t need his approval to acquire its legendary status. Jaguar dominated Le Mans for much of the 1950s, and took home a trio of victories from ’55 to ’57 with the D-Type. But once the 3-litre capacity limit was announced from 1958, Jaguar was forced to retire the car from competition.
That left 18 chassis hung out to dry, but rather than waste them, Jaguar converted them into road-going XKSS cars, which could compete in other sports car series while also being usable in public. This one, chassis XKD 540, was originally finished in British Racing Green with a Suede Green leather interior. It has since undergone a number of changes, including the current two-tone paintwork and an upgraded 3.8-litre spec by the Jaguar factory, but it is largely original. This is reflected in the estimated price of between £9m - £11m.
There is plenty of Italian metal on offer, too. A 1989 Ferrari F40 is a particular highlight. Optioned with the oft-preferred non-adjustable suspension, and without a catalytic converter to muffle the exhaust note, this is as good as an F40 gets. A matching-numbers car, it comes in the original factory spec of Rosso Corsa with Stoffa Vigogna interior, and a mileage reading of just 20,921 kilometres.


There is also a ’65 Ferrari 275 GTB, one of just 250 ‘short nose’ examples ever made, and a once-Nigel Mansell owned Testarossa, which was supplied to the F1 champion during his final season at Ferrari in 1990. More special still is a ’64 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso, fresh off an engine rebuild by Joe Macari and coming with an estimate of £1.1m - £1.3m.
Elsewhere there’s a ’78 Land Rover Series III that was prepared for use by Queen Elizabeth II, complete with a full-width Plexiglass screen and bespoke rear doors for easy access. For something quicker, a one-of-five 2020 McLaren Senna GTR LM, replete with Harrods livery is up for £1.6m - £2m. Other classics include a ’54 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, and a fleet of Aston Martins including an ‘X Pack’ V8 Vantage and a restored DB5 that Bond would approve of. For those with the means, there really is something for everyone. For everyone else, a peruse at the listings is a treat worth indulging in.




Schedule (GMT)
Friday, 1 November 2024
12:00pm-5:00pm - PUBLIC PREVIEW
5:00pm - MEMORABILIA AUCTION
Saturday, 2 November 2024
9:00am-3:00pm - PUBLIC PREVIEW
3:00pm - AUCTION
Auction Location
The Peninsula London
1 Grosvenor Pl
London
SW1X 7HJ
United Kingdom