Chris Evans looked quite at ease, sitting on the floor of Ascot’s main grandstand with Coys’ catalogue on his lap. Perhaps it was the vicinity of his former 456 GTA (which sold for £26.5K before premium), or the 1974 Ferrari 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer (which didn’t sell, having been offered up to £62k against an estimate of £70/80k). The 512 BB, in original black paintwork, sold for £68k. Evans was seen loitering around a pretty Ferrari 250, which sold for £48k because it had not been born, actually, a 250 at all, but a 330 GT Special.

The auction was well attended, though the majority of participants may well have been present in spirit rather than flesh: ‘phone and internet bidders played a substantial part in the sale, perhaps because it took place over a weekend.

Yet the weekend date did not deter one of the most famous collectors in Europe, Corrado LoPresto. He had travelled from Italy specifically for a splendid, unrestored 1929 Lancia Lambda which had been in the same ownership for the last 77 years, and had spent the last 82 years in the UK. LoPresto, a suave connoisseur of Italian prototypes and rare models, won the Lancia for £46K: he plans to return it to Italy where it will be sympathetically restored. ‘A 1929 car which sports independent front suspension and has a unitary construction instead of a separate chassis is indeed something special for its time,’ says LoPresto. ‘I have everything in place to start a gentle restoration which will leave history untouched.’ Despite having been in storage since 1956, after a quick check the Lambda was started and ran immediately.

The Jaguar E-type bubble seems to have well and truly burst. No longer do Roadsters fetch figures close to the 100k mark – the 1969 Series II drop-top in red sold for 34k - and good Series I 1966 Fixedhead coupes change hands for £29.5k, despite having been with the vendor for the last 37 years. A special, glitzy past is no guarantee for top money either: despite a video showing a clip of the ‘70s movie ‘Brannigan’ (with John Wayne) featuring a 1966 Series I 2+2 E-Type, the car in question looked too tired to elicit more than token bids, and sold for £5k.     
Markets as diverse as Italy, Singapore, USA, France and Germany, as well as the UK, contributed to 71% sales, with some deals still being discussed post-auction.