The Austin-Healey 100S at the centre of the 1955 Le Mans disaster sold for an unprecedented £843,000 at Bonhams’ last sale of the year, the second time it has visited M-B World next to the Brooklands Museum. The hammer came down at £765,000, setting a new world price record for the model. Offered as a barn-find, it last changed hands in 1969 for £155.

It’s a car with an infamous past. Lance Macklin, driving the Healey in the 1955 24-hour race, was hit from behind by Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes-Benz 300SLR, which erupted into the crowd, killing 83 spectators. Initially Macklin was blamed but later, culpability was felt to shift to Mike Hawthorn, whose D-type Jaguar had swerved into the pits, forcing Macklin to brake sharply.

As well as running at Le Mans in 1953 before being converted into S spec, the Healey finished third in the 1954 Sebring 12-hour race, and took part in both the Carrera Pan-Americana and the Bahamas Speed Week. After the Le Mans disaster, it was impounded by the French authorities before being released blame-free back to the Donald Healey Motor Company and returned to competition in private hands through the late 1950s and into the 1960s. The present owner bought it 42 years ago.

James Knight, Group Head of Bonhams Motoring Department, said: ‘As an unashamed Austin-Healey fan – and owner of a 100 myself – I'm thrilled with today's result. The 100S is, to me, the most desirable Healey of all and to have sold an ex-works example with Special Test Car lineage and such significant racing history for such a magnificent price is a dream come true.’

In an auction of only 37 confirmed sales out of 68 cars offered, Bonhams also sold another significant Austin-Healey 100 prototype (above), the 1953 Turin show car ‘AHX 11’, that has recently been re-restored and realised £102,700.

A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 made £271,000 and a 1937 Bentley 4¼-Litre All Weather Tourer by Thrupp & Maberly was good money for a Derby car at £137,500. An unusual semi-forward control 1912 Lanchester 38hp State Limousine made for the Maharajah of Rewa in May 1912 fetched £84,000, and a Ferrari F40 with just 200km since rebuild sold for a low £216,000. An Abbott-bodied Bentley R-type coupe looked good value at around a third of the price of a genuine Continental at £104,900, and a very sharply restored 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230SL given front-of-house display in M-B World’s atrium aptly made £55,400.

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