Although the amazing dust-covered 1969 Lamborghini Miura, found in an underground car park in Athens, reached an insufficient £300,000, auctioneer Chris Routledge hammer sold a 1967 car converted by the factory to SV specification for £414,000, plus a 1961 disc-brake Mercedes 300SL Roadster, in one family since 1967, for a claimed £425,000. A restored 1938 BMW 328 Roadster was declared sold at £485,500 and a left-hand drive Aston Martin DB5 Vantage took £375,500 in the room, though a tidy DB4 did not sell, bidding £10k short of its £170,000 lower estimate.

A Ferrari 250SWB copy looked good at £124,6700, when a tired example of the car it was based on, a 330GT 2+2, fetched only £88,400 - £20,000 more than a barn-find twin-headlight example fetched at auction last month. The 1922 Talbot-Darraq open tourer from the estate of the late Bill Boddy took £18,400 and an AC Sociable £19,550.

A fair Lancia Aurelia B24 Convertible was £166,500 and Maseratis were £40k for a 1966 quattroporte and £44,400 for a 1963 3500 GTi. Of the two Bentley woodies, a 1949 MkVI Countryman by Harold Radford reached £71,900 and a 1935 31/2-litre Derby by Jones Bros remained unsold at a little less.

In the last big-ticket UK sale of the year, 31 out of 45 cars were claimed sold, for a 69% sale rate. Coys’ next sale is at Autosport International at the NEC on 12 January.