£10 million of cars in a Shed

The cars lining up for RM Auction Automobiles of London sale this month are being stored in an industrial unit in SE England.

£10 million of cars in a Shed? A glorified shed, admittedly. In fact a very prosaic and totally anonymous industrial unit on an small estate in South East England. That’s where the cars lined up for RM Auctions Automobiles of London sale are being stored in the run up to the auction. And we spent an interesting few hours at the invitation of RM having a nose around.

It seems a bit odd, walking in to a unit which looks from the outside as if it should be turning out plastic widgets or some other industrial estate fodder, to be confronted by a sea of glorious cars. Walk through the door and there sits the pair of RHD Mercedes CLK-GTRs we reported on recently. Stunning to look at, they look better in the flesh than in the pictures. Even the horrible purple interior on the Roadster looks more of a deep Fuchsia than purple. A decade old and looking just like the day they were made. But with only 30-odd miles on the clock in a decade that’s hardly surprising.

Sat next to the CLK-GTRs is the 1954 300SL Gullwing with the 6.0 litre AMG lump. And it’s a very convincing upgrade to the original 1954 300SL. Modern interior, but still feeling like an original Gullwing. A classic car, but with modern supercar-like underpinnings, it would make a wonderful daily drive.

Look deeper in to the unit and there’s a sea of classic cars. A 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 ‘Jarvis Torpedo’ sits at the back. A majestic and enormous car, it epitomises Rolls Royce’s then mantle of ‘Best Car in the World’. What’s it worth? Oh, a million or so. There’s also a 1903 Cadillac Model A and a 1904 Société Manufacturière d’Armes 24/30 hp Open-Drive Landaulette. All brass finishings and the size of a small bus. But lurking behind the RR is something I’ve never seen before in the flesh – a Mercedes 600 Pullman Landaulet.

The 600 Pullman Landaulet – transport of dictators, potentates, royalty and the odd Pope – shows all the signs of its 30 years in a barn in Belgium. But with the right TLC – and deep pockets – this could be returned to its former glory. It sports hugely innovative technology for its time, including air suspension and four-wheel, power assisted disc brakes. And it’s pretty much all there, including an original interior.

Right at the back, sitting behind a glorious and original 1965 Shelby 427 Competition Cobra, is a car I had no knowledge of – a 1963 ATS 2500 GT 3.0 litre Coupe. A Ferrari in all but name, it was built by two Ferrari designers who left Ferrari after Enzo Ferrari decreed that a mid-engined car was not a real Ferrari. Ferrari went on to build the 250GTO (and subsequently decided that mid-engined was the way forward), and designers Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini formed ATS to produce their mid-engined car.

Despite all it offered – 300 bhp,  five-speed manual gearbox in rear transaxle, independent front suspension with double wishbones, coil springs and tubular shock absorbers, independent rear suspension with double wishbones, coil springs and tubular shock absorbers, and four-wheel Dunlop hydraulic disc brakes, mounted in-board at the rear – and with financial support from Count Giovanni Volpi – the pair didn’t really have enough clout to make the ATS road car – or the F1 car they created – a viable concern. They made just 8 road cars. This was the last. And it’s probably worth somewhere north of £1 million.

The list goes on, and it’s not all mega-expensive stuff either. There was a little 1950s Topolino lurking in a corner looking as fresh as a daisy, but somewhat overshadowed by a beautiful Bugatti Type 57 sat in front of it. If you have a real hankering for any of these cars you can get out your piggy bank and go off to the auction on the 28th October.

But unless you’re after the Topolini you will need quite a large piggy bank.