Rowan Atkinson’s Mercedes 500E and Lancia Thema 8.32 up for grabs

Rowan Atkinson is clearing more cars out of his eclectic classic car collection, with his 1989 Lancia Thema 8.32 and  1993 Mercedes 500E going under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions’ Retro Classic Car Sale.

Rowan Atkinson may be best known for stuff like Mr Bean, Black Adder and much, much more in his work life, but in his personal life he’s a big petrolhead, and lover of classic cars.

Perhaps best known in this context for his McLaren F1, Rowan also owns an eclectic collection of interesting modern classics and, perhaps because his personal life has changed, he’s been selling off some of his cherished classics.

Atkinson’s McLaren F1 was up for grabs in 2013 for £8 million, and last year he flogged his Land Rover Defender. And now two more of Atkinson’s modern classics are going under the hammer.

The first is a Lancia Thema 8.32, a car which combines what Atkinson seems to love in a classic, understated period with proper performance potential, with its V8 straight out of a Ferrari 328 giving the staid-looking Lancia half decent performance.

Atkinson has owned the car for seven years, in which time he’s spent more than £20k keeping it running and improving it.

The second Atkinson car is a 1993 Mercedes 500E, a very limited run Mercedes E-Class with the 5.0 litre V8 from the 500SL, all in left-hand drive and built by Porsche. It was effectively Mercedes’ answer to the BMW M5.

Atkinson has had this 500E (he had another from new) for three years, it’s covered around 50,000 miles and comes with a comprehensive service history.

Both cars will go under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions Retro Classic Car Sale at the end of February, and both are being offered without reserve.