Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale, which took place on July 24-25, was a platform for competition and road cars along with a large selection of British classics from Anthony Hamilton. Given that results for 1950s and 1960s Brit machinery have made for uncomfortable reading for while now, broadly the road-car auction was a success – and some Jaguars even outperformed their upper estimates.
More on those later, but it wasn’t good news for the highest values. Only four cars with published results sold on the day above £200k, out of 13 with high estimates at £200k, and two of those were below their low estimate. And as we’ll see, recreations or replicas either under-performed or simply didn’t sell.
However, for much of the auction the lots landed either within their pre-sale estimates, or just shy. Several deals were done after failing to sell on the hammer – at the time of writing, several cars carried the phrase “sold for an undisclosed sum”. As Magneto was putting this together the total sales figure was £8.2m, although the sell-through rate couldn’t be confirmed because negotiations were still ongoing.
Here are a few of the highlights of the road-car sale, followed by a round-up of the competition cars.
The top result from Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale was the above 1994 Jaguar XJ220 hailing from the Anthony Hamilton Collection. Hamilton had owned it for 25 years, and it was offered for sale having covered 3277 miles in total. One of 69 UK-supplied cars, it sold for £506,250 against a £500k-£550k estimate.
The next two largest lots at Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale were both replicas/recreations, and both slightly underperformed. The above 1927 Bentley 4½ Litre Blower Vanden Plas Tourer recreation was estimated at £425k-£525k, but sold for £393,750. Next up was a 1984 Jaguar XJ13 recreation courtesy of TWR replicas, which was closer to lower estimate, selling for £298,125 against a £300k-£400k estimate.
However, three replicas/recreations/tool-room copies failed to sell at all. Offered from the Anthony Hamilton Collection, there was an XKSS (est-£325k-£375k), and two C-types (both estimated at £175k-£225k), and all failed to sell. There was also a continually developed, Jaguar E-type S1 3.8 built to Lightweight specification that failed to sell against a £260k-£310k estimate.
However, while the replicas may have struggled at Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale, other Jaguars largely performed within estimate, got very close or, in the case of the above 1967 Jaguar E-type Series I 4.2 roadster, outperformed its upper estimate. First sold to New Jersey, it returned to its homeland in 2012 and was extensively restored before joining the Anthony Hamilton Collection two years ago, where the in-house mechanics performed further works. Against a pre-sale estimate of £80k-£100k, it sold for £119,250. It was one of two late-model S1 4.2 roadsters in the sale – the other went for a within-estimate £84,375.
In all there were nine E-types to choose from, with just three failing to sell. One interesting curio was the 1974 S3 V12 Commemorative Roadster, one of 50 built to bookend E-type production. This manual car had be restored ‘without compromise’ and sold for £191,250, just shy of its £200k-£240k estimate.
The Jaguar good news at Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale extended beyond the E-type. Flash back ten or so years and, in the UK at least, the presence of the word ‘Coombs’ was auction gold-dust. However, as the auction room’s love for the marque, and the Mk2 in particular – perhaps the road car most readily associated with the dealer/tuner/race-team owner – has since diminished, it was always going to be interesting to see how the above car, a genuine period-modified Coombs Mk2 3.8-litre manual, performed.
It had had quite a life – it had received uprated camshafts, a lightened flywheel, twin SU carbs measuring two inches apiece, a large-bore exhaust, a close-ratio gearbox, lowered suspension, modified wheelarches and an E-type steering wheel. It even took part in the 1964 Brighton Speed Trials. The Mk2 was later discovered in a Twickenham garage in 1980, but work on it wouldn’t get too far for the next 17 years. It was then sold and fully restored by David Sedge, with the mechanical work performed by Rob Beere and Colin Sharpe. Against an estimate of £80k-£100k, it sold for £112,500.
Quite a car in isolation, but there was an interesting side-note to the sale. A 1963 Mk2 3.8 with ‘Coombs-style’ modifications (totting up to around £100k) and a Toyota five-speed gearbox was sensibly guided at £45k-£55k, yet went for £63k. Could the Coombs gold-dust be in the air once again?
Iconic Auctioneers is well known for its UK-beloved fast Fords and Porsches, yet the BRDC Classic 2026 sale was somewhat muted for both marques. The Blue Oval contingent saw three road-going RS500s from the private collection of one of the UK’s leading authorities, and despite past form for sales that have sparked froth and fury from the internet in the past, there wasn’t a repeat of that here. The black car sold for within estimate (£87,187), the Moonstone Blue car, one of 52 built, sold for a slightly below estimate £85,500, while a Diamond White, 16,702-mile example (pictured above) estimated at £150k-£200k was sold – but for an undisclosed sum.
It was a similar deal for other European fast Fords, whether they were from the 1970s, ’80s or ’90s. A sign of straitened times in the home market, which, with the UK-centric love for fast Fords, has traditionally outperformed other territories. Interestingly, the only fast Ford to provide a distinctly eyebrow-raising result was definitely more Detroit than Dagenham – a 1968 Mustang 390GT ‘Eleanor’ replica, estimated at £70k-£80k, sold for £104,625.
And so to the Porsches at Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale. Perhaps unsurprisingly the one-of-14 1995 Porsche 993 Turbo Cabriolet failed to sell again at the second time of asking, estimated at £700k-£800k. We covered the car in depth here when it was offered for sale earlier this year; while it is a rare modern-classic 911 with a bespoke paint colour, the kind of thing the auction market loves, its steering wheel is on the ‘wrong’ side of the car for the market most likely to appreciate such a combination – it is right-hand drive. Elsewhere, a 1963 Porsche 356 B 2000 GS Carrera 2 Sunroof Coupé factory press car driven by press director Baron Huschke von Hanstein failed to sell, as did a one-of-one Sonderwunsch 992.1 GT3 RS and a 2024 718 Spyder RS.
There was, however, an intriguing result for the above 2007 997.1 GT3 RS. Earlier this year we explored the Porsche market in detail, with the 997-generation showing a growing following. The last-of-the-line GT3 RS 4.0 is now well past £500k retail, and the dragging effect for other 997 GT3 RS perhaps can be seen for Iconic’s 2007 RS Orange example. On offer from its only owner and on 9201 miles, it blasted past its £175k-£200k estimate to land on £241,875.
One of the more surprising results at Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale was the above 1998 Aston Martin V8 Coupé. The Virage occupies a strange niche in the Aston enthusiast world, and isn’t much loved – in fact, some of its most ardent critics are ex-Aston employees Magneto has interviewed over the years who actually worked for the company at the time. The V8 Coupé, launched in 1996, drew much of the improvements made for the Virage 6.3 Works Conversion and Vantage models, and married it to the 349bhp non-Vantage 5.3-litre naturally aspirated engine. Just 101 Coupés were sold – and while appreciably better than a Virage, they do not leave dealer lots in short order.
This all made the result for this car, which was refreshed by Anthony Hamilton’s in-house team prior to the sale, all the more surprising. Its estimate of £55k-£65k seemed fair, but it blasted past that to £83,250.
There’s a lot of talk in the market about pre-merger AMGs, with a big contingent heading to Broad Arrow and more likely to crop up at Monterey. Such cars rarely come up for sale in the UK – they’ve largely been extracted to the US by now – but the presence of a 1990 300E AMG 3.4 ‘Baby Hammer’ on British shores prompted plenty of interest on the internet pre-sale. That didn’t translate into a sale on the day, unfortunately, with its £85k-£95k estimate unmet.
Instead, it was far newer (and distinctly post-merger) AMGs that provided the biggest results. A 2007 SL65 AMG broke its (oddly narrow) £35k-£40k estimate to land on £51,750, but the bigger result came via the above 2013 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Edition 507 (W204), which again came from the Anthony Hamilton Collection. This special edition used an upgraded engine block with SLS-derived lightweight forged pistons, conrods and a lightweight crankshaft, delivering 507bhp. There were further tweaks, too, including better brakes and bonnet heat extractors. Estimated at £34k-£38k, it sold for £54k.
Another car with a lot of interest prior to Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale was the above 1973 Lamborghini Jarama S. This was one of 18 right-hand-drive examples built and one of 13 said to have been supplied in the UK. Alex Postan acquired the car in early 1984 after it had been taken in part-payment by a firm of accountants. He began dismantling it with guidance from Del Hopkins at Portman Lamborghini, but the project developed into a restoration lasting almost 30 years. Body repairs used sections from another shell, with work carried out first by Mike Creasey of Gravely Coachworks and later by Simon Fields at Deepcote Re-finishing, while Howard Dent of Autosportif Engineering rebuilt the V12 and gearbox. Much of the remaining restoration work was completed by Postan himself. The Jarama S was estimated at between £35,000 and £45,000 and sold for £49,500.
In the competition-car sale, the top result was this 1985 MG Metro 6R4 Group B rally machine built for Rally Engineering Development for Didier Auriol’s winning assault on the 1986 French Rally Championship. Auriol took five victories that year, helped in part by his request to have a left-hand-drive car, making it unique among Group B 6R4s. It later formed part of the Hommell Collection from 1989 to 2021. Estimated at £375k-£450k, it sold for £378k.
Elsewhere, the Lola T70 MkIII that played the part of the crashed Ferrari in Le Mans sold for £123,700, while Australian touring car hero Dick Johnson’s first Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth (DJR1) failed to sell. A brace of Works 1985 Opel Manta 400 British Rally Championship cars sold for £157,917 apiece.
Further details
For more details on Iconic’s BRDC Classic 2026 sale, head here.
