Pick of the saleroom: our favourite cars heading to auction in March

With 2023’s sales well underway, March is looking excellent for fans of British classics – whether they be barn finds, ex-celebrity or working vehicles with a new lease of life.

Last month saw a fascinating collection of historics go under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions’ Race Retro sale on 25 February, including an unregistered, 300-mile rubber-bumper MGB and a cache of seven Lotus Elans from the Piddington Collection, including an S3 drophead given to the late Dame Diana Rigg.

But that’s enough about sports cars. We’ve found four seminal British classics from all walks of life and provenance – from a £4-£5000 priced guided ex-British Rail Maestro 500 van, to Sir Michael Caine’s Silver Shadow Drophead Coupe, estimated at between £100-£150,000.

Star lot: 1970 Mini Clubman 1275GT – Classic Car Auctions - £10,000-£12,000 estimate

Is this the lowest mileage, original Clubman 1275GT left in the country? Well, no.
That honour belongs to the ‘last Mini to leave Longbridge,’ the car found in the air-raid tunnels by urban explorers (and rescued by an enthusiast in 2012)

That 11-mile, Reynard Bronze car ended up stripped and dumped under the former MG Rover works after a storage container fell on it; before that, it had been a pool car.
In the defence of Classic Car Auction’s (CCA’s) 1970 Clubman 1275GT, to be sold at the Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration Show on 25 March, it’s still complete – and has been untouched since it was placed into a garage more than 30 years ago.

With 11,826 miles on the clock, the Bronze Yellow car was produced in the first year of Clubman 1275GT production; although the model was launched in October 1969, AROnline reckons that none were sold until the next year. With a restyled nose, and a single SU-equipped, 59bhp 1275 A-Series from the 1300GT and 7.5-inch front disc brakes from the Mini Cooper S, it was pitched as a 998cc Cooper successor, with an appropriately sporting interior to match.

CCA’s car still wears the tax disc it had when taken off the road; it has Castrol GTX and Leycare stickers for its next service attached and the auctioneer hasn’t said whether the car runs or not.
It describes the car as a ‘garage find’ and suggests a full mechanical recommission.
With the paperwork sorted the 1275GT would be road fund licence and MoT exempt; dream Mini finds don’t come much better than this.

Budget star: 1991 Maestro 500 Van – WB & Sons - £4000-£5000 estimate

Fewer and far between than even the Maestro hatchback – the earliest examples of which are celebrating their 40th birthday this year – surviving vans remain fondly remembered workhorses, capable of carrying a 500 or 700kg load for the likes of British Telecom, Royal Mail, the Gas Board, and British Rail.

WB & Sons’ example, an ex-British Rail support vehicle, is known to the Maestro and Montego Owners’ Club and has attended numerous heritage steam and diesel events, including those held by the Eden Valley Railway in 2021.

For sale on 11 March, the yellow beast suffers from none of the rust that killed so many Maestro vans in service. It uses the hardy 2.0-litre direct-injection Perkins Prima/Rover MDi diesel engine; the fore-runner to the turbocharged L-Series/SDi, its listed mileage of 164,132 clicks is barely run-in.

All Maestro vans received the steel bumpers from the basic City hatchbacks, but for longevity in service the models also received stronger hub, wheels and springs, along with an uprated gearbox. Railway fans will also delighted to see that the Maestro 500 comes with a host of British Rail tools and a load liner to protect the back end.

Rare survivor: 1966 Vauxhall Victor FC101 Ambulance – Evoke Auctions - £7500

Like vans, ambulances, even those derived from cars, had a tough life before the scrapyard beckoned, unless a museum (like the wonderful London Ambulance Service Historic Collection) or a camper conversion company intervened.

Evoke Classics’ 1966 Vauxhall Victor FC101 Ambulance is rarer still; thought to be unique (though Dinky made a model of the outgoing FB emergency vehicle), it was preserved by several private owners before its listing for sale. Unlike the other lots, Evoke is acting as a sales agent – the £7500 advertised is a ‘buy now’ price.

Commissioned in period by the Slough Industrial Health Authority, a Victor FC101 estate was altered by coachbuilder, Martin Walter of Folkestone; three years after the firm added a roof pod to take a stretcher and splints, a separate coachbuilding firm, Dormobile, was established, named after Walter’s well-known range of camper van conversions.

Complete with working Winkworth bell and flashing lights, it was used on private land by Slough Estates before being privately registered in 1990. A later owner added the Northumberland County Council livery with its permission; the ambulance retains its high-compression engine and stretcher, complete with patient, known as ‘Doris.’

Film star: 1968 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Two Door Drophead Coupe by MPW – H&H Classics - £100,000-£150,000 estimate

Sir Michael Caine learned to drive later in life, but his first car – a 1968 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Drophead Coupe by Mulliner Park Ward – takes some beating.

The Zulu and Gambit star, then 35 years old, didn’t even have a licence upon purchase; he employed a chauffeur to drive him around to save on insurance premiums.

‘Milk, bread, newspaper, cigarettes, Rolls-Royce’: the shopping list Sir Michael made that day saw him escorted off the premises at Jack Barclay in Berkeley Square, London, where he showed up to buy a Royce unkempt and unshaven. Mayfair’s other Royce dealer, HA Fox, was more than happy to oblige, however: it had a Two Door Drophead Coupe in stock that screenwriter Terence Rattigan had ordered, but then cancelled.

It's said that, with ownership confirmed, seated in the rear, Sir Michael would drive past the Jack Barclay dealership that had ignored him, flicking the guilty salesman a ‘V sign’ as it glided past.
Not that he kept the Drophead Coupe for long: despite an appearance in the 1969 documentary, Candid Caine, a year later, Jack Leach, owner of the famous Gasworks restaurant attended by Sir Michael, Elizabeth Taylor, the Rolling Stones, and others, bought the car from the Zulu star.

The Royce stayed with Leach until 2013, when the present owner bought it and had it restored five years later, spending more than £100,000 in the process.

Up for grabs with H&H Classic Auctions, which is to offer the car during its 15 March Imperial War Museum sale, Michael Caine fans have a rare opportunity: it’s never been on the open market before, and has warranty documents stating its provenance (listed as ‘Michael Caine Productions Limited, […] Grosvenor Square, London W1.’)