The Piddington Lotuses.

The sale of 7 Lotuses from the Piddington collection has created a great deal of interest in the Lotus community. The debate is mostly about values and the impact of celebrity ownership on values.

I popped along to the auction to see the cars and how they faired. The least famous of the seven was the 1975 Elan Sprint whose claim to fame is that it was the last Elan to be registered for the road in the UK. The car was estimated at £50 000-£80 000 which is pretty strong for an Elan, even one in this exceptional condition. In the end it sold for £45 000, £5 000 below estimate. Given that this was a car without a celebrity connection it seems to be about right.

Next on the rostrum was the Ron Hickman drop head Elan Sprint in blue and white and again the car was in excellent condition. Most Lotus fans will know that Ron was the designer of the Elan and Europa, though he made his money from the design of the workmate which he sold to Black and Decker. This is probably not the kind of celebrity that would add any significant value to the car. The car was estimated at £70 000 to £90 000. It sold for £62 250, a high but not unreasonable price for a car of that specification with a touch added for the Ron Hickman connection. However, the estimate suggests that the celebrity value of the Ron Hickman connection was over estimated.

Next up was the 1974 sprint estimated at £80 000 – £120 000. This S4 Coupé was particularly special as it was presented to Jochen Rindt by Colin Chapman at Hockenheim in August 1970. This was to celebrate his win in the Lotus 72 at that year’s German Grand Prix. It was to be his final win prior to his untimely death at Monza a few weeks later. An association with a top racing driver definitely adds cache and value though at a sale price of £66 250 it still fell short of the bottom estimate.

Next up was the Rob Walker Elan S3 SE. Again Rob Walker is not a figure of popular culture but a gentleman racer and Grand Prix privateer R.R.C.’Rob’ Walker. It was built to commemorate Stirling Moss’ legendary Monaco Grand Prix win in 1961 aboard the Rob Walker Racing Lotus 18. Estimated at £50 000 £80 000, it ran out of steam at £49 500, though it met the sellers minimum price. Again the price was strong for an S3 SE which in this condition would expect to fetch £35-£45 000.

The final car with a Lotus endorsement was an S4 given to Keith Duckworth, co-founder of Cosworth Engineering, by Lotus to commemorate the first win by a DFV-engined Grand Prix car at the Dutch GP in 1967.  Again it was strongly estimated at £50 000 to £80 000 but sold for £39 500.

Next come the two stars of the show. The first was the 1966 Lotus Elan S3-SE which was delivered to Peter Sellers’ Haymarket home on June 22 1966 and, when in London, was driven by him, with wife Britt Ekland in the passenger seat, until 1969. It is a car that was in Peters ownership for 3 years and photographed a number of times with Britt. Peter and Britt were true cultural icons with a clear connection to the car, so what would the impact be on value. The estimate has jumped from £80 – £120 000. However it sold for £74 250 which probably represents a £30 000 celebrity premium.

When it comes to iconic Lotus Elans there is none more so than the Avengers Lotus Elan driven by Emma Peel.  After filming Series 5 and 6 the Television Company gave the S3 Drophead to Diana Rigg who played Emma Peel in 51 episodes of the long-running British TV series. Again this was estimated at £80 000 to £120 000. It sold for a very healthy £164 250 and represents a celebrity premium of around £130 000.

The lesson from the sale of these seven cars is that an association with an important figure does add value to a car as it lifts it above a similar car with no such association. However that premium is relatively small in most cases though this perhaps doesn’t apply to race cars and drivers. However if there is a true cultural icon driving a car in a famous film or television programme then the value grows exponentially. Ultimately however, regardless of the pre auction hype, the market will determine value and like all investments, they can go down as well as up.