There will be 69 significant Grand Prix cars from Ecclestone’s collection for sale through Tom Hartley Jnr, a specialist UK dealership. Hartley and Ecclestone have a long relationship, and the cars will be sold in private deals rather than at auction. It seems therefore that the final total achieved may never be known, although it has been suggested that it could exceed some £300m!
As the owner of the Brabham team in the 1970s and ’80s, Ecclestone kept many of the team’s cars for himself, so those cars have never come up for sale before. Included in this group is the remarkable and innovative BT46 “fan car” designed by Gordon Murray. The tremendous grip provided by the fan enabled the car to win it’s first, and only race, by some 30 seconds. The strength of the protests by the other teams was such that although the result was allowed to stand, Ecclestone decided to withdraw the car from the remainder of the series. So, this car is truly a unique opportunity for a serious collector.
Along with cars driven by Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher and other top class drivers, others for sale include the Dino 246 in which Mike Hawthorn won the 1958 championship, and the trailblazing Vanwall VW10 which secured the first Formula 1 constructor’s championship and was also the first British car to win an F1 race.
The number and significance of the cars in this great collection makes it probably one of the finest ever assembled. They are all arguably the best examples, and another worthy of mention to support this claim is the 1951 Ferrari 375 in which Alberto Ascari gave Ferrari his first-ever F1 victory
When asked why he was now selling his collection Ecclestone said, “I love all of my cars but the time has come for me to start thinking about what will happen to them should I no longer be here, and that is why I have decided to sell them.” “After collecting and owning them for so long, I would like to know where they have gone and not leave them for my wife to deal with should I not be around.”
This is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for those with pockets deep enough to obtain one or more of these fabulous cars, and it will be interesting to see how much information will be available as to where they eventually end up. Let’s hope that some may be found on public display in a museum.
P.S. It has been suggested that Ecclestone may now be having second thoughts about selling his cars – watch this space……..