Twin Cam for auction .

[Nicktheplumber]

I'm going to a classic car auction on Friday to bid for a car for someone  , whilst looking through the catalogue  I saw this :

https://www.swva.co.uk/classic-car/lotus-europa-twin-cam-1972/

Sadly I don't have the money or space and with one already in the ‘To Do List’ , thought I’d share ....

I’ve no interest in the sale of this or connection with the vendor .

[4129R]

Please let us all know how much it fetches.

My guess, it is worth around £27,500.

[EuropaTC]

That is a nice looking car, someone has spent a lot of time cleaning up the engine bay. I'd also be interested in what it fetches, I'll keep a look out in the next issue of Classic car for their auction round-up results.

[4129R]

I have been cleaning up the engine bay of 4129R.

I used a garden weedkiller type spray which you hand pump to pressurise. It takes about 5 litres.

I put paraffin into the container, and sprayed the whole bay, left it for an hour, then washed it down with a high pressure hose.

It got rid of all the oil and mud.

Paraffin is twice the price of petrol, but unlikely to set fire to your prized car, and is available from garden centres, as they use it for paraffin greenhouse heaters. £10.99 for 4 litres.

[Nicktheplumber]

The auction was interesting , the Europa was bid up to nineteen thousand but the hammer didn't fall , didn't meet the reserve .
In the flesh (fibreglass) it was far rougher than the pictures showed , the interior had certainly suffered a DIY trimmer which made me doubt the rest of the car . There was a magazine  article from earlier this year showing the owner proudly showing the finished product after an eleven year period . Why would anyone sell their pride and joy after all that time , wouldn't you at least enjoy it for a while .

[4129R]

A proper re-trim and re-spray would cost in excess of £7,000 + VAT = £8,400.

So if other works needed doing to put right sins of the past, £19,000 + buyers premium is more than it is worth.

Thanks for telling us.

The most important things, and the biggest costs are those two items. Even an engine re-build is less, if you take the engine out and put it back in yourself, which is relatively easy.

[EuropaTC]

Thanks for the update Nick.  I'm slightly surprised the car didn't sell, maybe there would be some horse trading going on outside the auction and a private sale deal agreed. I would have though £19k+buyer's premium (£1900 ?) was a decent price for that car myself.  The description said there was about £20k spent but we all know that normally if you farm the work out entirely you don't get back what you spend.  The only way to break even or make a profit is to do a lot yourself or do like Alex has done and buy your base car wisely.

I'm surprised it didn't look good in real life, the photos looked as if the paint was very shiny and it was claimed to have been professionally resprayed. Perhaps they were taken a year or so ago prior to the auction ?

[Nicktheplumber]

The buyer's premium was 8% + VAT so give or take , ten percent which takes the cost up to a bit shy of £21,000  . It was shiny , but just the general look of it wasn't ’sharp’ and for that price I'd want near perfection . My car doesn't have a head lining in it so I'm not too sure what it should look like , this one was just a slightly fuzzy material glued directly on to the roof with no frame or even padding with brown glue stains showing around the edges . It also looked very high at the front which I'm sure would be an easy fix so why wasn't it done . Was just the general condition didn't look as though it had been re furbed by a professional , as I said a bit DIY . I'm far from an expert , it's just how the car seemed to me .

[EuropaTC]

Now you've mentioned it, the car does look a touch high at the front. The TC's do have a bigger gap between tyre/wing than the S2's have but as you say that looks as if the suspension hasn't settled or if it's got adjustables maybe it's too high.  Hard to tell without a good side elevation photograph though.

Headlining isn't anything wonderful as standard, it's just foam backed vinyl (?) which is stuck directly on to the roof.  It should be neatly finished around the edges with trim though. From your description it sounds like £20's worth of modern headlining material from Woolies has gone on instead.

I agree with you on price, I think I'd have struggled to find £20k for that car which is why I said that the auction price didn't sound too bad from a seller's viewpoint. Even though I'm a big fan of these cars when I see the prices some are bringing I often think "for that I could have a much newer Elise which will go faster, stop quicker and handle better...."  Of course it won't have those period features;   misty windscreens in winter, air conditioning via the door seals and slightly damp carpets.....   

[4129R]

Modern cars are much more expensive to maintain, and will depreciate quite quickly. They are supposed to have a lifespan of around 10 years.

Just think of the servicing costs, the road tax, and the depreciation. That must be £5,000 in total p.a. 

[buzzer]

Interesting auction, note the Delorean went for 21,250. which looked quite good and an E-Type 4.2 for under 30k. Has the Classic car market peaked? 19k for the state it was in was probably a good price.Bur it all comes down to the day how many people are interested.