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Rare Australian racing car collection to be sold

Classic: A ground effects title-winning Lotus 79 like this is one of the cars being auctioned.

$4 million worth of historic Lotus racing cars to be auctioned in Sydney

25 Jul 2008

ONE of the most famous racing car collections in Australia – worth up to $4 million and including two World Championship-winning F1 cars – will go under the hammer in Sydney on November 16.

Six rare Lotus open-wheeler cars that belonged to the late John Dawson-Damer, who was killed driving one of them at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2000, will be auctioned by Bonhams and Goodman.

Widely regarded as the finest collection of the famous marque in the world outside Lotus itself, they are likely to attract considerable global interest when they go under the hammer.

Auctioneer Robert Glover anticipates that the highest price will be paid for a Lotus 25 that Jim Clark used to win the 1963 World Championship – the first of the Scot’s two titles and the first for Lotus – which has been valued at between $1.1 million and $1.8 million.

Also of great interest is a John Player Special Lotus 79 ground effects car in which Mario Andretti won the 1978 world title, which is one of the best-looking racing cars of all time and is expected to sell for between $480,000 and $620,000.

Two other Formula One cars will be auctioned, an ex-Stirling Moss 1961 Lotus 18 ($260,000-$400,000) and the very rare but little-raced experimental four-wheel drive Gold Leaf Lotus 63 that is valued at a relatively modest $175,000-$265,000, perhaps because it was the car in which Mr Dawson-Damer was killed.

 center imageLeft: Jim Clark driving a Lotus 25.

The other two cars are a front-engined 1959 Lotus 16 Formula Two car ($320,000-$480,000) and a 1965 Lotus 39 that was raced by Clark in the Tasman Series in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Glover said that Mr Dawson-Damer acquired the collection between 1971 and 1984 and that the family had continued his good work by demonstrating the cars at local historic race meetings.

“This is arguably the most important and historically significant collection of collectors’ motor cars ever to be offered for sale by auction in Australia and we feel extremely honoured that the Dawson-Damer family have entrusted the sale of the collection to Bonhams & Goodman,” said Mr Glover.

“Racing cars of this pedigree rarely come onto the open market and in normal circumstances their acquisition can be extremely difficult, even when the financial resources of the biggest collectors are available. Owners simply will not part with them.

“We expect the sale of this collection to spark huge interest in the historic motor racing and collecting fraternity both nationally and internationally.”

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