Auction Review: 1958 Benelli 248cc Grand Prix Racing Motorcycle
A stunning example from Italy’s oldest surviving motorcycle manufacturer, Benelli, was the top seller of Bonhams’ recent Autumn Stafford sale.
The 1958 Benelli 248cc Grand Prix Racing Motorcycle, GPX1003, is one of just four built for the 1959 season. Its competition history has not yet been fully uncovered, but as one of just four bikes with works riders of the time including Geoff Duke, Dickie Dale, Silvio Grassetti and Jack Murgatroyd, Bonhams notes that it “almost certainly possesses significant race history.”
Freshly restored in 1990 and again in 2005, and treated in a very gentlemanly fashion since, it’s in stunning condition.
It went for £74,300 on the 21st; the biggest ticket in Bonhams’ £1,328,335 sale.
Via Bonhams
Images via Bonhams
Extremely rare 1920s Brooklands racing motorcycle the star at £1.3 million Bonhams Autumn Stafford sale
The 1929 Grindlay-Peerless-JAP 500cc ‘Hundred Model’ sold for £67,580 at the annual Bonhams sale at The Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show on Sunday 21st October.
Other notable sales included a one-owner collection of almost 50 modern-day classics, which together realized £215,000, and two Brough Superior SS-80 motorcycles, which achieved a total of more than £130,000.
An extremely rare racing motorcycle from the 1920s that lapped the famous Brooklands race circuit at over 100mph was one of the top lots at the Bonhams Autumn Stafford Sale, selling for £67,580 on Sunday 21st October. One of only two of its kind known to survive, the 1929 Grindlay-Peerless-JAP 500cc ‘Hundred Model’ won the Brooklands ‘Gold Star’ award in 1937 in the hands of prominent VMCC member, the late Edmond ‘Boy’ Tubb.
Elsewhere in the sale every one of almost 50 modern-day classics from the collection of Gloucester-based motorcycle enthusiast, the late Evan Aled Jenkins, was sold for a combined total of £215,236. The collection, comprising mostly Japanese machines but also with British and Italian representation, included some of the most desirable limited-edition models of recent times. Top-selling lot of the collection was the 2002 Yamaha 750cc YZF-R7 (also known as the OW-02), which was one of the only 500 of its type built to meet the homologation requirements of the World Superbike Championship. Unused and unregistered, but with DVLA entitlement to the highly-appropriate number plate ‘OW02 YAM’, it realized £23,000.
Meanwhile two important Brough Superior SS-80 motorcycles realized a combined total of more than £130,000. A remarkably original, un-restored ‘barn-find’ 981cc 1925 model that had been owned by the same family from new and had not been seen publicly for more than eight decades achieved £63,100. Meanwhile the 1930 SS-80 De Luxe ‘Black Bess’ once owned by the founder of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club C E ‘Titch’ Allen realized £68,700. A 1930 Brough Superior Overhead 680 motorcycle project, meanwhile, doubled its top estimate to achieve £59,740.
The entire sale realized £1,328,335, with a sale rate of 87 per cent of the lots offered. Top-selling lot was a c.1958 Benelli 248cc Grand Prix Racing Motorcycle that was one of only four constructed and was sent for sale at Stafford by an American enthusiast. It sold for £74,300.
Ben Walker, Head of the Bonhams Motorcycle Department, said: “Our annual Autumn Stafford Sale was once again a huge success.
“As one of our most important sales during the year, Stafford has traditionally been the barometer for values and prices for the collectors’ motorcycle market.
“We witnessed many Europeans bidding for high-quality machines where rarity came foremost, even though the economic situation in most of continental Europe still holds cause for concern.
“As well as offering a number of interesting opportunities for our traditional client base with the likes of the 1929 Grindlay-Peerless and the two Brough Superior SS-80s, we appealed to a new audience of collector this year by offering the Jenkins Collection of modern-day limited-edition classics.”
