2014 Shannons Sydney Late Autumn Classic Auction

This month’s Shannons Auction had a few cars I wanted to drop by and see.

The first was a W111 Convertible – A manual 220SE.   The car looked nice from the photos and the price range seemed a bit low to me.  ($54,000-$60,000).

The car is nice for that price – I would rate it at a nice driver condition – the leather is a bit worn and has a few tears, the wood needs refinishing and the paint is not perfect, but that means this is a car you can use regularly.   I wasn’t able to see the engine, hear it or see the condition of the soft top, but overall it looks like a nice car for the money.   It is fairly original with the original wheels and hubcaps (these are frequently changed to the 280 style), and a becker radio, albeit from a newer car.

The manual transmission is most commonly found on the 220, but even still is not common.   The blue with cream lether is also a nice colour combination – too many of these cars are white.

Another car I liked was a R107 500SL.   To me, the 500 is the one to get.   the 560 with its embellishments (3rd brake light, rear wing, front spoiler etc) looks like an aging actress with a bit too much plastic surgery, but the 500SL, not having to comply with misguided ADR27A regulations is more powerful than the 560, lighter, and still retails the classic look of the 107SL.   Price guide is $10,000-$15,000 with no reserve.  A couple of small rust bubbles could be seen, but otherwise the car looked quite nice.

The other car I particularly wanted to see was the Series 1.5 E-Type.   Towards the end of Series 1 production, Jaguar started introducing some of the upcoming changes for Series 2 (in the 1967 model year).   These didn’t happen at the same time, so the Series 1.5 is interesting, as cars from different parts of the year can be different.   Series 1.5 changes started with the elimination of the covered headlights (albeit differently to S2), change from flat to ribbed cam covers, change from toggle switches to rocker, interior door handles, and for the USA, from triple SU carburettors to dual Solex.   This car has the open lights, and ribbed cam covers, but not the interior changes.     Price guide was $110,000 to $125,000, and the car was an original RHD model.  The car is apparently from South Africa originally, and must have been in fairly long term ownership as it was not on XKEdata.com.