Sunday 11 October, Knokke-Heist. Bonhams sold 53 of the 70 vehicle lots that crossed the block, for a 76 per cent sell-through rate and €10.2m. Seventy-two vehicles had been catalogued, but two were withdrawn [1][15]. More than 800 bidders from 36 countries registered and over a thousand people filled the room, in the house's fourteenth year as a Zoute Grand Prix partner [1]. Two days earlier Broad Arrow had made €35.6m at 91 per cent [16]. The gap is mostly catalogue: Friday was built around modern hypercars, Sunday around classics, and Bonhams' average sold car made roughly €192,000, less than half Broad Arrow's. The more useful question is what the same market paid for comparable cars at the two sales.
The Keller Brothers: €3.59m, twelve from twelve
The no-reserve Keller Brothers Collection, twelve predominantly Italian sports and supercars from the 1960s to the 2000s, sold in full for €3,593,750 [1]. Its 1970 Lamborghini Miura P400S, chassis 4578, is one of 114 late-specification ventilated-disc cars [1]. It retains its matching-numbers engine, original body and original Nero leather, and has a period invoice naming Baron Emmanuel 'Toulo' de Graffenried. It wears Giallo, though research before the sale established Arancio as its first colour, and Bonhams stated that it needed recommissioning and that the clutch was not working correctly [2]. Against a €1.6m–2m estimate it hammered at €1.5m, below the low estimate, for €1,725,000 with premium: still the top price of the day [1][15].
The collection's 1989 Countach 25th Anniversary could not be started before the sale and was sold as needing full recommissioning, yet hammered at €450,000, the top of its €400,000–450,000 estimate, for €517,500 [2][15]. A 2008 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S, static for over a decade, hammered at €120,000 against €60,000–80,000, the strongest result against estimate in the sale [2][15].
Market check: project prices, running-car money
Below estimate is not the same as below market. At about $2.0m with premium, the Miura sits close to the $2.15m market benchmark for a P400S [6], and level with running cars sold this year: $1,875,000 at RM Sotheby's Miami for a restored early P400S [7], €1,716,000 at Broad Arrow in January and CHF 1,805,000, about €1.9m, at RM Sotheby's Zürich in September [6]. The ceiling is far higher. A restored 1968 P400 S made $4,075,000 at Broad Arrow's Quail sale in August [6]. For a car requiring recommissioning, wearing a later colour and with an incorrectly operating clutch, Zoute paid market money rather than project money, which says as much about originality and provenance as about condition.
The Countach tells the same story. RM Sotheby's sold a serviced 6,002 km 25th Anniversary in Paris in January for €567,500 [9]; the Zoute car, inoperable and with 23,084 km, made 91 per cent of that [2]. Collecting Cars sold one in Lugano for CHF 433,500 in February, and the model's market benchmark sits at about $603,000 [8]. No-reserve, honestly described Italian V12s found bidders willing to pay close to running-car money.
Elsewhere the room was more measured. The 1968 Dino 206 GT, chassis 00150 and the 28th of 152 built [1], hammered at €490,000, just under its €500,000–550,000 estimate, for €563,500 [15]. That is in line with RM Sotheby's $648,500 for a refurbished car at Monterey in 2025 [13], and below two Bring a Trailer sales in the United States in 2025 that The Classic Valuer records at about £800,000 each [12]. The 1979 BMW M1 hammered at €380,000 against €450,000–550,000 [15]; its €437,000 total came in under Gooding Christie's €522,500 in Paris in January and the model's benchmark of about $580,000 [14].
Same week, overlapping collector market: five comparisons
300 SL Roadster. Both sales sold one. Broad Arrow's 1957 car made €1,041,250 [4]; Bonhams' 1961 car, factory-equipped with disc brakes and restored by LARO Sportwagen, hammered at €1.1m, just under its €1.15m–1.45m estimate, for €1,265,000, despite an engine replaced by Mercedes-Benz in 1973 [2][15]. Both sit below the €1,355,000 RM Sotheby's achieved in Paris for a matching-numbers 1962 car restored by Mercedes-Benz Classic [10], and a 1957 car estimated at $2.2m–2.6m went unsold at Monterey in August [11]. Demand is there, but at a level set by originality.
300 SL Gullwing. Neither Gullwing changed hands: Broad Arrow's 1955 car, estimated at €1.7m–2m and with an odometer reading around 100,000 km below its actual mileage, was offered but unsold [5], while Bonhams withdrew its €1.3m–1.5m example before the sale [2][15].
Lamborghini. Appetite was strong for V12s of every era. Broad Arrow's 1992 Diablo made €343,750, which Broad Arrow says far exceeded its upper estimate [4], while its 1984 Countach 5000 S hammered at €610,000, inside its €500,000–700,000 estimate, and made €692,500 including premium [16]. At Bonhams the no-reserve Countach hammered at the top of its estimate and the Miura just under its own [15]. The exception was Broad Arrow's Lamborghini-engined MCA Centenaire, which hammered at €725,000 against €900,000–1.2m, or €821,875 with premium [5][16].
Porsche. The modern and motorsport cars ran hard: a 2016 911 R hammered at approximately €475,000, 5.6 per cent above its €450,000 high estimate, and made €540,625 at Broad Arrow [16], while the GT3 Cup S at Bonhams hammered at half again its top estimate [15]. The early air-cooled car went the other way. Broad Arrow's no-reserve 1968 911 L Soft-Window Targa, with one owner for 57 years, hammered at about €95,000 against €150,000–180,000, €109,250 with premium [5][16].
Lancia and BMW. A modern Kimera EVO37, catalogued under its 1976 donor identity, made €1,131,250 at Broad Arrow [4], while Bonhams' no-reserve 1958 Appia GT Zagato hammered at €69,000 against a €170,000 low estimate, and the Giallo Ginestra Delta HF Integrale Evo 2 hammered at €80,000 against a €100,000–140,000 estimate, or €92,000 including premium [2][15]. For BMW, the documented one-off won: the Piëch W10 M5 hammered at €360,000 against a €250,000–350,000 estimate, €411,250 with premium [5][16], while the 2002 Cabriolet, whose 'factory prototype' description was removed by saleroom notice, hammered at €62,000 against a €90,000–100,000 estimate, or €71,300 including premium [2][15].
Where the room held back
The largest no-sale was a 1965 AC Cobra 289, COB6047, estimated at €700,000–900,000 [2]. Built in right-hand drive in Vineyard Green and later converted to left-hand drive, it has since been restored and retains its matching-numbers engine [2].
Across both sales the pattern is consistent. Bidders paid up for low mileage, documented one-offs and honestly described no-reserve cars, even ones that would not start. They held back on the Gullwings and on cars whose headline claims, condition or estimates did not survive scrutiny. At Bonhams, a third of the lots carrying estimates hammered below the low figure and only six per cent above the high [17]: consignors who sold without reserve took what the room offered, and the room offered market value rather than catalogue value. At Zoute, documentation carried as much weight as the car.
Prices include buyer's premium of 15 per cent on cars unless stated [15]. Conversions are approximate, at €1 to $1.16. Bonhams' next motoring sale is The Golden Age of Motoring at New Bond Street on 30 October, followed by Rétromobile in Paris on 5 February 2027 [1].
