Classic car parts worth over £1m discovered in shipping containers
"Aladdin's cave" of spares will be sold later this month
CLASSIC car parts with a combined worth in excess of £1m that were discovered in shipping containers will be going under the hammer later this month.
Uncovered by Chris Routledge, managing director of auctioneers Coy’s, the collection is so vast that Coys hasn’t even managed to catalogue all of the pieces yet.
However, the items are predominantly for cars from exotic Italian brands such Maserati and Ferrari, including spares for a Ferrari 250 GTO, an example of which recently became the most expensive car in the world, after selling for an eye-watering £52.5m.
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Though many of the bits are for road cars, spare parts for legendary Italian racing cars were also uncovered in the container.
Even more amazingly, a vast majority of the pieces remain in their original packaging. Dainty and delicate wire wheels were spotted in wooden crates originally used to ship them to the UK, with smaller parts such as carburetors still being found wrapped up in oiled paper.
Unsurprisingly, Routledge amazed upon discovering the collection.
He said: “Something of this scale and with the importance and rarity of the cars they are related to is unprecedented. We are looking at at least £1 million pounds worth of spares, probably more and I have never seen anything like it.
“I feel a bit like Howard Carter uncovering Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Every time we remove one box or item there is something else of huge interest hiding behind.”
The entire collection will be auctioned off without a reserve price on June 29.
1963 Ferrari 250 GTO sells for £52m, becomes the world’s most expensive car
