The Importance of Being Earnest

In the run-up to the Formula One season, it is always fun as a diversion to dream a little and look back to the bygone times of Grand Prix racing by following the collector car auctions that proliferate at this time of year.

This year, with the high prices being paid and the manner in which these auctions are being conducted, it is becoming apparent that the purveyors of these classics are being held to higher standard than previously by the car collecting community. The recent auction experiences with rare racecars as disparate as a Lotus 25, an Auto Union and a Shelby Cobra illustrate the trend.

In late January 2007, the American Barrett-Jackson auction house had several multi-million dollar sales at its Scottsdale, Arizona auction, but the star of the show was a 1966 Cobra 427 "Supersnake" that brought a record high $5.5 million (US Dollars) sale price. And how did Barrett-Jackson authenticate the Cobra?

Well, in addition to the usual documentation as to matching numbers and ownership history, the promoter, Craig Jackson, trotted out 84 year-old Carrol Shelby himself (an ex-Grand Prix driver, racing an Aston-Martin DBR4 and a Maserati 250F) to utter a few vignettes from the podium as to the Cobra when he owned it. With that, the auction frenzy got underway. That was all it took, authentication American-style with a living legend.

At Cheltenham Racecourse in England last month, an ex-Jim Clark Lotus 25 Coventry Climax V8 single-seater was up for auction and H & H Auctions Ltd took a different tack to authenticate the car.

Thought to be one of only four extant Lotus 25's, H & H had the owner of the car, Jim Clark's racing mechanic Cedric Selzer, write a detailed history of how he had personally salvaged the Flying Scot's 1962 Lotus 25 Grand Prix car, chassis No. R5 from certain extinction after Clark's teammate, Trevor Taylor, crashed it heavily at Spa-Francorchamps during practice for the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix.

Taylor mowed down the underpinnings of a marshal's station hut at the Stavelot turn when the always-fragile Lotus suspension failed. With Colin Chapman's acquiescence, Selzer picked up the pieces of the Lotus and, in time, reconstructed chassis R5, using new and old Lotus parts he had access to as a Lotus mechanic as well as re-fabricated parts.

Before Trevor Taylor's crash, Selzer's account noted in the H & H catalogue that Jim Clark had driven chassis R5 five times and during those outings he had put the car on pole four times, taken fastest lap twice and won the prestigious 1963 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone. (Interestingly, R5's sister chassis, Lotus 25 chassis R6, had an easier life, becoming a movie star in 1966 when used in the filming of the movie Grand Prix).

Chris Alford, Lotus 25 R5, Zwartskop Raceway, South Africa 2002 © Cedric Selzer

Although supplementary supporting documentation as to the Lotus chassis R5 was submitted by omnipresent British restorers Crostwaite & Gardiner, Ltd. (they re-manufactured parts of R5's Climax V8) and by Rick Hall (who, like Trevor Taylor, ignominiously crashed R5 at the 1996 Goodwood Festival of Speed on a demonstration run up Lord March's hill), the fundamental authenticity of the well-traveled R5 was ultimately put down to the integrity of its South African race mechanic, Cedric Selzer.

In what has to be one of the best provenance stories ever, Selzer had babied and fettled the car from R5's debut in his native country, the season-ending 1962 South African Grand Prix at East London (where Clark took pole and fastest lap), through all of its many damaging accidents, until the date of the H & H Auction, February 28, 2007. A total of 45 years of TLC, before he let it go.

The result? A spirited bidding war erupted at H & H and $975,664 (US Dollars) was the knock down price paid for this historic Jim Clark/Cedric Selzer confection, which went to a private collector in the UK. Good deal. At Barrett-Jackson, that price would barely have bought you a 1969 Chevrolet Camero muscle car.

Moving from America and England auction circles to Paris, the cream of the crop for recent high-profile collector car auctions has to be the sale of a 1939 Auto Union Typ D Grand Prix car.

This was the last in the line of a spectacular breed of powerful, rear-engined racing cars that went toe-to-toe with the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows in the years before World War II. This time it was Christie's managing the auction and the stage was set for the Auto Union, thought to be a the car raced to two Grand Prix wins in 1939 by Tazio Nuvolari and HP Muller, to be the centerpiece of the Retromobile 2007 sale on February 17, 2007.

Then, at the last minute, the Auto Union Typ D was withdrawn based upon information that came to the attention of Christie's that the auction house believed warranted further research. Christie's announced that it would be consulting with in-house experts at Audi Tradition, the remaining vestige of Auto Union, which was a conglomerate of Audi and three other German manufacturers in the 1930's.

Audi Tradition also has an Auto Union Typ D in its collection of historic vehicles. Both the Auto Union Typ D on auction in Paris and the Auto Union Typ D in Audi's hands were re-fabricated, using a high proportion of a core group of authentic parts, by English restorers Crostwaite & Gardiner, with the fabulous Silver Arrows Coachwork supplied by Roach Manufacturing, another English specialty firm. Accordingly, though there were no doubts as to authenticity of the Christie's Auto Union, there were some issues raised as to its 'race history.'

Originally, it was thought the Auto Union on auction was chassis 21, which won the 1939 French Grand Prix, driven by HP Muller, and the 1939 Belgrade City Grand Prix, driven by Tazio Nuvolari in the Italian ace's final Grand Prix win. Since the Auto Union Typ D cars won only four Grands Prix, chassis 21 was a car with significant race history.

After consulting with Audi Tradition, Christie's clarified that the Auto Union on auction was actually chassis 19 of the series, a car raced by Auto Union drivers Hans Stuck and Rudolf Hasse, but not a race winner.

Auto Union Typ D © Christie's Images Ltd 2007

It should be said that Hans Stuck was one of Auto Union's most celebrated drivers, having developed the first Auto Union Typ A with Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and brought the company its first crucial victory at the Nurburgring in 1934 to put it on a par with the better known Mercedes-Benz. Hans Stuck was also almost unbeatable in hillclimbs and won three European Mountain Championships, all in Auto Unions, as he became known as 'Bergmeister', King of the Mountains.

Chassis no.19 was also raced by Rudolf Hasse, a lesser-known Auto Union driver who had won the 1937 Belgian Grand Prix for Auto Union, his only Grand Prix win. Hasse raced chassis no.19 to fifth place in the May 21, 1939 Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring where an astounding six Auto Unions and five Mercedes-Benz racecars were entered, so fifth place was a reasonable showing.

This 1939 Eifelrennen was an unusual race. Hermann Lang of Mercedes-Benz won the race after a see-saw struggle with Nuvolari, in the Auto Union, and Lang's arch rival, Rudolph Caracciola, in another Mercedes-Benz - and the result led to a falling out between the colorful Mercedes-Benz team manager, Alfred Neubauer, and the number one driver for Mercedes-Benz, Rudy Caracciola, when Rudy accused Neubauer of favoring Lang in the Eifelrennen. Most people thought it was the other way around, with Neubauer treating Caracciola like an adopted son.

Also, uniquely, both German teams returned to the Nurburgring the day after this 1939 Eifelrennen race for a film session and the Auto Union Hasse drove was filmed along with his teammates and their rivals at Mercedes-Benz following a film truck around the twisty 174-turn Nurburgring course. So, some interesting provenance there also for Hasse's Auto Union, chassis No. 19.

And so we return to Christie's and their auction car. Once consultation with Audi Tradition to clarify the race history of chassis No. 19 was completed, the Retromobile sale in Paris was over - so Christie's gave the public the benefit of the new information and announced a private tender, saying that sealed bids were due by close of business on March 7, 2007.

That date passed but, astonishingly, the suspense as to this mysterious Auto Union was not, and is not, yet over. On March 8, 2007, sources confirmed that the Auto Union has not been sold by means of the sealed tender process and will now be re-offered by public auction at a future date to be announced by Christie's...

Memo to Christie's: why not hold the auction on the grid at Bahrain on the weekend of April 15, 2007, where an obviously well-heeled bidding pool (including Bernie Ecclestone, who already owns a genuine Auto Union Typ C with the right numbers, so why not a pair?) will all be gathered for the Grand Prix?

Ecclestone himself confirmed to autosport.com that he owned a genuine Auto Union Typ C, rebuilt by Crostwaite & Gardiner. And, when asked if he would be interested in the Auto Union Typ D, he replied: "If the car offered by Christie is in Bahrain, I would certainly try to buy it."

So, what do we learn from all this? We learn that the winning bidder of this Auto Union, whoever it is and whenever it is sold, will own a magnificent piece of automotive and motor racing history, even if the car on auction did not win both the 1939 French and 1939 Belgrade Grands Prix, as originally thought. That lapse would not bother me a bit.

Think of it this way: the Auto Union Typ D on auction represents nothing less than 75 years of the finest automotive recycling, from old world craftsmen at Auto Union to the new world artistes at C&G, all in the best tradition of the original Auto Union race team.

Auto Union Typ D © Reuters

How so? The actual designers, mechanics and fabricators of these Auto Unions were a resourceful but frugal lot and regularly cannibalized parts from one car or another and re-used certain parts, including the chassis. As Bernie Ecclestone told autosport.com, all these Auto Unions "have been rebuilt, even in the year they were born."

Because of that practice the insistence that we know with absolute certainty that this is chassis No. 19 on auction, and not chassis No. 21, is almost too precious a distinction you would think - although, admittedly, it seems to matter a great deal to certain historians and collectors.

How much does it matter? We will not know until the gavel finally comes down on Auto Union Typ D, chassis No. 19. When the Auto Union on auction was Nuvolari's Belgrade-winning car, it was thought to be worth $15 million by some commentators - and Christie's believes it is the most important collector car ever to come to auction.

After being withdrawn, further researched, re-offered for private bids and then re-offered a second time for public auction by Christie's, it will be interesting to see what the difference in value will be between a vehicle raced by Hans Stuck that finished sixth and a vehicle raced by Nuvolari that finished first. After all, winning is everything in Formula One.

Since it is thought that there were some 50 Auto Unions built between 1934-39 and a mere handful - the official tally is five - have turned up in one form or other over the years, the resolution of the controversy surrounding the Auto Union on auction, chassis No. 19, raises a new mystery: what ever happed to chassis No. 21, the race-winning Nuvolari and HP Muller car?

We now know that it is not the Christie's auction car and it is not the Auto Union Typ D in Audi's hands. It is not amongst the known cars refurbished by Crostwaite & Gardiner. Is it lost forever, or is it, hopefully, still to be found hidden away in a mineshaft in Eastern Europe or in the Ukraine, where the last two Auto Unions were found?

And what about that now famous chassis plate No. 21, stamped on the Auto Union auction car? Indeed, a picture of the chassis plate was featured in the Christie's catalogue redolent of old world 1930's craftsmanship?

Presumably, it is back to the modern Auto-Union factory, Crostwaite & Gardiner, to re-fabricate that chassis plate, changing it back to chassis no.19, leaving the old chassis plate no.21 no place to go except, you guessed it, on auction as a collector's item!