H&H ‘Rally’ automobilia collectors

Further strengthening their burgeoning reputation for selling collections of rally and race ephemera, H&H Classic Auctions are featuring part of the archives of much-respected rally co-driver Mike Wood in their first sale of the year, at Cheltenham Racecourse on February 28.

Best known for partnering Tony Fall, Rauno Aaltonen and Timo Makinen in international rallies during the 1960s and early 1970s, Mike Wood had works drives for BMC (Mini, Healey 3000), Datsun (240Z), Ford (Escort), BMW (2002) and Opel. His most significant achievements were winning an Alpine Cup with Tony Fall in the Mini Cooper, and victories in the 1966 Scottish, 1967 Geneva, 1968 Austrian Alpine and 1971 Welsh rallies. Mike Wood was also the co-driver of the only Mini ever to finish the Liege-Sofia-Liege – a privately entered, works supported car in 1963.

Within the splendid surrounds of the Centaur Complex at Cheltenham Racecourse, H&H will put a host of Mike Wood items under the hammer, including cups and trophies, rally plaques, rally plates, lapel badges, programmes and regulations booklets, photographs and more. Other rallying memorabilia on offer includes period Ford publicity photographs dating from 1972, signed by Roger Clark and Tony Mason.

H&H automobilia specialist Matthew Kershaw said, “We have been achieving significant success with rally and race memorabilia for some years now, and our notable recent results in this field include selling the archives of both Tony Mason and David Seigle-Morris. We find dealing with such ephemera truly fascinating, as it reveals so much about the characters behind historic motorsport, and we look forward to going from strength to strength in 2007.”

Other offerings

Additional highlights of the February automobilia auction include a beautifully-detailed, 5’6” long, handbuilt single-seater representation of the famous Le Mans Bentleys in the form of a pedal powered child’s car (estimate: £2,800-3,400). This fabulous item, finished in traditional British Racing Green livery with opening side door, No. 7 racing decals, registration plates SJF 777, twin leather bonnet straps and side mounted tax disc holder, will appeal to model collectors and (very lucky) children alike.
Ferrari fans are likely to be enthralled by the limited edition (96/110) portfolio of prints by Antonio De Giusti in a hardback presentation case. The nine colour montages celebrate historic Ferrari F1 world championship victories, including Ascari/500, Fangio/D50, Hawthorn/246, Hill/156, Surtees/158, Lauda/312 T, Lauda/312 T2 and Scheckter/312 T4. All items are signed by the artist, mounted and ready for framing (estimate £450-650).

Finally for now, there is a good selection of original pre-war sales brochures including those for: Mercedes 540K, Mercedes 500K, 1911 Maudslay, 1939 Lagonda 6 and 12 cylinder, 1914 Sheffield-Simplex and 1911 Panhard & Levassor.

On March 1, the day after the automobilia sale, there will be ones for motorcycles, bicycles and cars. For further information on all H&H auctions refer to classic-auctions.com.