LONDON -- London auction houses are revving up in pursuit of a booming new market as motor racing fans queue up to pay world record prices for Formula One memorabilia.
Helmets, overalls and steering wheels used by prominent racing drivers past and present are attaining what one motoring magazine called "gobsmacking prices."
With the late 1980s boom in classic cars no more than a fond memory, the auctioneers are turning their attention to the property of drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio.
At a sale in London last month, the overalls Senna wore in his first Formula One race for the Toleman team in Monaco in 1984, when he finished an impressive second in a race stopped by rain, fetched a record $42,140.
A pair of racing gloves worn by the late triple world champion during the 1987 season fetched $4,123 and a race helmet he used in 1982 went for $46,862.
Senna fan Peter Radcliffe, who bought the Shoei helmet, said afterwards that this was an ambition he was "overjoyed" to achieve.
Other observers have been surprised that race enthusiasts and collectors are prepared to pay such prices for items with little intrinsic value.
Apart from the glamorous items associated with big-name drivers, there is also a market in engine parts, pit passes, helmet visors and pieces of race car bodywork.
Motoring journalist Richard Hudson-Evans, writing in Classic Cars magazine, said: "It's a funny old world when bits and pieces make considerably more than complete and working cars."
At a London sale last September, a white, peaked helmet used by 1950s British driver Stirling Moss fetched $43,113.
That kind of money would have paid for a low-mileage, 1959 Jaguar XK150 fixed-head sports model which went under the hammer at a rival auction house for $35,514.
An important difference between buying Moss's helmet and giving a new home to a temperamental classic car is that the helmet can grace a display cabinet without costing thousands in maintenance and restoration costs.
Experts trace the latest surge in prices of motor racing memorabilia back to the death of Senna at the San Marino grand prix at Imola in 1994.
Many race fans regard the Brazilian, who won 41 grand prix races, as arguably the greatest racing driver of all time. They are prepared to pay large sums to acquire anything he owned or used and this has in turn pushed up demand for the property of other drivers.
"In the last couple of years since the death of Ayrton Senna people have identified more collecting opportunities in motor racing," said Peter Card of auctioneers Brooks.
Card rates anything to do with Senna as immediately saleable, with Schumacher and British world champion Damon Hill close behind, especially where younger collectors are concerned. The best prices are realized by items used by a driver in a race, preferably a significant milestone in his career, so an authentication note from the driver or racing team is important, Card said.
Some drivers will sign helmets, gloves and steering wheels they have used with the aim of selling them on behalf of charities they support.
Items belonging to older drivers are popular with middle-aged fans who visited circuits when they were schoolboys and now find they can afford to treat themselves to Fangio's race trousers or one of Graham Hill's distinctive black helmets, painted with the white bars of the London Rowing Club.
Older helmets are rarer, because drivers tended to keep them for a long time. Improving safety standards mean modern drivers keep changing their helmets. "They get through quite a few," said Card.
There are also buyers for replica helmets, decorated by the same specialist painters who supply the race helmets, but these will never be as valuable as the real thing, with the stone chips and scratches of the track still to be seen.
History is what matters, preferably if there is a good story attached.
Next February, Sotheby's will be selling the library, archive and other memorabilia of British driver Innes Ireland, a former paratrooper who competed for Lotus in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Among the lots will be a bent steering wheel retrieved from the wreckage when he crashed at Seattle. It was for several years used as a door handle at the now defunct Steering Wheel Club, a London haunt of racing drivers and fans.
--Reuters
Helmets, overalls and steering wheels used by prominent racing drivers past and present are attaining what one motoring magazine called "gobsmacking prices."
With the late 1980s boom in classic cars no more than a fond memory, the auctioneers are turning their attention to the property of drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio.
At a sale in London last month, the overalls Senna wore in his first Formula One race for the Toleman team in Monaco in 1984, when he finished an impressive second in a race stopped by rain, fetched a record $42,140.
A pair of racing gloves worn by the late triple world champion during the 1987 season fetched $4,123 and a race helmet he used in 1982 went for $46,862.
Senna fan Peter Radcliffe, who bought the Shoei helmet, said afterwards that this was an ambition he was "overjoyed" to achieve.
Other observers have been surprised that race enthusiasts and collectors are prepared to pay such prices for items with little intrinsic value.
Apart from the glamorous items associated with big-name drivers, there is also a market in engine parts, pit passes, helmet visors and pieces of race car bodywork.
Motoring journalist Richard Hudson-Evans, writing in Classic Cars magazine, said: "It's a funny old world when bits and pieces make considerably more than complete and working cars."
At a London sale last September, a white, peaked helmet used by 1950s British driver Stirling Moss fetched $43,113.
That kind of money would have paid for a low-mileage, 1959 Jaguar XK150 fixed-head sports model which went under the hammer at a rival auction house for $35,514.
An important difference between buying Moss's helmet and giving a new home to a temperamental classic car is that the helmet can grace a display cabinet without costing thousands in maintenance and restoration costs.
Experts trace the latest surge in prices of motor racing memorabilia back to the death of Senna at the San Marino grand prix at Imola in 1994.
Many race fans regard the Brazilian, who won 41 grand prix races, as arguably the greatest racing driver of all time. They are prepared to pay large sums to acquire anything he owned or used and this has in turn pushed up demand for the property of other drivers.
"In the last couple of years since the death of Ayrton Senna people have identified more collecting opportunities in motor racing," said Peter Card of auctioneers Brooks.
Card rates anything to do with Senna as immediately saleable, with Schumacher and British world champion Damon Hill close behind, especially where younger collectors are concerned. The best prices are realized by items used by a driver in a race, preferably a significant milestone in his career, so an authentication note from the driver or racing team is important, Card said.
Some drivers will sign helmets, gloves and steering wheels they have used with the aim of selling them on behalf of charities they support.
Items belonging to older drivers are popular with middle-aged fans who visited circuits when they were schoolboys and now find they can afford to treat themselves to Fangio's race trousers or one of Graham Hill's distinctive black helmets, painted with the white bars of the London Rowing Club.
Older helmets are rarer, because drivers tended to keep them for a long time. Improving safety standards mean modern drivers keep changing their helmets. "They get through quite a few," said Card.
There are also buyers for replica helmets, decorated by the same specialist painters who supply the race helmets, but these will never be as valuable as the real thing, with the stone chips and scratches of the track still to be seen.
History is what matters, preferably if there is a good story attached.
Next February, Sotheby's will be selling the library, archive and other memorabilia of British driver Innes Ireland, a former paratrooper who competed for Lotus in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Among the lots will be a bent steering wheel retrieved from the wreckage when he crashed at Seattle. It was for several years used as a door handle at the now defunct Steering Wheel Club, a London haunt of racing drivers and fans.
--Reuters
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