| A record price for a car sold at auction was achieved at the Bonhams Goodwood Revival
Meeting Sale on 3 September. It was the second most expensive car ever sold, at £4,180,000. The star
car was a 1929 7.1-litre Mercedes-Benz 38/250 SSK, belonging to the late George Milligen.
On offer was one of the last great pioneering English country gentleman's private collections of cars. The George Milligen Collection Sale - comprising some thirty-eight individual cars, plus steam and marine engines and
automobilia - included a remarkable cross-section of long-time privately-preserved classics from such
renowned marques as Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Delage, Hispano-Suiza, Sunbeam, Ford and
Fiat backed by further supreme quality rarities from the Motor Manufacturing Company (a 19th century
veteran car), Sizaire-Berwick, Excelsior, Armstrong-Whitworth, Windsor and Sava.
George Milligen's much-loved 1929 7.1-litre supercharged Mercedes-Benz 38/250 SSK was bought by
him in 1940 and had been preserved within his very private Collection, away from public
gaze, for no fewer than the past sixty-four years! George Milligen - who died aged 94 - was one of a distinguished
group of pioneering motor car collectors whose activities began in the 1920s. |
