In Mallusk, an auctioning company will be selling a large collection of classic cars that used to belong to the ex-President of the East Antrim Old Vehicle Club.
Donald Davies, past president of the club and a classic car aficionado from Glengormley, passed away in November last year. Davies, 72, left behind him a large collection of collectible vintage cars.
The diverse collection comprises of a 1971, VW Karmann Ghia, 1983 DeLorean DMX, 1956 Berkeley Sports Car, 1957 Austin Nash Metropolitan, 1955 Messerschmitt Tri-Cycle Car and a 1956 Bond Mini Car Mark D.
Gavin Harvey from Wilson Auctions, which is currently tasked with the sale of the vehicles, was found commending the unique collection housed by the late Donald Davies.
“The DeLorean Motor Company built their cars in Belfast and it went on to become instantly recognisable after the ‘Back to the Future’ films,” Harvey commented.
“There is also a rare 1962 Messerschmitt Tri-Cycle. Under a post-war ban on aircraft production, Messerschmitt, the German plane manufacturer, turned their attention to manufacturing cars and the Tricycle was a result of this diversification,” Harvey continued.
The auction of the classic cars and motorcycles will be held on Thursday, April 12th. There will be a Live Online Bidding System for buyers who are unable to attend the auction in person. A certain number of classic cars not part of the collection will also be accepted into the auction, subject to the auctioneer’s approval.
In other news, Vauxhall will be opening its Heritage centre on the 22nd April, with a collection of over 70 classic cars from different eras. This means that the Heritage Centre will be part of the prestigious Drive it Day, which is slated to be held on the same day. There’s free entry for everyone and all classic car owners will be given refreshments along with access to the motor giant’s heritage collection, incidentally one of the largest in the UK.
Drive it Day is being organised by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs so as to encourage owners and aficionados to take their classic cars out on the road and celebrate the heritage of motoring spirit from its glory days.
This event started out as a tribute to the Thousand Mile Trial from 1900, where 64 cars had set off from London to promote motor reliability in a three-week reliability test. It will be quite interesting to see how many classic cars show up on the Drive it day to affirm that classic cars are still plentiful on UK roads.
This can only mean well for the bevy of classic car insurance sites, which are looking for more and more business all the time. One can surely expect to see representatives of some of the prominent companies on the Drive it Day, hunting for prospective customers.
