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18/02/2013
Small Cars, Big Prices: RM's $9.1m Bruce Weiner Collection sale


INCLUDES FULL RESULTS. We are used to multi-million-dollar sales, but here’s one with a (tiny) twist. Over two days, RM Auctions sold every single lot of the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum catalogue. Grossing $9.1m, many of the individual items achieved staggering figures – USD 322,000 for a 1958 F.M.R. Tg 500 'Tiger', anyone?

It was as if aliens, having monitored the inexorable rise of collectors’ car prices on Earth, had decided to land in Madison, Georgia, and buy up anything ‘classic’ that wasn’t physically bolted to the floor.

Except that for ‘Ferrari’ substitute ‘Heinkel’, ‘Messerschmitt’ or ‘Goggomobil’. Not so long ago, USD 322,000 would have bought you a pretty decent Ferrari ‘Daytona’, '73 Carrera RS or Aston Martin DB5. Last Saturday, someone wanted the only example in 'rose' of Fritz Fend’s four-wheeled bubble car (the 1958 F.M.R. Tg 500 'Tiger', top) so much that they bid that sum for it in less than 10 minutes.



Other monstrous figures for miniscule machinery included USD 184,000 for the bizarre French 1951 Reyonnah (below) with its folding front wheels that enabled it to be stored in front gardens (or even inside a house) and the very rare 1958 Goggomobil TL-400 Transporter in 'PEZ' livery (above), a small commercial vehicle which made USD 172,500.



Do have a look at the results and boggle. And what this means for the market as a whole, who knows.

We can’t help feeling that the ‘meteor’ that caused such a stir in Russia last weekend was too much of a coincidence. It was, in truth, the discarded booster rockets of our little green friends returning to the planet Thrarg, 542 lots of microcar-mobilia to the better.

RM Auctions Bruce Weiner Collection, 15-16 February 2013: Top Twenty Results

Lot No. Motor Car Price USD
603 1958 F.M.R. Tg 500 'Tiger' 322,000
594 1951 Reyonnah 184,000
613 1958 Goggomobil TL-400 Transporter 'PEZ' 172,500
590 1955 Inter 175A Berline 161,000
297 1959 Goggomobil TL-400 Transporter Pickup 'Coca-Cola' 138,000
563 1963 Goggomobil TL-250 Transporter 'Dubble Bubble' 132,250
623 1955 Fuji Cabin 126,500
258 1964 Peel P50 120,750
595 1955 Messerschmitt KR 200 'Vic Hyde' 115,000
564 1957 Messerschmitt KR 201 Roadster 103,500
259 1957 Jurisch Motoplan Prototype 103,500
587 1966 Peel Trident 103,500
284 1956 Paul Vallée 98,900
561 1957 Iso Isettacarro 97,750
298 1962 Messerschmitt KR 200 Service Car 94,875
311 1958 BMW 600 92,000
251 1959 Messerschmitt KR 200 Sport 92,000
269 1963 Goggomobil TL-250 Transporter 'Krispy Kreme' 92,000
584 1959 BMW Isetta 'Whatta Drag' 92,000
249 1956 BMW Isetta 'Bubble Window' Cabrio 89,700

Related links

RM Auctions Bruce Weiner Collection, 15-16 February 2013: Results


Text: Steve Wakefield
Video: RM Auctions
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