It’s any car lover’s favourite conundrum: what would the perfect two car garage would look like with a sub-1.5-million-dollar budget? The logical among us may opt for a fifty-fifty split, claiming perhaps a Ferrari SF90 for the weekend and a Rolls-Royce Spectre to effortlessly waft around running errands. However, while trawling through Broad Arrow Auctions’ ever-impressive lineup of drop-dead gorgeous classics and supercars, we stumbled upon perhaps the greatest duo we never knew we needed, both sporting almost identical colour schemes.
We’ll start with the dinky daily driver, which would take up just a fraction of the imaginary budget we’ve allocated you. Before the Civic became a household name around the world, Honda’s first forays into the four-wheeled export market was the "N", a two-door sedan and the sportier "Z", a hatchback like the one you see before you. Equipped with an air-cooled, straight-twin motorcycle engine with a four-speed manual transmission, this delightfully small creation could rev to an amazing 9,000 rpm, rivalling that of just about any supercar worth ten-times its value!
This particular example is from 1974 and is finished in the vibrant Pop Orange, with a black interior. It’s one of just 918 examples sold to the European market, allowing this Z600 to be free of the U.S.-mandated chrome front grille bar and side markers, providing a silky-smooth design that its American market sibling could only ever dream of. It spent its early days with owners in France and Germany, before being purchased in 1976 by the owner of a Honda dealership. In 1995, he decided he wanted to keep the car as the perfect eye-catcher for his showroom and decommissioned it from public use, where it would stay until his passing, before being purchased by the current owner in 2023. Despite being 51 years old, the car’s paint and interior is believed to be original, which would make sense due to just 41,141 kilometres showing on the odometer. With European and American collectors' admiration for Japanese icons of the 1970s through to the early 2000s showing no sign of waning, this Z600 stands as a well-preserved and authentic example of Honda's early craftsmanship and a true collector’s item.
Now for something entirely different, sporting what is an almost identical colour combination to the loveable Honda. In 2006, Mercedes-Benz would honour Sir Stirling Moss and navigator Denis Jenkinson as they roared out of Brescia in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR at precisely 7:22 am on 1 May 1955. They dominated the 1,000-mile Mille Miglia, averaging an astonishing 97 mph over more than 10 hours of non-stop driving, creating a true unrepeatable moment in motorsport history, and the chance for two powerhouses to join forces and create the SLR 722.
Mercedes-Benz and McLaren truly got everything right with the 722 Edition SLR. Limited to just 150 hand-built units, the car embodied the spirit of the original Silver Arrow while embracing 21st-century engineering. Two years after its release, the SLR McLaren 722 S Roadster entered the world, bringing the special-edition formula to the open-air segment. It matched the coupe's 650 horsepower output and hit 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds, with a blistering top speed of 208 mph. Like its fixed-roof counterpart, it featured refined suspension tuning, sharper aerodynamics, and distinctive design cues.
This vibrant example is in fact the final SLR Roadster ever produced and holds the unique significance of being the only example ever finished in McLaren Orange. The vivacious choice of colour speaks to both the historical connection of Mercedes-Benz and their C111 experimental research cars, as well as the competition McLarens that graced the world's racetracks throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The car didn’t leave the factory, as it was retained by McLaren Special Operations for promotional work in addition to testing and development for bespoke upgrades that could be ordered on existing SLRs. Now showing just 7,200 miles from new, this is in fact the first time the car has ever been publicly offered for sale, and is a true piece of modern history for both Mercedes-Benz and McLaren!