Old timer Oldsmobile sets historic benchmark

A 1904 Oldsmobile 5hp Curved Dash Runabout (guide £50,000-£55,000) sets the historic benchmark for a Dorset Vintage and Classic Auctions catalogue that includes a number of early 20^th Century cars. The Oldsmobile successfully completed the latest London-Brighton veteran car run last November and is unusual in its ability to have extra passenger seats added at the rear, making it easy to share this unique experience!

Not long after World War 1, in 1921, the Jouffret Four Seat Tourer (£25,000-£35,000) was built – this car is the only known example of this maker that was in business for just a few years from 1920. This car was found in a French monastery and negotiations for its purchase are understood to have involved a fair quantity of wine! It has undergone extensive restoration in its current ownership.

Suited to a tighter budget but ready to get a new enthusiast owner on the road this summer is the British Racing Green 1976 MG Midget (£4,000-£5,000), an early rubber bumper car featuring the popular 1,500 cc engine that has undergone sympathetic restoration without conversion to chrome bumper format to disguise its origins.

Newer and potentially more affordable is a black 1991 Vauxhall Astra GTE (£2,000-£3,000) a great alternative to hot hatch entry now that warmed-over Fords have prices accelerating at an alarming rate to put them beyond the reach of the thirty-somethings who coveted them when they were teenagers.

The sale is on March 21^st, with automobilia at Noon and the car sale commencing at 2 p.m., at Henstridge Airfield, midway between Shaftesbury and Sherborne, where a new clubhouse has lifted the facilities at the venue first used way back when DVCA held its second sale. Viewing is on Wednesday, March 20^th with no admission charge although the auction is catalogue entry only.