Supercharged Vincent sold by Bonhams for £221,500

A supercharged Vincent Black Lightning sold for £221,500 at the Stafford Show – making it the most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction in the UK.

The 1949 machine, owned by Reg Dearden and modified to allow for an attempt on the land speed record, was sold by Bonhams at The Stafford Show last weekend.

This is the third time in as many months the record has been smashed. In September a Vincent-HRD Series-A Rapide raised £201,000, crushing the record set just moments before by a 1927 Zenith-JAP Championship Motorcycle Combination, which sold for £180000.

Ben Walker, Bonhams motorcycle specialist, said: “It is amazing – just incredible that the record has been broken again. This bike has been bought by an anonymous collector.”

Despite becoming the most expensive bike ever sold, it only scraped in at the bottom end of its guide price, which was £220,000 to £340,000.

A number of other lots at the sale, including Mick Grants works Ducati Formula 750 and a Supercharged DKW from 1937 failed to sell.

Walker said: “It was an interesting sale, which raised £1.12m all together. 77% of the lots were sold and as usual the British bikes and vintage models did extremely well.”

The highlights of the sale were a 1936 Norton International Model 40 built to Manx racing specification which raised £37,700, a 1902 Raleigh motorcycle which sold for three times more than its guide price at £29,900 and a 2007 Confederate B120 Wraith which reached £38,900.

original story here; Supercharged Vincent is expected to fetch around £280,000 at Bonhams' auction