Team Cunningham 24 Hours Of Le Mans Jaguar Lightweight Racer Announced For Bonhams 20Th Anniversary Sale In Carmel

May 16, 2017 by Bonhams

Bonhams is excited to announce a very special leading consignment for a very special anniversary.

This August will be Bonhams' 20th year hosting a collector car auction during the Monterey Peninsula Car Week, and this year's sale promises no shortage of the finest, world-class automobiles.

Consigned to Bonhams' renowned Quail Lodge Auction is the former Team Cunningham 1963 Jaguar E-Type Lightweight Competition Coupe, 24 Hours of Le Mans and Bridgehampton 500 entry.

As the factory effort that year for Jaguar, the Briggs Cunningham team flew the works banner at Le Mans in 1963 where this car – chassis number S850664 – made its appearance as Number 14. Later, Team Cunningham would race it at the Road America 500 and then again at the Bridgehampton 500 where it finished fourth overall. Once retired, the pedigreed racecar was displayed at the Cunningham Museum and, after Mr. Cunningham sold his private collection, was later owned by noted collectors Lord Bamford, Paul Vestey and Campbell McLaren.

Known as the 'GTO killers,' these lightweight competition Jaguar E-Types were faster on most tracks than the fabled Ferrari 250 GTO. As some of the most successful and iconic sports-racing cars ever produced, they are among Britain's most celebrated cars and rarely, if ever, come up for sale. Bonhams has famously auctioned both the world-record Jaguar Lightweight E-Type and Ferrari 250 GTO and can attest to the significance of this machine.

'There are rare, interesting cars, and there are cars that have belonged to rare, interesting people,' says author Richard Holt. 'The Briggs Cunningham Lightweight E-Type scores so heavily on both counts that it is difficult to decide which is more of a star. You could make a good argument either way: the ultra-rare racing thoroughbred versus the all-American hero and entrepreneur. But the truth is that thinking about one without the other makes no sense because the Lightweight E-Type would probably never have existed if it hadn't been for Briggs Swift Cunningham II.'

Featured in many books – indeed, claiming its own chapters – and even made into toy cars, the Team Cunningham #14 Jaguar E-Type is legendary. Genuine, highly original, well documented and eligible for most of the world's great races, rallies and concours events, it is a car of immense distinction.

The Bonhams Quail Lodge Auction will take place, as always, on Friday, August 18th at Quail Lodge in Carmel, California. Hosted in conjunction with The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering, and preceding the weekend Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Bonhams' annual auction is a fixture on the global classic car calendar.

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Entries of special collectors' cars are now being invited for consignment to this anticipated sale. Interested parties may contact the Bonhams Motoring Department:

E-mail:motors.us@bonhams.com

West Coast tel. +1 415-391-4000

East Coast tel. +1 212-461-6514