Rare vintage car that belonged to British Army spy & sat gathering dust for 40 YEARS sells in auction for £37k

A VINTAGE spy car that sat successful a barn for 40 years gathering particulate has sold for an eye-watering sum.

The uncommon open-top 1952 220 Type A Cabriolet Mercedes-Benz was erstwhile owned by a British spy.

The spy's open-top car sold for £37,000 with a windscreen damaged successful a riot aft protestors threw rocks astatine it portion it was driven by a British Army worker serving successful the Intelligence Corps.

He bought the car successful Germany successful 1960 astatine a clip of Iron Curtain hostility and took it to Cyprus wherever it was attacked 2 years later.

The worker and his woman spent a period driving it location done Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Holland and Belgium.

Auctioneers Reeman Dansie said: "It has been stored ever since with the motor periodically turned implicit to marque definite it stays free.

"It is simply a fantastic accidental to bargain a wholly archetypal precise dependable restoration task with precise coagulated bodywork.

"The doors inactive unopen similar a harmless and it has a fabulous history. This eventual barn find is present awaiting its adjacent adventure."

The achromatic car with greenish leather upholstery was sold successful Colchester, Essex. The serviceman has died.

It came with an extended postulation of uncommon documents, including the archetypal German 1952 logbook dated the 13 December 1952 listing 2 erstwhile owners, the 1960 measure of sale, and related documents.

It is understood the car was taken disconnected the roadworthy successful in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, an ultra-rare classical creation deco Bentley fitted with a hand-wound timepiece could beryllium yours for a whopping £300,000. 

The Bentley Mark VI, the lone 1 among 4,000 to person its coachwork completed by Mulliners of Birmingham, a renowned British coachbuilder from Bordesley Green, underwent a large paintwork alteration successful 2010.

This Drophead Foursome Coupé features a 4.5-litre (4.6) six-cylinder engine.

The exemplary was commissioned by Sir John Black, managing manager of Standard-Triumph (The Standard Motor Company Limited), a car shaper founded in Coventry, England, successful 1903.

The Bentley features reddish fell upholstery with grey piping and Art Deco-inspired doorway cards.

A hand-wound clock, mounted connected the glovebox supra a concealed instrumentality kit tray, was besides retained.

The car is present being auctioned disconnected by RM Sotheby’s in London with an asking terms of a whopping £300,000.

“This is an exquisite two-door Mark VI Drophead presented successful three-tone grey implicit reddish hide,” reads the listing.

“It features unsocial coachwork; the sole Mark VI bodied by Mulliners of Birmingham.

“The car is simply a aggregate grant victor and was exhibited successful the post-war Touring people astatine the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

It follows a 120-year-old ultra-rare sports car that went up for auction with a genuinely eye-watering terms tag.

The vintage centrifugal includes leather seats, broadside and rear brass oil lights, and adjacent a woody steering wheel.

This rarely-seen Rochet-Schneider centrifugal from 1904 has been listed astatine auction for a chill £690,000 - and it comes with an unthinkable backstory.

Produced by Rochet-Schneider, a French institution established successful 1889, the car was primitively sold successful 1904 in France and is fig 45 of the 215 units manufactured that year.

It was past imported to the UK successful 1967, wherever it was owned and cherished by a fistful of classical car enthusiasts, including Denis Wright and Peter Agg, arsenic good arsenic the Tierra Blanca Collection.