It raised a staggering £201,000 ($356,000) – smashing the British record earlier held by a 1934 BROUGH SUPERIOR SS100. For its price, you can get 3 Augusta F4CC at £68,000 ($120,000)each or 5 Ducati Desmo RR at £41,000 ($72,500) just for the record.
Anyway, the bikes were part of the private collection of a single man!!! the late vintage motorcycle dealer Brian R Verrall of South London. In all there were 26 bikes which collectively raked in a whooping £1.3m. In fact the Brough Superior record of £166500 was broken twice, that is just before the Vincent went for the hammer, a 1927 Zenith-JAP Championship Motorcycle Combination was sold for £180000. Both the bikes were estimated at £120,000-£150,000. The auction attracted more than 300 bidders along with telephone bidders from around the world.
That the Vincent is The God of Motorcycles (1, 2, 3) is a well known fact, but it proves itself time and again, this is the holy grail of motorcycles. This particular bike is a 1939 model, 998cc V-Twin engine producing 45bhp at 5,500 rpm. It hits a top speeds of 110 mph (178 kmph), making it one of the fastest bikes of its generation. Only 78 of these bikes were produced between 1936 and 1939 and it is estimated of these just 50 survive today.
But the Rolls Royce of motorcycles was not behind. Just after the top two, the third highest bid was on a 1938 Brough Superior SS100 that raised £153000, followed by another Brough Superior SS80 Deluxe , a 1925 model which raised £81000 and yet another Brough Superior Overhead 680 from 1933, which reached £59000.
Source of information and pictures - Motorcycle News
