Grand prix history up for grabs

The veil has been pulled back and finally Bernie Ecclestone is selling his glorious grand prix and F1 car collection. Damien Smith sifts through the mindboggling highlights with a helping hand from Bill Boddy and Denis Jenkinson

- Damien Smith, Bill Boddy and Denis Jenkinson

So it’s finally happening. We always wondered when it might. Bernie Ecclestone is selling off his cherished and unspeakably precious grand prix and Formula 1 car collection – arguably the greatest such ever brought together and a living history of motor racing as well as a timeline of its owners’ passion for and involvement in motor sport.

The news of the sale came on a Sunday evening in December, mischievously timed to coincide with the penultimate race of the current F1 season. But while the world’s media salivated over the supposed value of the collection (speculation varied wildly from £100m to £500m), Motor Sport was invited to visit the secure hanger in Biggin Hill to see the collection in the flesh – the only publication to merit the privilege.

The hanger itself is nondescript and offers no clue as to the riches that lie inside. Security is tight – we must access the airfield through two specially designated gates. Inside the vast hanger – far bigger than it looks in the pictures – the cars are neatly lined up in serried rows, the Brabhams at the back, the Ferraris forming a red phalanx at the front. Two helpers push our requested cars into position for our photoshoot. Afterwards they will be returned to their exact spots in the formation, marked out with tape stuck on the polished concrete floor. You know Bernie: everything is exact.

Specialist car dealer Tom Hartley Jnr has been anointed with what is surely the job of his lifetime: to sell all 69 cars, from a collection that spans the pre-war years to the early 21st century.