Classic and historic sports and racing car dealer Tom Hartley Jnr has been appointed by by Bernie Ecclestone to sell his collection of historic Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars.
Ecclestone, 94, who was for decades the commercial rights holder of Formula 1, built up his collection of 69 historic Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars.
The cars have been stored away in some cases for more than half a century.
Many of the cars have never been seen since Ecclestone purchased them. Highlights are Ferraris raced in Formula 1 Grands Prix by World Champions Mike Hawthorn, Niki Lauda, and Michael Schumacher, and Brabhams raced in Formula 1 Grands Prix by aces such as Nelson Piquet, Carlos Pace, and, again, Niki Lauda, among them the one-off Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46B ‘fan car’, which raced only once, victoriously, to win the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp in 1978 by more than half a minute.
Ecclestone said:“I have been collecting these cars for more than 50 years, and I have only ever bought the best of any example. Whilst many other collectors over the years have opted for sports cars, my passion has always been for Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars.
“A Grand Prix and in particular a Formula 1 car is far more important than any road car or other form of race car, as it is the pinnacle of the sport, and all the cars I have bought over the years have fantastic race histories and are rare works of art.
Hartley Jnr said: “This is quite simply the most important race car collection in the world. There has never been and probably never will be a collection like it ever offered for sale again.
“The highlight of the collection has to be the Ferraris. Bernie has assembled a collection of Ferrari Formula 1 cars that today would be near-impossible to repeat.
“There is the famous Thin Wall Special, which was the first Ferrari to ever beat Alfa Romeo, the Alberto Ascari Italian Grand Prix-winning 375 F1, the Mike Hawthorn World Championship-winning Dino which Ferrari campaigned over three seasons before it was donated to the Henry Ford Museum, plus historically significant World Championship-winning Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher cars.