AUCTION PICKS
Long-lost Brucie bonus
Simon de Burton’s sale round-up includes a McLaren Holy Grail and a 007 film star
1961 COOPER ZEREX OLDSMOBILE ‘TRANSFORMER’
SOLD BY BONHAMS, £911,000
As readers will know from our coverage of the historic car last month, this was originally campaigned by Roger Penske in 1962 before becoming the first sports car to be acquired by Bruce McLaren for his fledgling race team the following year. It got its ‘Transformer’ moniker as a result of the seven different engine/body configurations in which it appeared before being sold to Venezuela in 1967 – where it had remained, thought lost. Sold as an almost rolling chassis, the car represented a Herculean restoration project.