British motor racing legend Nigel Mansell's personal collection of racing memorabilia will be auctioned at Sotheby's from 4th-11th October. One lot caught our eye. The auction of his personal number plate 5 NM.
Update: 10/10/2023
Nigel Mansell's 5 NM personal registration sold at the Sotheby's auction on 10th October 2023. The registration, with its famous provenance, performed well and achieved a hammer price of £50,400. With auctioneer's fee and VAT added to the hammer price, the purchaser would have spent £62,496 in total.
Champion
Although his last season as a Formula One driver was in 1995, Nigel Mansell remains one of the UK's greatest racing drivers. With 31 F1 wins, Mansell comes second only to Lewis Hamilton in terms of the number of victories by a British driver.
In 1993, while he was the reigning Formula One Champion, Mansell suddenly retired from F1 and began racing in America Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). He won his first season at CART, becoming the only driver to hold both the F1 and CART titles at the same time. He returned to Formula One from 1994 - 1995 before retiring permanently.
Mementos of a career
Mansell has owned houses and businesses in Britain, the Channel Islands and the USA. He had a museum of his racing memorabilia in St Helier on Jersey, but he closed the collection in 2019 in order to accommodate a business. Mansell has now decided to auction off the collection of items from the museum, and quite a collection it is.
The sale, which will be conducted online by Sotheby's, will offer 330 very varied items, all of which will go under the hammer from 4-11 October 2023. Racing helmets, baseball caps, racing suits and other attire, steering wheels, motorcycles, trophies and awards will all be sold without reserve. Bearing in mind the huge popularity of Formula One, the auction is expected to attract a great deal of interest from racing fans.
A winning plate?
Naturally, the lot that caught our attention was Nigel's 5 NM private registration. As we have already said, no reserves are being set for lots in this auction, but Sotheby's guide price for 5 NM is £30,000 - £60,000.
We consider the lower end of that estimate plausible, but the upper end is, perhaps, a little ambitious. If the plate does achieve that kind of price, it will be largely due to its association with Mr Mansell. That history will not be hard for the new owner to prove, should they subsequently sell the plate on, as its provenance has been widely reported in the news and, of course, now in this article. How much of a boost it gets from that association may depend on getting at least a couple of Formula One or Nigel Mansell fans among the bidders.
Regtransfers can neither confirm nor deny whether or not we will be among those bidders.
The Regtransfers number plate auction
Auctions are a great option when it comes to buying and selling number plates. Buyers can often find bargains, while sellers enjoy the benefits of quick sales and possibly of competing bidders driving up their profit.
The Regtransfers number plate auction is a purpose-built, specialist platform for buyers and sellers of private registrations. It is secure and backed up by Regtransfers 40 years of experience as the UK's leading independent private plates supplier.
Original image 'Nigel Mansell 1991 United States' by 'Wileynorwichphoto' licenced under CC by 2.0
