The Mitsubishi Motors heritage auction drew to a close on the evening of April 30, 2021 and, after values had climbed steady throughout the month of April, there was a flurry of last minute action as the auction deadline for each lot approached.
Unsurprisingly, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI Tommi Mäkinen Edition was the most sought-after car in the auction, with a top bid of £100,100 setting what is a record hammer price for a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (previously around £99,000 for a delivery-mileage Evo IX set in the US in 2017).
Close behind was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR FQ-360 by HKS which eventually sold for £68,900, likely to be the third highest-value Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ever sold at auction.
The Lancer Evolution X, number 40 of 40 of the final batch of FQ-440 MR special editions, the last official “Evo” sold in the UK, went under the hammer for £58,100, while the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX Group N Works Rally Car – the two-time championship-winner driven by Guy Wilkes and co-driven by Phil Pugh – sold for £61,700. Between them, the four Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions accounted for 60% of the total amount generated by the heritage fleet auction.
The rest of the heritage fleet also performed extremely well with all of the vehicles achieving exceptionally strong values. The Mk1 Colt Lancer 1.4 Standard 2-Door, the first Mitsubishi registered in the UK, sold for £15,000 with its stablemate, the Colt Galant 2000 GLII, selling for £11,600. The equally unique Mitsubishi Galant GLSi rally replica sold for £12,500, another vehicle whose value was not only a reflection of its condition and mechanical health but also its provenance and historical significance for the brand.
The rare, pristine and completely original Mk1 Mitsubishi Shogun sold for £16,000, while the even rarer Mitsubishi Jeep J27 attracted a top bid of £20,600. Not so rare but equally as spotless, the Mk2 Shogun V6 SWB sold for a healthy £9,600 while the newest vehicles on the fleet, the 2015 Outlander PHEV and the L200 Desert Warrior, attracted top bids of £16,000 and £30,100 respectively.
The brand’s iconic supercars, the Mitsubishi Starion and Mitsubishi 3000GT, both in exceptional condition, sold for £21,100 and £24,500 respectively, record values for both vehicles in a UK auction.
Amongst the private number plates sold at auction, the four-character plates ending in CCC all performed extremely well, with 1 CCC topping £24,000 and all nine places (1-9 CCC) topping £121,700 in total. Another coveted registration, P1HEV, attracted a top bid of £4,500.
Last, but certainly not least, the 7/10th working replica of a 1917 Mitsubishi Model A, the first ever vehicle produced by Mitsubishi, sold for £13,700 undoubtedly a world record for 7/10 scale Mitsubishi Model A models.
In total, the auction generated £627,100 and attracted a total of 1,287 bids across all 51 lots.
Mitsubishi Motors in the UK Operations Director, Paul Bridgen, who was previously General Manager at the company’s RalliArt division and Team Principal when Wilkes and Pugh won their back-to-back British Rally Championships, commented: “These vehicles represent not only a huge part of Mitsubishi’s heritage and history in the UK, they are also very special vehicles in their own right. They each have a unique story to tell and they have been cherished and cared for from the day we acquired them. I have overseen the development of some of these vehicles personally so it is difficult to say goodbye to them but the values they have achieved assures me that they will all go to enthusiastic new owners who understand the provenance and importance of these cars and who will cherish them and preserve them for future generations.”
The new Mitsubishi range is available to order now from Mitsubishi showrooms and via Mitsubishi Motors’ Buy Online service: mitsubishi-motors.co.uk/buy
