There might be a new date and a new location, but the RM Sotheby’s London sale 2019 boasts a familiarly high-quality catalogue of cars. This year, there’s a definite emphasis on competition cars. 

Spearheading the catalogue is a 2006 Maserati MC12 GT1 that finished second in class and 19th overall at Petit Le Mans in 2007 and is estimated to sell for £1.8–2.3m. Both it and the unraced 2001 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (est. £140,000–180,000) would be welcomed with open arms to the flourishing Masters Endurance Legends series for modern-era GT racers. 

Similarly, with the historic Group C race poised to return to the Circuit de la Sarthe during the 2020 Le Mans Classic, both the 1989 Jaguar XJR-11 that scored three podium finishes in the 1990 World Sportscar Championship (£1.05–1.25m) and the restored Porsche 962C that finished 13th overall at Le Mans in the same year (£1–1.5m) would be fantastic cars with which to compete. 

If single-seaters are more your style, then how about the spectacular (and Classiche-certified) Ferrari 412 T1 from the 1994 Formula 1 season? Serving predominantly as a spare car, it was driven by both Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger throughout the year, the latter finishing second in the Italian Grand Prix. A no-nonsense V12 Formula 1 car from the most prestigious marque on the grid, this Ferrari is expected to sell for £1.4–1.8m. 

You could get a similar experience for significantly less money from either of the pair of Orange-liveried Arrows A21s, which were driven by Pedro de la Rosa during the 2000 season. They weren’t much cop in terms of results, but as hardcore track-day toys go, the Cosworth-powered beauties would certainly separate the boys from the men. 

Rounding out the racers is the Lancia Delta S4 in which Henri Toivonen and Neil Wilson won the 1985 RAC Lombard Rally in Great Britain, the model’s first competitive outing. Recently restored and certified by Abarth’s Classiche department, RM’s given the snarling Group B projectile a pre-sale estimate of £725,000–800,000. 

Naturally, there’s a wonderful selection of road cars offered at Olympia, crowned by a low-mileage Ferrari Enzo (£1.5–1.8m). However, if we were to raise our paddle for any car, it’d be the rare right-hand-drive Maserati Khamsin, which dates to 1976 and has been beautifully recommissioned (£50,000–60,000), the 2016 Noble M600, a modern-day Ferrari F40 with a maroon-tinted carbon-fibre body (£170,000–220,000) or the dark-green Bentley Continental T (£65,000–75,000). 

Photos courtesy of RM Sotheby’s © 2019