Bought for just £115, the Norfolk car expected to sell for £180,000 at auction

The 1920 Vauxhaull E-type 30-98, which was bought for £115 and is expected to sell for £150,000 at auction. Picture: Supplied (Image: Archant)

The 1920 Vauxhall E-type 30-98 has been put up for sale by Happisburgh-based Murray Ferguson, whose brother Ian Ferguson bought the car on June 30 1952.

The car, which has languished in Norfolk for the last 60 years, is particularly rare and valuable because it is one of only around 30 of these early sidevalve 30-98s known to have survived.

It is also one of only two surviving examples with this type of coachwork, made by Grosvenor Carriage Co.Ltd, of Kilburn, London.

Nic Portway, Suffolk-based author of the definitive book Vauxhall 30-98, The Finest Of Sporting Cars, said: 'About thirty of the early sidevalve 30-98s survive worldwide, so yes this is a fairly rare survivor.

'The Grosvenor–built two seater was considered by Vauxhalls as the standard two-seat coachwork for the 30-98 hp model.

'The car's virtue is the fact that nobody has modified it and it is in substantially original condition and in good order.'

Mr Ferguson's 30-98 is now set to fetch between £150,000 and £180,000 at a Bonhams auction at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu Hampshire, on Saturday, September 6.

Auctioneer Bonhams said: 'Although the complete history of this car is not known, it was first registered in Westmorland and it is believed that in its early days it was owned by the Lings family of Bollington, Cheshire.'

Around 1930, it was passed into the ownership of Mr Jeffreys and serving King and Country in World War Two, being requisitioned for service with the Home Guard in its native north country.

In 1952, it was bought by Mr Ferguson for £115. Since then, it has scarcely travelled outside of the Nofolk boundaries.

Do you have an unusual story for us? Contact reporter Lauren Cope on Lauren.cope@archant.co.uk