Lewis Hamilton’s father has quietly built a garage worth more than £3 million, and now the whole thing is going up for sale. Anthony Hamilton, 66, is putting 27 cars from his private collection under the hammer next month, and the lineup reads like a love letter to British motoring. The man whose son holds more Formula One race wins than anyone alive turns out to have been collecting his own kind of trophy all along.
The sale leans hard into homegrown machinery. Of the 27 cars heading to auction, 23 were built in the UK, with the rest made up of three Mercedes models and a single Eighties BMW saloon. For anyone who loves the golden era of British car building, this is the sort of catalogue that does not come around often.
The Half-Million-Pound Headliner
The star of the collection is a Jaguar XJ220 showing just 3,800 miles, backed by a fully documented service history. That car alone is expected to sell for around half a million pounds. It is the kind of figure that puts the rest of the sale in perspective before you even get to the other lots.
Right behind it sits a recreation of Jaguar’s ultra-rare XKSS, valued at £375,000. Together those two cars anchor a sale that is heavy on Jaguar heritage. Hamilton Senior clearly has a thing for the big cat, and the catalogue makes no attempt to hide it.
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A Jaguar Collection Within the Collection
The Jaguar presence runs deep. There are two C-type continuation cars in the mix, each expected to fetch £225,000. The first is a replica of the legendary XKC001 that won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1951, while the second mirrors XKC003, the car Stirling Moss and Norman Dewis ran in the 1952 Mille Miglia and the one that first showed the world what disc brakes could do.
Three E-Types round out the Jaguar lineup. Two are close-to-production 1967 Series 1 roadsters fitted with the 4.2-litre engine, valued at £100,000 each. The third is a Series 3 V12 finished in Heather, a rare shade when new and a sought-after one now, expected to bring £60,000 at the close of bidding.
The Mercedes Connection That Makes Sense
It is no shock that Mercedes shows up in force here, given Lewis spent 12 years driving for the brand before his jump to Ferrari last year. Anthony’s three-pointed-star lots are led by a 1960 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL in white over navy, carrying a guide price of up to £120,000. That car has the kind of timeless look that always finds buyers.
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The rest of the Mercedes group ties neatly to the family’s racing years. There is a 2013 C63 AMG Edition 507 expected to sell for £38,000, owned during his son’s dominant Mercedes-AMG Petronas run. There is also a 1989 300SL, once owned by heavyweight boxer Billy Walker, estimated at £50,000.
Aston Martins, Triumphs, and a Fleet of Minis
Aston Martin gets three entries, all in concours condition. A 1982 Lagonda and a 1970s Series 3 V8 are each pegged at £100,000, joined by a rare 1990s V8 Coupe at £65,000. The Lagonda in particular has aged into one of the coolest retro shapes the brand ever produced.
The Triumph contingent is led by an Italia, one of only 330 built between 1959 and 1962, estimated at £100,000. Alongside it is a TR5 believed to be the only surviving prototype, returned to its experimental specification and expected to draw up to £90,000. Two Spitfires fill out the Triumph lineup with guide prices of £22,000 and £24,000.
The Mini fans are not left out either. The collection includes every high-value 1960s Cooper S variant, the 970 S, 1071 S, and 1275 S, ranging from £35,000 to £38,000. There is also a pair of David Brown Mini Remastered builds expected to pull around £80,000 each, plus a 2016 David Brown Speedback GT in British Racing Green. That last one, built on a Jaguar XKR platform and one of just 100 made, should sell for £240,000, well below the £600,000-plus it cost new.
Where It All Goes Down
The entire collection crosses the block on Saturday, July 25, during the British Racing Drivers Club’s Classic weekend at Silverstone. Iconic Auctioneers is running the sale, and specialist Lionel Abbott described the group as a curated set with real depth and a clear passion for characterful British motoring. Selling these cars at Silverstone, alongside the stretch of track named the Hamilton Straight, is about as fitting a send-off as a collection like this could get.
The bigger story here is what gets revealed when a collection this personal goes public. These are not flipped investments bought to be sold. This is one man’s taste laid out in full, and somebody is about to walk away with pieces of a family history that happens to run right through the heart of British car culture.
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Images Via: Iconic Auctioneers
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