Classic and historic sports and racing car dealer Tom Hartley Jnr has been appointed by Bernie Ecclestone to sell his incredible collection of historic Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars.
Words: Wilhelm Lutjeharms
Images: Supplied
Tom Hartley Jnr probably needs no introduction to petrolheads. He is one of the most respected and well-connected, classic and historic sports and racing car dealers in the world. Research him on YouTube and you will find that already from a very young age his father assisted him in clinching car deals.
He eventually broke away from the family business and started his own dealership. To date, he has sold some of the world's most significant road and race cars.
Nevertheless, when the call came from Bernie Ecclestone to sell his 69-strong Grand Prix and Formula 1 car collection, even Hartley must have nearly fallen off his chair.
The collection
What partly makes this collection of cars so impressive, is that it constitutes only Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars. Secondly, some of these cars have not been seen for years or, more often than not, in decades.
Ecclestone (94) had the following to say about his collection. “I have been collecting these cars for more than 50 years, and I have only ever bought the best of any example. Whilst many other collectors over the years have opted for sports cars, my passion has always been for Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars.”
“A Grand Prix and in particular a Formula 1 car is far more important than any road car or other form of race car, as it is the pinnacle of the sport, and all the cars I have bought over the years have fantastic race histories and are rare works of art.
“I love all of my cars but the time has come for me to start thinking about what will happen to them should I no longer be here, and that is why I have decided to sell them. After collecting and owning them for so long, I would like to know where they have gone and not leave them for my wife to deal with should I not be around.
“Having collected what are the best and most original Formula 1 cars dating back to the start of the sport, I have now decided to move them on to new homes that will treat them as I have and look after them as precious works of art.”
The highlights
Understandably Tom Hartley is excited to be able to handle the sale of these cars. “This is quite simply the most important race car collection in the world. There has never been and probably never will be a collection like it ever offered for sale again. The collection spans 70 years of Grand Prix and Formula 1 racing, and highlights include Mike Hawthorn, Niki Lauda, and Michael Schumacher World Championship-winning Ferraris, all of Bernie’s Brabhams including the famous ‘fan car’, and the Vanwall VW10, the car in which the great Stirling Moss won several Formula 1 Grands Prix on the way to Vanwall clinching the first-ever Formula 1 Constructors’ World Championship in 1958, plus so much more.”
“But, for me, the highlight of the collection has to be the Ferraris. Bernie has assembled a collection of Ferrari Formula 1 cars that today would be near-impossible to repeat. There is the famous Thin Wall Special, which was the first Ferrari to ever beat Alfa Romeo, the Alberto Ascari Italian Grand Prix-winning 375 F1, the Mike Hawthorn World Championship-winning Dino which Ferrari campaigned over three seasons before it was donated to the Henry Ford Museum, plus historically significant World Championship-winning Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher cars."
He ended by stating: “This collection is the history of Formula 1.”