Record-breaking Renaults: The Renault Collection Sold!

Event sales on Collecting Cars are fast becoming known for generating a buzz among car enthusiasts like no physical auction can do. The culmination of the 7-day auctions for The Renault Collection saw tens of thousands of views and more than 500 bids. A total of £407,765 was generated from the 12 former Renault UK vehicles, which included yet more world records for Collecting Cars.

The most remarkable sale was that of a stunning Renaultsport Clio 182 Trophy - a car that was dubbed ‘World’s Greatest Hot Hatch’ by Autocar magazine, and ‘Hot Hatch of the Century’ by Pistonheads users. This car was numbered ‘001’, having been run as a press car by Renault UK before joining its heritage fleet. With just 16,478 miles on the clock, and freshly serviced in February 2022, this Clio 182 Trophy saw an incredible bidding war in the closing minutes, finally selling with a hammer price of £45,250 - a new world record for the model by a vast margin.

In much the same vein, a former Renaultsport Megane R26.R press car was also on offer (number 001 of just 159 UK-market cars delivered), as seen on the Top Gear TV show when driven by both Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. This R26.R had excellent maintenance history and had covered just 12,458 miles from new. It attracted huge interest on the platform, and sold for a record price of £38,750.

Following on from Collecting Cars’ world record price of £90,000 for a Renault Clio V6 in rare Acid Yellow, the former Renault UK press car finished in Liquid Gold came tantalisingly close to beating it - selling for £87,654 on the night.

Even the mainstream classics found strong bidding, with a pristine Renault 4 GTL receiving a winning bid of £18,250, and a time-warp 21,717-mile Renault 5 GTL fetching £9,250.

The cars sold were almost exclusively very low-mileage and highly original examples, with the older models having previously been acquired to join the Renault UK heritage collection with typically only one or two previous owners.

The Renault Collection marked the first ‘event’ sale of 2022 for Collecting Cars, and the team expects to host many more throughout the year. In fact, a new initiative called ‘Supercar Sunday’ is already live, bringing together remarkable high-performance vehicles from around the world, which will all close for bids on Sunday 20 March. Several other major collection sales are being prepared, ready to launch this spring.