A personalised number plate ideal for a Rolls-Royce or Range Rover has sold for £460,000 at an auction held at the Goodwood Revival.
The registration ‘RR 1’ is said to be one of the most desirable private plates in the world, but despite its high price, it didn’t sell for as much expected, with the plate having an estimate between £500,000 and £600,000.
It was previously owned by Bentley, and was the most expensive plate ever sold when it changed hands for £4,800 back in 1968.
‘RR 1’ was sold to an unnamed buyer at the Bonhams auction on Saturday during its annual Goodwood Revival sale. Other star memorabilia included the plate ‘1 EX’, which sold for over £40,000.
The priciest plate ever sold at auction is ‘25 O’, which sold at a government auction in 2014 for £518,000. It’s now registered to an example of Ferrari’s latest hypercar – the LaFerrari.
However, the most expensive plate award goes to ‘F1’ – owned by Afzal Kahn, the founder of Bradford-based car customisation firm Kahn Design. Kahn has reportedly turned down offers in the millions for the lucrative registration.
Private number plates are big business, with the sale of registrations by the DVLA raking in over £160million to the treasury in the 2017 to 2018 financial year.
On the car side of the auction, a Ferrari Dino first owned by Keith Richards sold for £442,750, while the most expensive lot was a 1964 Shelby Cobra, which sold for £1,359,000.
A string of hypercars – including a Ferrari LaFerrari Coupe and Aperta, and a Bugatti Veyron Supersports – failed to sell at the auction, though.
