Broad Arrow's beautiful post-war exotica to head under the hammer at Amelia Island

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Collectors round the world look forward every year to the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, which, for many, provides the first opportunity to close the door on winter and commence a new season of historic motoring. While the concours itself is the main event, a major additional attraction is the Broad Arrow auction, wherein the enthusiast with a bit of space to fill in their garage might be tempted to acquire a souvenir from the occasion.

Although the event isn't until March 7-8th, Broad Arrow has already unveiled a very exciting catalogue, in which a selection of exotic post-war sports cars account for some of the highlights. These are a few of the best:

1958 BMW 507 Series II Roadster ($2,100,000-2,300,000)
Chassis 70110 was completed on January 14th, 1958, and was one of 21 507s to be finished in Silbergrau, in which colour it has been restored. Having been displayed in Munich, it then became one of 13 507s to be despatched to Venezuela, where German businessman Gustavo Zingg, the country's main BMW importer, took ownership. Returning to Germany in 1960, it was comprehensively restored from 2006 to 2008, and then presented to BMW Classic for an originality inspection in 2014. Impressively, it achieved 900 out of 1,000 points, and was highly commended for the retention of its original, date-stamped Rudge wheels. In other features, too, such as the Becker Europa radio and Hazet toolkit, 70110 sets an extremely high bar for originality.

1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport coupé by Touring ($300,000-350,000)
With its gleaming chrome and sparkling celestial blue paint, this Alfa Romeo looks like it was meant for cruising the Italian Riviera. Indeed, that's what many of its sister cars did, but chassis 915649 caught the eye of John Perona, who ran the glamorous El Morocco nightclub in New York. From Turin, the car had arrived in New York by 1950, and was enjoyed by Perona until 1958. The next owner disassembled it, intending restoration, but it changed hands several times and restoration never actually commenced until 2014. Over the course of several years, it was completed to the highest possible standard, and the beautiful result you may see for yourself. It has only covered nine miles since restoration, and if it wasn't special enough, we might also mention that it was one of only 16 Super Sport coupés to be fitted with Touring's acrylic glass Aerlux sunshine roof.

1964 Apollo 5000 GT ($160,000-190,000)
Sports cars don't come much more exotic than an Apollo—just 76 GTs were built during a somewhat irregular production run and, although Apollos never achieved the celebrity of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati, in the styling department they undoubtedly hold their own against the better-known 1960s Italian GTs. There's just one thing about the Apollo—it's not exactly Italian. Milt Brown was a young Californian enamoured with the sports and GT cars from Europe, and he fancied he could build his own to rival them. An engineer, he lacked coachbuilding skills but eventually succeeded in arranging for a series of fastback and spider bodies to be produced by Intermeccanica in Turin, then shipped to his own business, International Motor Cars, in Oakland. Once a 215 c.i. Buick V8 was installed, the Apollos had no shortage of performance. What's more, chassis 1074 isn't just any Apollo—it was owned by Milt Brown himself and is a remarkably original survivor, with only 4,000 miles covered from new.

1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster station wagon ($70,000-90,000)
At the other extreme, this Chevrolet woodie left the factory with no grand ideas about competing with Ferraris. It was meant to be nothing more nor less than a sturdy workhorse, and doubtless it was for 10 or 15 years, by the end of which period it may have been a bit worn-out. The tendency to work these cars hard, combined with a wooden frame which would eventually rot if not well-cared for, goes some way to explaining the extreme rarity of 1940s station wagons today. Another factor was the original high purchase price—at $2,013, the Fleetmaster wagon was the most expensive model in the '48 Chevy range and just 10,171 were built, making it the rarest of all the '48 Chevys when new. By the early '60s, old woodies were beginning to attract a slightly more appreciative following thanks partly to the influence of the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and the wider surfing and hot-rodding cultures. This beautifully restored example has clearly felt the influence to some degree, as it's nicely dressed up with an array of period accessories, including surfboard rack, sun visor, fender skirts and Appleton spotlight. Surf City here we come...

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance runs from March 7th to 9th, with the Broad Arrow auction taking place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on 7th and 8th. Click here to see more of the cars going under the hammer.

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