The World’s First Sports Car Has Auctioned For A Whooping £516,700

The exquisite Vauxhall Prince Henry Sports Torpedo which is regarded by many as “the world’s first sports car,” has been auctioned at the Bonhams’ auction house in London over the weekend where it fetched £516,700 which is about ₦207 million.

The Prince Henry was designed by the acclaimed automotive engineer Laurence Pomeroy and built in 1914. It is powered by its 25-horsepower 4-liter engine and could hit speeds of 130km/h  which was mighty fast for its time. 

The one that went under the hammer on Sunday was bought 100 years ago by T.W. Badgery, a British businessman who worked in the leather industry. According to Bonhams, Badgery ran the car on “castor oil second pressings” that he obtained from his own leather works. When he went to sell the car in 1931, Badgery – or more accurately, his chauffeur – had clocked up a hefty 140,000 miles in the vehicle.

For the last half a century, however, the car had been driven by just one careful owner, Reg Long, whose recent death led to Sunday’s auction. Over the years, Long took his prized possession on far-flung tours across Europe, showing it off at numerous car shows along the way.

And if you’re wondering if it still runs, the answer is yes. It last hit the roads earlier this year for a gentle 30-mile tootle.

Sunday’s auction saw the Prince Henry snapped up by a vintage car enthusiast from the north of England, the sizable payout securing the top bidder a very special piece of automotive history.

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