This Adelaide Grand Prix ‘1’ number plate just cost a South Australian motorist more than $700,000
A cashed-up South Aussie has bought the commemorative Adelaide Grand Prix “1” number plate – and made it the most expensive plate in state history.
SA News
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A commemorative Adelaide Grand Prix number plate has fetched the state’s highest-ever auction price for an item of its kind – but its purchaser remains a mystery.
The single-digit “1” plate sold just after 9pm for an eye-watering $593,000 through Pickles Auctions online.
Added on to that price is an 8.25 per cent buyer’s premium and 10 per cent transfer cost payable to the State Government – making the total cost $701,000.
The number “2” plate sold at the same auction for $157,000 – or $185,000 after premium and transfer fee.
Pickles Auctions would not reveal who bought either of the plates, saying they wished to remain anonymous.
But it did confirm they were purchased by different people in South Australia.
The Shahin family, who are heavily involved in SA motorsport, said they did not purchase the number 1 plate.
The buyers are understood to be “Adelaide identities” and friends.
The plates – which were originally released in 1985 to commemorate the first Australian Grand Prix on the Adelaide street circuit – were put up for auction by liquidator Duncan Powell, acting for a bankrupt estate.
The previous owner was understood to be a well-known South Australian.
The record-breaking sale comes just weeks after the government announced it would scrap Adelaide’s only remaining street motor race, the Superloop 500.
Pickles executive manager Gavin Dempsey said he was “very happy” with the result and expected the creditors of the bankrupt estate would be similarly happy.
“We’ve seen phenomenal results in NSW and Victoria and certainly now that’s triggered the same sort of results in SA,” Mr Dempsey said.
“It’s very rare for that sort of single-digit plate, whether it be Grand Prix or historic, to go to the open market.”
He said there were still four bidders vying for the number 1 plate past $500,000, in an auction that went three hours longer than planned.
The plates would “only go up in value”, Mr Dempsey said.
The number 1 plate was originally owned by the late deputy chair and later chair of the Australian Grand Prix, Ian Cox, after purchasing them at public auction.
It is understood to have been purchased by its last owner in 2003.
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