Ekins' Triumph clears world record price
Machine one ridden by The Great Escape stuntman sells for $179,500A 1962 Triumph 640cc TR6SS ridden by The Great Escape stuntman, Bud Ekins, has sold at auction for almost $180,000.
Ekins, who performed the famous jump while working as Steve McQueen’s stunt double, rode the bike to a gold medal in the 1962 International Six Days Trial.
The world record auction price was more than three times the pre-sale estimate.
The Triumph was one of three machines to notch up record prices at Bonhams’ annual Spring Stafford Sale in England.
A 1925 Coventry Eagle 981cc Flying-8, which Bonhams cites as a rare example of a vintage overhead valve V-twin, set a new auction record for the marque with a final bid of $400,850.
A third record was set for a 1935 Vincent-HRD 498cc Series-A Comet which sold for $179,000.
The performance of this trio, as well a total sale rate of 92 per cent, resulting in a record Bonhams weekend sale total of more than $7.14 million.
Other highlights of the weekend sale included strong interest in a quartet of pre-war Brough Superiors, led by the “ultimate” vintage machine, a 1926 Brough Superior 986cc SS100 Alpine Grand Sports which sold for $379,750.
The weekend’s most surprising result achieved by an unrestored 1949 Parkin-Vincent 998cc Black Shadow which competed in the 1985 Manx Grand Prix and realised $113,900.
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