For sale: 174 dust-covered cars found in a London warehouse - £1m ONO

The 174 motors were amassed by a mystery businessman and left to gather dust in a 45,000 sq ft warehouse in North London.

When the local council, which owns the building, asked for it back, the unnamed collector decided to list the seemingly abandoned vehicles for a sealed bid auction.

During a viewing over the August bank holiday weekend, prospective buyers were given 15 minutes to survey the contents of the super garage – that’s just over five seconds per car – on a ‘look but don’t touch’ basis.

The most expensive vehicle on offer is a 1960 MG MGA, listed with a £25,000 guide price. Other highlights include a 1975 Mercedes 350SL for £18,000, a 1989 BMW 635CSI for £16,000 and a 1973 Porsche 911 for £15,000.

Although the cars look as though they’ve been left to rot for decades, the bulk of the collection piled up in just over ten years – the oldest model, a 1948 MG, was last taxed in 1991 and hasn’t been given a guide price.

Many of the cars do not have log books or numberplates, while others appear to be fitted with numberplates from other cars.

Despite their shabby appearance, all of the cars were said to have been driven to the warehouse under their own power, with some of the cars taxed as recently as 2016.A post shared by London Barn Finds (@londonbarnfinds)

Freddie Fison, a friend of the seller, told the Mail Online how the collection came to be: “Essentially it's a local businessman's private collection. Over the last ten years he decided to build his collection, I think starting off with a Mercedes SL, having seen the popularity with the Pagoda and how that raised in price, thought that would be a big investment and obviously a passion project.

“He loves his cars, and since then has been collecting more and more. They were stored in a council-owned warehouse and the council are now redeveloping the area and said we need the warehouse back - all 45,000 sq ft.

“Trying to find a new home for an indoor space in London for that size is not going to happen - times have changed in ten years.”

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YouTuber and car enthusiast Freddi Atkins posted a video offering a closer look inside the dilapidated warehouse, saying: “The scale of this place is just incredible.”

Speaking on his channel TheTFJJ, Mr Atkins said it was ‘interesting seeing the varying states of the interior' and that the cars gave an 'insight into what the interior looks like if you left it out for many, many years'.

Mr Fison added: “There's a lot of people who were critical of the format of the sale but it was born out of a requirement to get things done quickly, and also the owner’s desire to do it that way.”