The original Noddy Car - once owned by Enid Blyton's company - is estimated to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000 when it comes up for auction in England later this month. The unmistakable red and yellow Toytown roadster is regarded as an exact mirror of the hand-sketched one made famous in Enid Blyton's tales of Noddy and his adventures in Toytown.
The drawings of the car in Noddy's books bear an uncanny resemblance to the real car - a 1969 Fiat Gamine Vignale that was a two-seat roadster built by Carozzeria Vignale from 1967 to 1971 and based on the Fiat 500 platform. The car is fitted with a larger capacity 594cc engine and syncro gearbox. It has had four owners and the 4553 miles on the odometer are believed to be accurate.
It will be auctioned on Saturday July 27 by Silverstone Auctions' Classic Sale at Silverstone. “We expect a huge amount of interest in this Noddy Car from Enid Blyton fans and Fiat collectors, and who can blame them for wanting to get their hands on a car that takes us back to our childhood,” says the auctioneer's classic car specialist Will Smith.
“The number plate NOD 513 is the finishing touch which makes this unique car extra special and we can't wait to see how it does at our auction. It has got to be one of the most easily recognisable cars anywhere on the planet.”
More information is on www.silverstoneauctions.com and online bidder registration is on www.i-bidder.com
Follow this reporter on Twitter @cg_dowling
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Neil Dowling
Contributing Journalist
GoAutoMedia
Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting.
It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail.
He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out.
In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups.
He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally.
He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
About Author
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