We've proven again today that cars of stellar provenance - the best of the best, continue to attract collector interest. The collector car market is alive and strong

Bonhams & Butterfields celebrated the 11th year of its sale of exceptional motorcars and automobilia at Quail Lodge on Friday, by setting three new sales records.

The capacity crowd ended up paying $21.7m for a line-up that included extremely rare and historic competition machines from noted private and institutional collections. Top of the bill, though, was the 1960 Jaguar E2A Prototype Missing Link racer, which sold for $4.5m, setting a new world record.

The records continued to tumble – the astoundingly original ex-Pierre Boncompagni, Ecurie Nice, 1939 Talbot-Lago T150 C SS made $4.3m, and the 1936 Lagonda EPE 97, regarded as the most famous Lagonda of all, went for $1.4m, smashing the previous world record for the marque.

Mark Osborne, VP and Director of the US Motoring Department at Bonhams & Butterfields said, 'This year's stellar sale was another great effort put forth by our International Motorcar Department. We've proven again today that cars of stellar provenance - the best of the best, continue to attract collector interest. The collector car market is alive and strong.'

www.bonhams.com/cars