The auction block is a wonderful arbiter of the value of a storied object and the intrigue it creates is often better than ...

But both sell John Surtees’s world crown far too short. Having moved to a beleaguered Ferrari – this was shortly after a team split and dire title defence in 1962 – Surtees had work to do.

A star of the late 1950s, when he dominated the ‘big classes’, Englishman John Surtees remains the only person to have won the motorcycling World Championship and Formula One titles.

This auction may well alert the world to a growing collectible juggernaut. It was owned by John Surtees, the only person to win the world championship on both two and four wheels. It is one of a ...