Rambo Lambo dominates the Bonhams April sale

Separated by a 60-year gap in automotive history, development and taste, two stars of Bonhams April 28 auction just outside London both epitomize what power meant in vastly different decades.

In one corner is a 1927 Bentley 3-Liter Speed Model Tourer with coachwork by Vanden Plas, and the other a 1987 Lamborghini LM002 off-road beast, coachwork by the Terminator via Lego.

“Both these cars have a massive presence,” says Bonhams’ John Polson, adding that the Lambo almost makes a Hummer look dainty. “As for the Bentley, the 3-litre cars were the models that were to become a legend in motor racing history.”

Both machines will be on display at Bonhams’ annual auction held at the fabled RAF Museum in Hendon. Surrounded by “Spitfires and Hurricanes from the battles of World War II, it’s always a great place to display amazing cars,” Polson says of an event that has long been atop the British auto scene’s social calendar.

No doubt one particularly car will prove tempting for that posh set: a 1949 Bentley MK VI Radford Countryman (estimate: $135,000 to $165,000), which looks like nothing less than a marvelous Bentley version of  our Woodie wagons.

With wood paneling running from its front doors rearward providing an odd yet appealing accent to the car’s otherwise gleaming silver coachwork, this Countryman is the epitome of having your automotive cake and eating it, too.

“It’s what we in England call a shooting brake,” says Polson, a term that originally referred to vehicles that took men, dogs and firearms out to the hunting grounds and evolved to cover what we call a station wagon. “You could imagine a wealthy landover ordering this to use on his Scottish estate. It just has that amazing feel of another era.”

Speaking of another and definitely glorious era, the 1927 Bentley on offer is “the kind of car that modern collectors are looking for, their bridge to the past,” says Polson.

An estimated $165,000 to $250,000 should land the four-cylinder Speed Model, which was thoroughly restored by its present owner in 1998 — its chassis stripped, shot-blasted and powder coated, engine overhauled and wiring harness replaced — and again in 2004 (new constant mesh gears) and 2011 (new clutch plate conversion). All this adds up to a road-worthy machine that has already done duty in Italy’s Mille Miglia Storica and, more recently, racked up 3,552 miles on the Bentley Driver’s Club’s Tour of New Zealand.

“It’s ready to go,” says Polson.

Although this Bentley may seem like something out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, looks deceive: Bentley and its fabled drivers, the so-called Bentley Boys, dominated racing’s early days, winning Le Mans in 1924 and 1927-1930 and making British Racing Green cars synonymous with victory.

Less defined is the reason for the LM002’s existence, although one could imagine Ferruccio Lamborghini issuing a stern edict: build it because we can. Estimated to fetch between $135,000 and $200,000, Lambo’s outrageous entry into the SUV market - well before SUVs became all the rage - cost $120,000 when it debuted in 1986. It rolled into the sunset in 1993 with just a few hundred examples produced, hence their current exclusivity.

Packing the same V-12 as it as sleek sibling, the equally outrageous Countach, the LM002 was aimed squarely at the Middle Eastern market, which was likely unconcerned with the appalling single-digit gas mileage offered by a 455-hp truck weighing nearly 7,000 lbs., some 500 of which would be the nearly 80 gallons of gas in your tank (don’t do the fill-up math; OK, fine, around $320).

“A private seller who kept this car many years is now ready to let go of it,” says Polson, adding that this so-dubbed Rambo Lambo comes in an admirably reserved color combo of light blue over navy leather, a far cry from sneering examples prowling around in red and black. There’s also a winch on the front bumper in case a few fellow SUVs need towing out of a mud bog at the local mall.

In fact, other than planning a military operation, the main reason for wanting a brute like the LM002 is simply bragging rights. No other SUV on the market now and then can make an otherwise impressive Mercedes Gelandewagen scurry home like a whimpering puppy.