A tale of the old popemobile: sells for $70,000 at Scottish auction

Those pope cars are hot items:

LONDON (CNS) -- An armor-plated popemobile used by Pope John Paul II during his 1982 visit to Great Britain has been sold at an auction for 37,000 pounds (US$70,000).

The converted bulletproof British Leyland vehicle, which had just more than 11,000 miles on the clock, was sold Sept. 2 in Dumfries, Scotland.

The popemobile was one of more than 2,000 items from the town's Albion truck museum, founded by local resident Mick Hayton, who died earlier this year. Hayton bought the vehicle in 1998 for his museum, which has now closed.

A spokeswoman for the auction house Thomson Roddick & Medcalf told reporters Sept. 2 that no details of the buyer were available but added that interest had been "overwhelming," with inquiries coming from around the world.

The sale price was about twice as high as expected, she said; the popemobile had been expected to sell for somewhere between 15,000-20,000 pounds (US$28,000-US$38,000).

One of two popemobiles built especially for Pope John Paul's only visit to Great Britain, the pope used the vehicle to travel to Scotland's Bellahouston Park, Glasgow and Murrayfield.

The other popemobile was used during the English leg of the tour, when Pope John Paul visited Canterbury, England. [source.]