It's a kind of magic as Freddie Mercury's Rolls Royce sells for £74,600

Freddie Mercury may well be regarded as one of the finest rock singers this country has ever produced but he has also recently proved he is a dab hand at adding value to second-hand cars.

Mercury's 1974 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow recently went up for auction at the Autosport International show in Birmingham. COYS, the auction house behind the sale, estimated the car would sell for around £9,000 but a flurry of bidding activity saw the car's price rise to nearly six times the amount listed in the guide book.