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The Bargain Unicorn: BMW M4 GTS
It isn't often you hear unicorn and bargain in the same sentence, but we think 1 of 30 and £50k below list qualifies!
January 14, 2026
We chat with Sean Galvin of Sovereign International, not about foreign exchange payments, but his passion for cars and and his varied collection.
Sean’s ever-escalating passion comes from his dad, Rob, a Supercar Driver member himself for six years who was a car dealer when Sean was growing up. Sean has been in the Supercar Driver ranks himself for three years.
Whilst Sean is part of Supercar Driver as a partner now, he originally joined purely as a member to enjoy his cars and only realised the potential for a partnership when he spoke to other members and realised the demand for foreign exchange and international payments. That said, he wants to be known first and foremost as a fellow member and petrolhead, rather than Sean the currency guy, and if business comes as a byproduct of enjoying his passion, then that’s a nice bonus.
So, what better way to get to know Sean the car guy than to take a look around his collection and have a chat about what inspired such diverse choices, and how he likes to enjoy his cars to the max.
The 296 was my first Ferrari, and for me, it is up there with the best cars Ferrari, or any manufacturer, has ever made, other than special cars that are way out of my league.
As soon as they announced it was going to move away from a V8 in favour of a V6, I think naturally everyone was a bit skeptical, but even recently Supercar Driver WhatsApp chat, we have been singing the praises of the 296 and talking about the sound of it, with the way they engineered the hot pipes into the cabin — it sounds brilliant.
My first memory of serious speed was my family’s old ridiculously fast Seadoo RXT 255hp jet ski, and for some reason, driving the 296 takes me back to the feeling of driving that across a still lake. It’s just so smooth, and the instant torque from the hybrid system on top of the insane amount of power from the engine means it’s just so quick.
I was going to spec it with the Crema interior and silver wheels, but I think the black interior, roof and wheels go well with the more modern look of the 296 and make it look more aggressive. I think in general the model looks great, especially at the back with the 250LM-esque rear haunches.
The real beauty of the 296, though, is that it has performance that would have been hypercar level just a matter of years ago, in what is now called an entry-level Ferrari! That said, you can still drive it very comfortably at any speed. It’s surprisingly approachable for people of any experience; my fiancée Katie drives it (without me as passenger for the first time recently!), and I have friends who have driven it too. It’s so planted with so much technology that it just looks after you.
I had a couple of teething problems in my first thousand miles, but since then I’ve hit 7,500 miles and it hasn’t missed a beat. I’ve done the Dolomites and Croatia tours with Supercar Driver this year, and it was great, and last year I drove Katie to the South of France in it too which is where I proposed, so the car has sentimental value to us to.
Convertible, comfortable, lots of storage space, super-fast and handles like a dream — what’s not to love!?
A recent car purchase that wasn’t planned! My dad and I stumbled across a manual F430 a while ago with less than 10,000 miles, which we bought and shared, using sparingly over a couple of years as more of an investment. We weren’t looking to sell it, but a fellow Supercar Driver member made an offer that we couldn’t refuse because it was a dream car for him.
We didn’t intend to replace it, but then that same month, a guy who lives near me dropped me a message saying he was selling his F355, almost like it was meant to be! It’s a Berlinetta which I think looks the best of the 355 variations, it’s a manual, and a real time capsule in the sense it’s in such good condition. It’s done over 30,000 miles, but the previous owners must have taken such good care of it. The guy who sold it to us said it has never been out in the rain, and looking at it, I wouldn’t disbelieve him.
The F355 was released the year I was born, and it’s the first supercar I remember seeing as a kid, though I must admit the 360 ended up being my ultimate dream car growing up. As I’ve got older though, I’ve started to appreciate the 355 more and more: the lines, the way it sounds. We’re currently talking to DK Engineering about putting a Capristo exhaust on it, so it’s going to sound like an F1 car, which I’m really excited about!
It has a bit of a funny driving position, but it is an absolute dream to drive. It isn’t the fastest car compared to today’s standard, but it’s arguably my favourite car to drive at the moment. Sometimes that nostalgia will make you fall in love with a car even more than the latest tech and performance.
The track weapon! The RS is the newest car in the collection; I only took delivery in the last week of October and at the time of writing I haven’t even driven it yet!
My first ever sports car was a 992 Carrera 4S that I upgraded to a 992 GT3 (the car I joined Supercar Driver with). I loved every second of the 9,000 miles I did in the GT3 car, so selling it to Lakeside Classics recently was bittersweet, but I was offered a good deal on a new RS, and on the back of the rumours that it may be the last naturally-aspirated GT3, I couldn’t turn it down.
I love the look of them; they just look so aggressive, but the black on black gives it a little bit more of a stealthy look — that giant rear wing and all the aero definitely give it Batmobile vibes!
I’ve been doing some tuition with my old friend and pro driver Bobby Thompson lately at Silverstone, so I can’t wait to see how it performs especially with all the functional dials on the steering wheel. I’m actually looking to keep this car for track days and keep the mileage a little lower than I did with the GT3 — the 296 is the tour car!
Another unplanned purchase! When my dad was at Hilton & Moss to sell his V8 Vantage AMR to them, they had the Spitfire there. He gave me a call, and we didn’t even know it existed. A limited run of eight of them was produced in 2016 by Aston Martin’s Q division to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Spitfire, and it’s a beautiful car with stunning attention to detail. We couldn’t resist going halves on it!
It’s painted in special Duxford Green (after the former RAF airfield which is now Imperial War Museum Duxford) with Spitfire Speed Yellow details. The Aston Martin badges are made from solid sterling silver with white inlays, and each owner could choose an original Spitfire serial number to be painted onto the car and embroidered into the dashboard.
Inside, the detail is amazing. It has tan leather with some amazing Spitfire features like a Spitfire logo on the headrests, an aerial view of Duxford Aerodrome on the headlining, and even sheepskin inserts as a nod to the old flying jackets!
For me, the V12 Vantage has to be in the top few best-sounding cars ever made, and we have an exhaust on too, which makes it even louder — it’s pretty deafening to be honest, it sounds like a race car!
Of the eight cars they made, this is the only one that has the Sportshift transmission, so technically it is one of one! It’s very rare to be able to say that about a car unless you’re talking about cars way out of our league.
We don’t drive it as much as the others, but it’s a very special car and hopefully a great investment which I think we’ll keep for a long time.
This is another one that my dad and I co-own, and again it wasn’t planned — you’re probably noticing a pattern here! We were at a Supercar Driver breakfast meet at European Prestige last year, and after leaving, we popped into a classic car showroom near where I live. It turned out that my dad knew the owner from the Colchester car auctions back in the day, and this E-Type was sitting there looking beautiful, and it’s something different for us.
If you want a Series 1 Semi Lightweight E-Type, you’re looking well into six figures, and if it’s a famous one that raced, it’s more like seven figures, which again, is just out of our league. This car is a Series 2 that a guy fully stripped out and made look just like a Series 1 Semi Lightweight. The great thing is, because it’s only about 20% of the price of an original, you can throw it around a track and not really worry too much!
It’s obviously very different to driving a 296 or a 992 GT3, but it performs really well and it’s great to drive. The car loves to slide around, but you do feel in control, it’s very quick for an old car, the brakes are good, the gearbox isn’t as bad as you’d think, and the Triple Webers sound brilliant. Jonty gave it a good thrashing around Silverstone at Secret Meet, and as he put it, you’re the slowest one on the track, but you’re probably having the most fun.
We store the car at Hilton & Moss who run it for us on track days. We’ve taken it around Silverstone, Donington and Goodwood this year, and had a lot of fun doing so!
Growing up, my dad was into his American cars watching films like American Graffitti, and I certainly inherited the love for the classic American car design, I was drawn to things like the 1959 Cadillac Coupe Deville with the rear fins, but the problem with cars like that is they’re like limousines and not suited to English roads.
One that isn’t too big, and in my opinion happens to be the most beautiful, is the Corvette C1. I’ve always wanted one but didn’t have any imminent plans to buy one as I thought I’d have to track one down in America, import it, and it might not be all it looked in the pictures, so I figured it wasn’t worth the stress at this stage, but always remained a bit of a dream.
Then, earlier this year, I was at Supercar Fest when I saw the car in an auction. It was fully restored and had only done about 10 miles since restoration about 15 years ago, having sat in a collection since. I had never seen one in this colour, and it was so striking, plus it was a 1958, just like I’d always wanted, because that model had the most chrome on the back — it’s the holy grail of the C1s!
Because the car hadn’t been used since restoration, there was some mechanical work to do which Hilton & Moss took care of. Especially in this spec, I don’t think there’s any car I look at and think is more beautiful. It’s a very nostalgic sort of car and gives thoughts of what must have been such a cool time period — that post-war American Dream era, with these kinds of cars, The Beach Boys on the radio etc!
To drive, let’s just say it’s very different — certainly an experience! The old drum brakes do work but take a little getting used to, and that giant light steering wheel feels very strange, especially with how much the car moves around, but this isn’t a car you would take on track or even drive fast down a B road, its all about that beautiful design and the nostalgia — a cruiser, that’s for sure.
In the last year or so, I’ve spent a lot of time on track including Secret Meet and Season Opener which we sponsored and displayed the whole collection in our garage at Donington. I’ve also done Goodwood and a track day at Cadwell Park, which is my favorite track I’ve driven so far!
The Cadwell Park day came about thanks to fellow Supercar Driver partners AUTOID. Their founder, Jack, is a good friend of mine, and he is a friend of F1 driver Liam Lawson. At Sovereign’s 10-year anniversary party last December, they kindly donated some hot laps as an auction prize, which raised thousands for Haven House Children’s Hospice. Unfortunately, I was delayed that day on my way up there, and it was the day Christian Horner got sacked, so Liam had to leave after doing the hot laps and I sadly didn’t get to meet him, but hopefully I will soon.
I did my first tours with Supercar Driver this year, and I can safely say Dolomites was up there with the best week’s of my life! From the moment we landed, it was 30-degree sunshine, not a cloud in the sky for the entire trip, a great lineup of cars, amazing hotels, and a great group of people, some who were already clients of ours, some who have become clients since the trip, which is brilliant. The roads were incredible, with loads of switchbacks, big straights, incredible views, and the weather really did make it. If you haven’t done the Dolomites and you’re reading this, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough — ten out of ten!
More recently, I did the Croatia tour, and on the first day it was so foggy you couldn’t see the car in front of you, but thankfully, every day after that got sunnier and sunnier. The roads are even less busy than the Dolomites, and naturally, there aren’t as many mountain passes and they aren’t as technical, but you still have some great passes and some more sweeping, fast open roads. Again, we had a fantastic group of people, some who were clients already, and some who I’ve already had meetings with since about foreign exchange payments, so it’s great to mix business with pleasure.
I should also say it was Katie’s first experience of fast driving as a passenger, and she was doing really well until the mountain passes, where she looked over the edge and suddenly her heart was in her throat! So, I just slowed it down, and that’s the beauty of the Supercar Driver drives, you can be one of the quick ones at the front, or you can hang back at your own pace as I did with Katie, and there’s no judgement, and you’ll catch up at the next stop, plus the way the team runs things is really great and safe.
I told Adam and Jonty at the start of the trip that it would be really hard to top my best day’s driving in the Dolomites, and if I had to choose just one tour to do again, it would probably be the Dolomites, but my best day’s driving of my life was the Friday of the Croatia tour: perfect weather, amazing fast roads — it was driving heaven! I will definitely be doing more tours in future.
I had always wanted to build a car collection, but I spent the last decade focusing on building Sovereign. I wanted to get to the end of that first decade and either look at mergers and acquisitions or perhaps get there and realise we didn’t need to do that, with the latter ending up being the case. Last year, we had a lot of big companies offering us a lot of money to buy Sovereign, which was very flattering, but instead of an entry into a bigger room for me and the team, it was more just an exit for me while putting the team at risk, and I’m fortunate to have found something I’m good at that I love doing, so we’re just looking to continue with our growth journey.
To celebrate that milestone of 10 years in business, I thought it was time to do what I’d always wanted to do and build a car collection to enjoy before getting stuck into the second decade in business, but I didn’t necessarily intend to do it so quickly, it just happened that the exact cars I wanted came out of nowhere!
Looking ahead, there aren’t really any other cars I want or need given the fact everything has its place in the collection: the GT3 RS for track days, the manual F355 for supercar nostalgia, the V12 Vantage Spitfire for the collector’s item, the E-Type for a bit of classic fun, the Corvette because it’s so bloody cool to look at and then of course the 296 as the modern supercar for tours and UK road driving.
As mentioned above, I’ve already hit 7,500 miles in the 296 since taking delivery last May and I am looking forward to thousands more miles in it. I’d quite like to be known as a Supercar Driver high-mileage hero in that car one day, until I get the bill for a hybrid system replacement that is!
Business-wise, I’m very happy to say that we’ve already had a record year for our 11th year in business and the start of our second decade. We’ve recently taken a whole top floor of a building in the heart of the city of london (3 Lloyds Avenue, just off of Fenchurch Street) and taken on multiple new staff, so that’s been really good.
As for our relationship with Supercar Driver, the partnership has gone so well that we’ve agreed to become a headline partner for 2026! We’ll of course be at Secret Meet and I’ve booked the Spain tour and the poster car drive. First though, we will once again be sponsoring Season Opener, where we’ll have the whole collection in our garage, so please come over and say hi, whether it’s business or just to chat cars!
