1957 Arnott-Climax 1100 GT

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 18, 2017

Photo – Gooding & Company

Three quick things we love about this car: 1. that shade of green; 2. the fact that it’s a factory race car from a cottage industry sports car manufacturer that has survived this long and; 3. gullwing doors!

There aren’t many car companies out there founded by women, but Daphne Arnott managed to produce about 25 cars – some for the road, some for the track – between 1951 and 1957 in London. She started with F3 cars and ultimately ended up with Coventry Climax-powered sports cars that competed at Le Mans. This car uses a 1.1-liter Coventry Climax straight-four that makes 94 horsepower.

The body is aluminium and just enough of it exists to cover all the important pieces underneath. This was one of only a few “factory race cars” the company ever had, and it’s competition history includes:

• 1957 24 Hours of Le Mans – 44th, DNF (with Jim Russell and Dennis Taylor)

After the ’57 24 Hours, the team (and automobile-building portion of the company) folded. This car was parked in the Arnott workshop for over 15 years before being rescued in the early 1980s. The new owner restored it and it’s had a few other caretakers since, successfully completing some touring rallies along the way.

Being the only Arnott quite like it, of only a few automobiles produced in total, it should bring between $350,000-$425,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.