Offered by Osenat | Fontainebleau, France | March 23, 2019
Photo – Osenat
Gardner-Serpollet was a car engineered by Leon Serpollet, an important figure in the pioneering days of the automobile. He invented the flash boiler and built steam cars under his name as well as under the Gardner-Serpollet name after joining forces with Frank Gardner, a wealthy American.
This early steam-powered Type F features a flat-four engine fed by a flash boiler running on kerosene. It has chain drive and will apparently cruise for 50-75 miles before… running out of steam. It looks remarkably ancient compared to this 1904 Gardner-Serpollet. A lot changed in terms of automotive design in only two years time.
Fun fact, Leon Serpollet was the first person to set a land speed record in a non-electric automobile. This particular car was not used for that feat, but it does have known history to 1959 and has been more recently restored. It should sell for between $225,000-$285,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
We stay in Britain for Brightwells’ Leominster sale where our lone feature car, the Jaguar XJS Monaco, failed to sell. The top seller was this 1989 Ferrari 328 GTS for $75,101. Click here for additional results.
Photo – Brightwells
Onward now to Amelia Island and Bonhams, where we featured a lot of interesting cars. Remarkably, only one of them didn’t sell according to Bonhams’ results: the 1910 Pope-Hartford that was supposed to be offered without reserve. Not sure what’s going on there.
Relative deals consisted of the $62,720 Columbus and the $60,480 Crow-Elkhart. A previously-featured 1904 Knox sold here for $252,000. Final results can be found here.
We also featured quite a few cars from the RM Sotheby’s sale in Amelia Island, including some we featured from past sales like this 1924 Isotta Fraschini, this V-12 Cadillac, this AAR Eagle – all three of which failed to sell. The big-dollar Bugatti failed to find a new home as well. The overall top sale was the 1930 Duesenberg we featured. It sold for $1,650,000. We will award Most Interesting to this wicker-bodied 1911 Napier 15HP Victoria that brought $156,800.
Of our feature cars, the OSCA 1600 GT sold for $489,000 and the Kurtis $263,200. A previously-featured Abarth 207/A went for $362,500. Click here for complete results.
Offered by H&H Classics | Duxford, U.K. | March 20, 2019
Photo – H&H Classics
The Imperial is one of Chrysler‘s classic nameplates. Last used on a kind-of-sad Y-body sedan in 1993, the name dates to 1926. Between 1931 and 1933, Imperials were the best product Chrysler had and rivaled the best from Cadillacand Lincoln. And for a little while, Imperial was a brand in its own right.
The 1937-1939 Imperial was produced in fairly limited numbers and in two distinct series. This five-passenger sedan model has an unknown production total, as sedan production between the Imperial, Saratoga, and New Yorker combined to total 10,536 units. It’s a C-23 series Imperial (the Custom Imperial C-24 cars were even more expensive and much rarer).
The 5.3-liter inline-six was good for 130 horsepower and a 95 mph top speed. This particular car was assembled as a knock-down kit in England and is said to be one of 16 right-hand drive examples built – and the only one remaining. It’s a big European version of a pre-war American sedan. It is being sold at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | April 7, 2019
Photo – Bonhams
Geoffrey Miller of Cornwall, England was a craftsman who had earlier built his own motorcycle when he decided to build himself a station wagon. This is the result, and it is the only such example. Most homebuilt cars look, well, home-built. However, this has all of the look of a series production car from 1950s England.
Somewhat Allard-like in its appearance, the four-door woodie wagon is powered by a 2.9-liter Austin-Healey straight-six. He used some production parts that were readily available but is said to have actually done the body and woodwork by hand.
With only three owners since new – including its creator – this is the time to get it if you want a car that is an original design. It’s quite interesting and should bring between $59,000-$72,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | March 29-30, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
When Stutz was revived in 1968, it’s most famous product was the Virgil Exner-styled Blackhawk that was produced between 1971 and 1987. They were definitely a product of their time, but they kind of have a following and were pretty nice cars when new.
The original cars were based on Pontiac Grand Prix running gear, which was okay because they kind of looked like a gussied-up Grand Prix anyway. This particular car is described as having a “V8 engine” which is not too helpful as a variety of engines were used during the course of production.
The 1973 models were considered their own generation as the cars received annual updates during the first three years of production. These were expensive cars (they’d over $150,000 today), and there were a lot of celebrity owners, too. By the time production wrapped, about 600 examples had been produced. This one is expected to bring between $75,000-$105,000, which seems like a lot. Oh yeah, they also built other models that were essentially the same car but with four doors, which is kind of weird. Click here for more info about this car and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Aguttes | Paris, France | March 17, 2019
Photo – Aguttes
Well apparently somethings don’t translate well from French to English. Perhaps “EX” isn’t the best trim level to add to a car called the 2300 S. At least there’s a space, right? Or is this just some romantic French thing?
Salmson is actually still around, though they haven’t produced a car since 1957 when they went bankrupt and Renault bought their factory. Today they’re an engineering firm that produces industrial products like hydraulic pumps. Exciting stuff.
Their last automotive hurrah was the 2300 Sport Coupe. Built between 1953 and 1957, Salmson entered sporting versions of the car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans three separate times. They were powered by 2.3-liter inline-fours capable of 103 horsepower.
Only 217 examples of the 2300 were built, and only 121 of those were the Sport models, like the one you see here, which is eligible for such events as the historical Mille Miglia. It should sell for between $75,000-$95,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Mecum | Phoenix, Arizona | March 14-16, 2019
Photo – Mecum
The Kenmore Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, built cars for a short period of time: 1910 through 1912. Their cars were a little outdated from the get-go, carrying the styling of yesteryear. Ultimately, the company’s assets were acquired by Sears and their Kenmore appliance brand name is believed to have descended from this acquisition.
The 1910 Kenmore model line offered two options: the Model A and Model B, both two-cylinder cars on an 82″ wheelbase. The B had four additional horsepower, for a total of 18. Normally, I’d want to figure out if this car is an A or a B, but it has been bastardized with an electric motor according to the lot description, so it doesn’t really matter I guess (though it sure looks like an opposed twin is sitting under the front bonnet).
It does have a nifty flip-up wooden rear seat, which rules out the 2-passenger Runabout factory body style. Perhaps it is a 3-passenger Roadster or a 4-passenger Surrey. I don’t think two people are destined for that awful rear bench, so I went with Roadster. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2019
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Type 57S and Type 57C were the ultimate versions of Bugatti’s long-lived Type 57. This marks the second Type 57SC we’ve featured, and both cars look as if they were bodied much more recently with replica coachwork. I guess there’s something just too low and sporty about these cars to believe that they could’ve possibly been designed in the 1930s.
The 57S was the lowered version and the 57C was the supercharged version. Only 40 57S cars were built, and most of them carried closed coachwork. Only 16 were drop-tops, including this one. What isn’t clear is when the supercharger was added to this car’s 3.3-liter straight-eight. What is for sure is that only two cars were built by the factory to 57SC specification. Most owners of 57S cars had superchargers fitted afterward, to bump power to that magical 200 horsepower mark.
Speeds of 120 mph were quoted in the day, making these as quick of cars as money could buy before WWII. This car was supercharged early in its life but was not originally built that way. The body is by Corsica, and it was separated from the chassis for 43 years before it was reunited and restored.
The rarity and beauty factors have the ability to push this car to near eight-figure territory. It’ll be interesting to see where this one ends up… if it sells. Click here for more info and here for the rest of the lineup from RM Sotheby’s.
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 8, 2019
Photo – Gooding & Company
Look familiar? No this is not a Muntz Jet. It’s the pre-Muntz Jet: the Kurtis Sports. Race cars built by Frank Kurtis dominated the Indy 500 in the 1950s, and he built some road cars as well.
The first Sports was built in 1948 and was based on a wrecked 1941 Buick. Power is from a 5.4-liter Cadillac V8 making 160 horsepower. It’s a good-looking car – good enough that when Earl Madman Muntz acquired the production rights to the car and moved production to Illinois, he didn’t really have to change that much.
Only 16 examples of the Kurtis Sports were produced before it became the Muntz Jet. This example was restored by Arlen Kurtis, Frank’s son, and has pretty extensive ownership history. Extremely rare today, the car should bring between $275,000-$350,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Bonhams | Amelia Island, Florida | March 7, 2019
Photo – Bonhams
Frank and Charles Matheson hopped around a bit with their company, which they founded in 1903 – first in their hometown of Grand Rapids for a year, then to Holyoke, Massachusetts until 1905, then finally on to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where they built cars through 1912. After their luck ran out running their own firm, both men remained in the industry for decades to come.
In 1907, Matheson offered two different four-cylinder model lines. This “Big Four” is the larger of the two, and it is powered by a 50 horsepower, 8.0-liter inline-four and bad ass double chain drive. A shaft-driven six-cylinder car would arrive in 1909.
This car wears a large seven-passenger touring body, one of four styles offered in 1907 (though this body is a recreation constructed in the 1980s). The price when new would’ve been $5,500 – a fraction of the $250,000-$350,000 it is expected to bring later this week. Fun fact: William Randolph Hearst owned a pair of Mathesons. Only four Wilkes-Barre-built cars are known to exist today, and this is a pretty nice one. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
