Arnolt-Bristol DeLuxe

Posted on by
Reply

1954 Arnolt-Bristol DeLuxe Roadster

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | June 30, 2019

Photo – Bonhams

The Arnolt-Bristol was the result of a collaboration between Stanley Arnolt’s company of Chicago, Illinois, Bristol Cars of England, and Bertone of Italy. Bristol supplied the engine and chassis, Bertone the body, and Arnolt the money, spirit, and marketing.

The cars use the chassis and the 130 horsepower 2.0-liter inline-six from the Bristol 404 (okay, the engine actually could trace its roots back to BMW). Bertone designed the two-door body. Three trims were offered: Bolide, DeLuxe, and Competition. The DeLuxe was similar to the Bolide except it brought side windows, a convertible top, a glovebox, and instrumentation behind the steering wheel.

These cars were serious racers in their day, taking class victories at Sebring and Le Mans. Only 130 examples were produced, and this one was delivered new in Mexico. Restored, it is eligible for historic events such as the Mille Miglia. It should bring between $320,000-$370,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Not sold.

Alpine A310

Posted on by
Reply

1979 Alpine A310 V6

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | June 17, 2019

Photo – Artcurial

While Alpine was affiliated with Renault for most of their existence, they weren’t taken over by the company until 1973, which makes the A310 the final product introduced by an independent Alpine.

The cars used a tubular steel chassis with fiberglass bodywork and a rear-mounted engine, and the early models were all four-cylinder cars. In 1976, an update was released which saw the introduction of a 2.7-liter V6 good for 148 horsepower. Top speed was 137 mph.

This car comes from the A310’s best sales year: 1979, when 1,381 of these were sold. In all, 9,276 V6-powered A310s were built, with an additional 2,340 four-cylinder models. This car is selling at no reserve with a pre-sale estimate of $39,000-$50,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Extralusso 6C

Posted on by
Reply

1947 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Cabriolet by Stabilimenti Farina

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | June 30, 2019

Photo – Bonhams

We’ve featured a pair of other Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Cabriolets – each of them different. Here is another one, with styling penned by Giovanni Michelotti while working his first gig at Stabilimenti Farina, which was founded by the brother of Pinin Farina. The body is described as “Extralusso,” which means “extra luxury.” So I guess it’s pretty nice inside.

The 6C dated to 1927, and the 2500 version of the car went on sale in 1938. It would go on hiatus during the war, and return for a brief period until 1952. This post-war example is powered by the same pre-war 2.5-liter inline-six that produced 90 horsepower in post-war Sport trim.

It is thought that only a handful of these cars were bodied by Farina, but all of them had slight differences. Only two are known to remain. It’s an attractive car in nice colors and should command between $280,000-$340,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

BMW Z1

Posted on by
Reply

1990 BMW Z1

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | June 17, 2019

Photo – Artcurial

By the late-1980s, BMW wasn’t producing a two-door sports car. Sure, they had the M3 but that was an extension of the 3-Series lineup, and not its own thing. Then in 1989, the Z1 was introduced. It featured vertically-sliding doors that disappear into the door sills – a kind of bizarre feature that you aren’t really likely to find on any other cars.

Power is from a 2.5-liter inline-six making 168 horsepower. Although designed in the 1980s, the car appears more modern, like something to come out of the wild 90s. And since then, the design has held up well. While production only lasted through 1991, the Z1 was eventually succeeded by the Z3 in 1996.

Only 8,000 of these were made, and they were not sold new in the US. In fact, they didn’t really start appearing over here until the 25-year rule ran its course. This car, selling at no reserve, is expected to fetch between $45,000-$67,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $41,626.

Duesenberg J-354

Posted on by
Reply

1932 Duesenberg Model J Victoria Coupe by Judkins

For Sale at Hyman Ltd. | St. Louis, Missouri

Photo – Hyman Ltd.

When you bought a Model J Duesenberg, what you were buying from the company was a chassis, engine, firewall, and front grille. The rest of the car, more or less, would come from a coachbuilder of your choosing.

But someone had designed that front grille – so what if that guy designed the entire package? Well that someone was Gordon Buehrig, and he designed the Victoria Coupe for Judkins, who applied the bodywork to two separate short-wheelbase Model J chassis. This is one of them.

It’s powered by a 6.9-liter straight-eight putting out 265 horsepower. This car has known ownership history back to new and was restored in the early 1990s, with a more recent freshening. It’s been in the Hyman Ltd collection for four years and is now for sale for just a smidge under $2 million. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold, RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2019.

May 2019 Auction Highlights

Posted on by
Reply

We pick up where we left off last time: with Silverstone Auctions. This time it was their sale of British marques, where the Jaguar XJ220 we featured was the overall top sale at $429,230. The AC Aceca was withdrawn.

The Railton Claremont sold for $85,846, and we’ll award Most Interesting to 1952 Allard Palm Beach Mk 2 that sold for $100,153. Click here for the rest of this sale’s results.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Now we move on to Brightwells’ Leominster sale. No withdrawn AC cars here as this 1962 AC Greyhound took home top sale honors at $104,923.

Photo – Brightwells

The Jaguar XJS Monaco we featured previously failed to sell here again. And the Quantum 2+2 sold for $1,678. Click here for more results.

We’ll stay in the U.K. for the annual all-Aston Martin sale from Bonhams. Naturally, the one we featured (a Virage Volante) failed to find a new home. But the biggest money car of the day was $1,097,622 paid for this 1964 Aston Martin DB5. Final results can be found here.

Photo – Bonhams

Mecum’s giant Indianapolis sale was held in May. This 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C brought home the bacon, selling for $2,860,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Twister Special Mustang we featured failed to sell at $180,000, and the AAR ‘Cuda brought $53,900. Click here for more results.

The RM Sotheby’s Villa Erba sale featured a couple of no-sales among the offerings we highlighted, including the Hispano-Suiza sedan and the Ferrari 330 Zagato. Another Ferrari, this 1954 500 Mondial Spider by Pinin Farina, was the top sale at $4,156,350.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The coachbuilt Alfa Romeo 4C sold for $186,434, while the Delahaye brought $320,041. More results can be found here.

C.G. 1300

Posted on by
Reply

1973 C.G. 1300

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | June 17, 2019

Automobiles CG was founded in 1966 by Jean Gessalin and brothers Abel, Albert, and Louis Chappe. Their primary business was building bodies for other manufacturers, as well as assembling cars for other companies. But CG was also an automotive manufacturer in its own right until the company closed in 1974.

The 1300 was the final model introduced by the company, in 1972. Production lasted for about 18 months, and only 95 examples were churned out. CG cars were Simca-based, and this car is powered by a 1.3-liter inline-four from the Simca Rallye 2. Output was 80 horsepower in base form, or 94 when equipped with optional go-fast bits, which I think this car has.

CG is not very well remembered today (and neither is Simca for that matter), especially when compared with its peers, like Alpine. Very rare, this car should bring between $56,000-$90,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $64,454.

Jaguar C-X75

Posted on by
Reply

2016 Jaguar C-X75

For sale at Kaaimans International | Tollerton, U.K.

Photo – Kaaimans International

Jaguar has a pretty good history with supercars. During the 1950s and 1960s, they were producing the fastest cars in the world. They did it again in the 1990s. In 2010, they partnered with the Williams F1 team to build this, the C-X75. The original concept car used four electric motors – one at each wheel – whose batteries were fed by two diesel-powered turbines.

Pretty wild stuff. The package itself is pretty exotic, with hints of the F-Type at the front end. It would’ve made for a great (traditional) hybrid supercar. They were going to build an electric version, but the economy sucked, so they didn’t.

But what they did do in 2013 before the production car’s hopes were dashed, was build a limited run of developmental prototypes. Five of them, supposedly. Here’s where it gets confusing. They built five of these development cars, right? Well, they also supplied seven of them to the makers of the James Bond film Spectre. One of those seven is said to also have been one of the five prototypes. So what are we at then, 12 cars?

The other non-prototype six were custom-built for the movie, some to be crashed, etc. They had space frame construction, spartan interiors, and were really meant just to be pretty from the outside. Both the prototypes and Bond cars were reportedly powered by turbocharged and supercharged 1.6-liter engines paired with two electric motors. That combination was good for 890 horsepower.

This car, however, has a plaque inside stating it is one of four stunt vehicles used in the movie. And the online listing states it has a 5.0-liter engine. So I really don’t know how to wrap this all up and make sense of it, other than to say it looks beautiful. If it runs and is street legal in Europe, I’m sure it’s grand (except for that workhorse concept car-like interior). At any rate, it will be too expensive for most, with the price being available upon request. Click here for more info.

Stutz Model G

Posted on by
Reply

1919 Stutz Model G Roadster

Offered by Bonhams | Greenwich, Connecticut | June 2, 2019

Photo – Bonhams

Between 1917 and 1922, Stutz offered a single model every year and they were all based on the same stuff: a 130-inch wheelbase and an 80 horsepower, 5.9-liter inline-four. But they all had different names.

For 1919, it was called the Model G. Four different bodies were offered. The two-passenger Roadster would’ve set you back $2,750 – the same price as a Bearcat from the same year. The only difference was that the Bearcat had 10 inches cut out of the wheelbase. They are in completely different arenas today, price-wise.

This example was modified to look like a Bearcat, though it most certainly isn’t one. It’s been in the same family since 1960 and should sell for between $60,000-$80,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $44,800.

The Oldest Porsche

Posted on by
Reply

1939 Porsche Type 64

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 15-17, 2019

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Ferdinand Porsche’s fingerprints are all over the German automobile industry. He helped engineer the original VW Beetle in the 1930s as well as cars for Wanderer, Auto Union, and Zundapp. In 1937 he designed the Type 64 and it wore his name – and his alone – for the first time.

Three examples were built between 1939 and 1940 – all race cars. They have a speed record car kind of look to them and that’s because they were commissioned by the German government to compete in a race from Berlin to Rome. And partially to celebrate the launch of the Volkswagen.

They shared the VW Type 1’s running gear: a rear-mounted 32 horsepower flat-four. The body was construed by Reutter, who would go on to help build Porsche’s post-war 356. Only one example was built before the war began, and the German government took possession of that car.

The race being canceled due to hostilities didn’t deter Ferry Porsche from building two more cars, the third of which used the same chassis as the first, after it was damaged in an accident. The second car didn’t survive the war, supposedly thanks to some joy-riding American GIs, but that third car was retained by the Porsche family until 1949 when it was purchased by racing driver Otto Mathe, who kept the car until his death in 1995.

This car, which is nicely described in the catalog as the missing link between the VW Beetle and the Porsche 356, is the oldest Porsche automobile in existence and was the third car ever built by Porsche. With Porsches as hot as ever, it is likely to break the bank in Monterey. Stay tuned! Click here for more info and here for more from RM.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $17,000,000.