Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Weybridge, U.K. | November 26, 2022
Photo – Historics Auctioneers
The Bora was Maserati‘s first mid-engined car. It debuted after Citroen took over Maserati, and it was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign. The car debuted in 1971 and lasted through 1978. It sort of spawned a V6 sibling, the Merak.
The 4.7-liter V8 in this car was the first engine available before a 4.9-liter unit became an option in 1973. The engine was actually a version of that used in the later Ghiblis, which is the car the Bora replaced. Output was rated at 310 horsepower when new, and top speed was 170 mph.
Just 289 examples of the Bora 4.7 were produced, which made it slightly more common than the 4.9 (by like 14 cars). This one has been completely restored and will sell at no reserve. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Milan, Italy | November 18, 2022
Photo – Bonhams
This has to be the nicest third-gen Kapitan anywhere. You generally don’t see Opels of this era, much less in this condition. The Kapitan was a big car when it was introduced in 1938, and it became the marque’s top model when production resumed after the war in 1948. The generation represented here was offered between 1951 and 1953.
A sedan was the only option and featured suicide rear doors. Power is provided by a 2.5-liter inline-six that was initially rated at 57 horsepower (later cars got a two-horsepower bump). Just over 48,500 of these were built in three years. But when was the last time you saw one, if ever?
It was restored a while ago and has been in Italy since 1991. It now has a pre-sale estimate of $20,000-$25,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Weybridge, U.K. | November 26, 2022
Photo – Historics Auctioneers
The Renault35CV range of cars took the place of the 50-60-horsepower cars that ended production in 1910. These were large Renaults, especially compared to the two-cylinder cars that dominated the sales charts for the company.
The DQ is powered by an 8.5-liter inline-four rated at about 45 horsepower and was only built in 1913. This one was restored in the U.K. in the 1990s. There are always these “bare chassis” finds of pre-WWI cars, and I’ve always wondered who buys them and turns them into cars like this.
Not to say this was one of those cases, as the car had been known in the U.S. prior to it being restored. What’s interesting about this one is that it has a wooden boattail in addition to its two-seat raceabout configuration. But it looks like the entire boattail raceabout body was dropped onto a truck chassis (the body was actually built in the 2010s). It’s a big car and is said to be capable of cruising at 60 mph.
The pre-sale estimate is $66,000-$77,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | November 2022
Photo – Bring a Trailer Auctions
Remember this car? It was everywhere when it debuted at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Designed around a C6 Corvette convertible, the car features fiberglass bodywork styled by Paul Deutschman. The “windshield” is actually two tiny pieces of Lexan in front of each passenger. There is no top. And the rear fairings house built-in helmets.
Power is from a Callaway-modified 6.2-liter V8 that was rated at 616 horsepower, which was more than any standard Corvette at the time. Top speed is said to be in excess of 210 mph, with 60 arriving in 3.2 seconds.
Only one was built, and it’s being sold be Ken Lingenfelter. If this thing would’ve entered production (not sure if the windscreens would’ve made it to a production car) it would’ve been intended to compete against cars from Lamborghini and Ferrari. I think it ranks right up there with the best American supercars of the 2000s, including the Saleen S7 and Mosler MT900S. Click here to see more.
Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 4-15, 2022
Photo – Mecum
The DeSoto marque was founded by Walter Chrysler shortly after he took over Maxwell and founded Chrysler. DeSoto was set to compete with the likes of Pontiac and Willys in the mid-price range. Well, they did so for the next 30 years, but the brand was wound up in 1961.
In the late 1950s, Chrysler’s brands were competing against each other, which was a major reason DeSoto was axed. DeSoto introduced a few upmarket, expensive cars during that time, including the Firedome and Fireflite. DeSoto’s 1957-1959 styling was one of Chrysler’s great ideas of the 1950s. In 1958, The Firedome was powered by a 5.9-liter V8 rated at 295 horsepower. The Firedome slotted in the lineup below the Fireflite and Adventurer.
Convertible production in 1958 totaled just 519 units for the Firedome, making the body style rarer on this platform than in the upmarket Fireflite. This one is finished in a lovely ’50s two-tone green paint scheme with a matching interior. You can check out more about it here.
This is an intriguing one. Zagato has dabbled in microcar design over the years, including with the Zele, which they made about 500 of in the mid-1970s. The weird part here is that the auction catalog lists this as a 1989.
But it sure doesn’t look very 1989. Zagato actually debuted the Milanina concept car at the Milan International Fair in 1972. It is unclear how many were built aside from the prototype. They certainly weren’t still making them in 1989.
It’s an electric car reminiscent of the later Ligier JS4. It’s a mystery, but an interesting one. The estimate is $15,000-$20,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 26, 2022
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
We’ve featured some early BMWs before, but this is the earliest of them all. It’s not even a BMW, it’s a Dixi, which was built by Dixi-Werke AG, a company born out of Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach in Germany. BMW would acquire the company in late 1928 and continue production of the Dixi for a few more years.
The Dixi itself was just a license-built version of the Austin Seven. It’s powered by a 748cc inline-four rated at 15 horsepower. The original DA-1 variant was built between 1927 through 1929. Top speed was 47 mph.
This example was delivered new in Memmingen, Germany, and was restored in the 1960s. It will sell in Munich at no reserve. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Milan, Italy | November 18, 2022
Photo – Bonhams
This special was built around an Italian car by an Australian living in the U.K.. Graham Smith didn’t like his kit car options, so he devised his own. This, the Huntsman Spyder, was built between 1986 and 1988.
It’s based around Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint Veloce mechanicals. That’s a 1.5-liter flat-four making 175 horsepower. It’s got an Alfa five-speed gearbox and weighs less than 1,400 pounds. Zero to 60 happens in less than five seconds.
The body is fiberglass, and the frame is constructed of square tubular steel. Suspension is sourced from Triumph, a Royale F3 car, and Bilstein. It’s the only one ever built and carries an estimate of $40,000-$60,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 26, 2022
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Adrian Newey (and team) designed a pretty stout car for the 2001 Formula One season. It wasn’t enough to best Ferrari, but it was enough to place second in the constructor’s championship. It was McLaren’s sixth-straight season with drivers David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen.
The period West livery has been replaced with “David” graphics, as Coulthard did well in this car. It’s competition history (for this, chassis MP4-16A-05) includes:
2001 San Marino Grand Prix – 2nd (with David Coulthard)
2001 Spanish Grand Prix – 5th (with Coulthard)
2001 Austrian Grand Prix – 1st (with Coulthard)
2001 Monaco Grand Prix – 5th (with Coulthard)
2001 Canadian Grand Prix – 3rd (with Mika Hakkinen)
2001 German Grand Prix – 12th, DNF (with Coulthard)
It was also used as a test car at various races. During the season, it was powered by a 3.0-liter Mercedes (Ilmor) V10 that made about 830 horsepower. Now it just has a dummy display engine in its place. No estimate is provided. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | November 2022
Photo – Bring a Trailer Auctions
Imagine this thing in your rearview mirror on a race track. Pretty scary. Now imagine it sneaking up behind you on the highway. Either is possible: it’s got a license plate mounted out back.
Let’s start at the beginning: the first T70 debuted in the mid-1960s as an open-top sports racing prototype. The Mk II Spyder came later and preceded the Mk 3 coupe. A slightly revised Mk.3B debuted in 1969 and featured front-hinged doors instead of the gullwing doors of the regular Mk 3.
Some of the Mk.3Bs were actually converted to road cars by Sbarro, who would soon after produce a run of replicas. That’s where things start getting confusing. This car was converted to road spec by Sbarro prior to their production of replicas, apparently. Funnily enough, there is another car with this same chassis number floating around (RM sold it in Paris 2014). That auction catalog initially advertised it as a Lola Mk.3B and laid out the early history of this yellow car. Then, shortly before the auction, they added a line that said “After further research it has come to light that this Lola T70 was built by Sbarro; it is very unlikely that this car was ever raced by Chuck Parsons” – which negated the entire history of their car they had written after it.
This car was reconstructed by Lola guru Mac McClendon in the 2010s. It’s powered by a 5.7-liter Chevrolet V8. The comments on the Bring a Trailer auction seem to be full of reading comprehension issues. Yeah, this car has had pretty much everything on it rebuilt or replaced (as has pretty much every race car of this era), but as someone wise said over there “a continuous history as being a particular car is what makes it original… more than the parts currently on the car.” Not to mention, if Mac McClendon says it’s the real deal… who are you to argue.
The other great bit of wisdom from a BaT commenter on thinking about cars like this: “The idea of the car is what matters; each replacement part occupies the same space as the original, and so to our mind the car is original even if none of the component parts are — the car has occupied the same space since 1969, and therefore remains the original car.”
Think about what this represents from 1969. It’s right there with a Miura or McLaren M6GT in terms of late 1960s supercars. It might not be as pretty as a Miura, but it’s more purposeful, and probably faster.
Bidding ends in a few days. You can read more about it here.
