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1951 Invicta Black Prince Shooting Brake by Associated Coach Builders

Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 2, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

I remember reading about the Invicta Black Prince when I was a little kid and I’ve always remembered that it is a rare, special car. In fact, most Invictas are pretty rare today. They company was founded in 1925 and sort of died in 1938. Those pre-war cars are pretty cool and sporty, competing with the likes of Lagonda.

The company was revived in 1946 and their goal was to build a Bentley/Rolls-Royce competitor. The Black Prince was an extraordinarily luxurious sedan offered until the company went bankrupt in 1950 (at which point they were acquired by Frazer Nash, who sold off the rest of the cars, including this one which the new owner had custom-bodied as an estate car). The cars were just too expensive, costing three times as much as a comparable Jaguar and almost as much as the Bentley. Side note, they tried to relaunch the marque as a sportscar maker in the 2000s, but they are now gone too.

The Black Prince is powered by a 127 horsepower, 3.0-liter straight-six. Because of slow sales, only 16 were made and only 12 of those still exist, including this one-off wagon. I don’t remember another Black Prince coming up for public sale in the last decade. The restoration on this car dates to the 1970s, which contributes to its seemingly low estimate of $28,000-$33,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $21,438.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the show on The History Channel called American Pickers, but every once in a while they come across an old Harley-Davidson or Indian that is basically a pile of rusty parts held together by some invisible force. Then they’ll offer the owner of said motorcycle (sometimes sans motor) a bundle of cash. Sometimes as much as $10,000. It seems insane. Then you see this:

That’s a 1915 Indian 61ci Board-track Racing Motorcycle. In original condition – pulled from a barn or a basement somewhere. It’s a first-year model of the 61ci Big-Twin. It sold for $67,860. Which is quite a sum for something you can’t really ride. And there were at least a dozen unrestored barn-find motorcycles that brought more than $10,000. I don’t find it absurd that people are buying them – I understand wanting something rare and original and wonderful. What I don’t understand is where are people finding these? How many treasures are still out there to be found? It’s fascinating.

Here’s my other favorite barn-find:

It’s another Indian, specifically a 1906 Indian Camelback. Everything is there and supposedly it was ridden as recently as the 1970s, although it doesn’t look it. More interestingly, it was the personal bike of Paul du Pont of the famous du Pont family and founder of Du Pont Motors and, later on, owner of Indian motorcycles. This brought $72,540.

Other highlights included these two Vincents:

The first is a 1953 Vincent Black Shadow Series C. If you’re going to buy a classic motorcycle and money is no object, I recommend a Black Shadow. The second is a 1955 Black Prince that has appeared at auction after auction waiting for the right person to come along and finally bid over that reserve price. It finally happened. The Vincents brought $122,500 – each.

There was also this beautiful 1928 Henderson De Luxe Four:

This beautiful blue bike could’ve been yours for $70,200. Finally, we have two interesting motorcycles that are both “feet-forward.” And they were built almost 100 years apart. The first is the 1921 Ner-a-Car, of which a fair number were built. You just don’t see them that often anymore.

It sold for $9,360 and was stated as having been restored at the Indian factory in the 1940s although it is currently missing its exhaust. The other interesting motorcycles is this:

It’s a 2002 Gurney Alligator. I remember reading about this when it was first built. It looks really strange and it’s feet-forward design lends itself more toward a luge feeling than riding a motorcycle. Only 36 were built and they’re pretty quick with 70 horsepower and a top speed of about 140 mph. It sold for $15,210 – slightly more than your average cheap new motorcycle – but this will start conversations much more easily.

Although the Coventry-Eagle we featured a few weeks ago did not sell, some of these results show that there is real passion alive in the collector motorcycle hobby. For complete results, click here.