Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 2, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
Kougar Cars had only been around about a year when they produced this sports racing prototype. It looks like an Italian racer from the 1950s but is actually based on Ford or Jaguar components. This was the factory prototype for the Monza model, which would end up being less popular than the company’s Sports model.
This example is powered by a 3.0-liter Ford Essex V6. You could fit a Rover V8 in there. Or, if you were insane, a Jaguar V12. The aluminum bodywork features a low-slung front end, a hood scoop, and a headrest fairing for the right-side driver.
It was restored in 2012 and 2013. Only about 40 Monzas were produced, and this one has an estimate of $37,000-$63,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 2, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
So what is this exactly? Well, it’s described as a Rhodia – and that’s what the badge on the radiator surround says. But even browsing some fairly comprehensive automotive encyclopedias won’t help you find any info about the company.
Bonhams doesn’t provide much insight either, but they do mention that it was built in the U.S. and is “one of a few” exported to the U.K. for use as an ambulance during WWI. But, if you consult the Beaulieu Encyclopedia, there is a mention of Rhodia as a British manufacturer that existed sometime between 1914 and 1922. It notes that the ambulance you see here is the only evidence of its existence.
This truck, which is powered by an inline-four engine, is said to have been discovered in a garage in 1977, having been shut in there since 1939. It was previously registered as a taxi in Scotland in the 1920s, and it was restored by the current owner, with work wrapping in 2016. If you’re in the market for a mystery – and have the money/skill to build your own replacement parts from scratch, this is the historic WWI ambulance for you. It has an estimate of $18,000-$25,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
Colonel Pope founded five different car companies, four of which had his name attached to them. The Pope-Toledo was built in Toledo, Ohio, from 1903 to 1909. After it closed, the factory was sold to Overland.
A Pope-Toledo competed in the first Vanderbilt Cup in 1904. Not this car, though. This is an assembled car that uses a 24-horsepower Pope-Toledo frame, a post-1904 3.4-liter inline-four, and a reconstructed body imitating that used by the Vanderbilt Cup car, which was driven by Herb Lytle. Lytle previously owned this engine, which is larger than a stock Pope-Toledo unit.
The car’s low bodywork implies sport, and the fact that it has dual chain drive implies some kind of speed. This may not look the part, but for 1904, it was a performance car. Then again, the car as we see it is not from 1904 but from many decades later. It has an estimate of $200,000-$300,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
This car is proof that, if you watch long enough, just about everything will come up for sale. Ferrari‘s “P”-line of sports prototype race cars are among the most valuable and sought after vehicles in the world. Only four 412Ps were built, and two of those were actually converted from P3s.
This car, chassis number 0854, is one of two factory-built 412Ps. But not much left on it is from the factory. The car was purchased by David Piper in 1968, and the original aluminum body had seen a few years of hard racing duty at that point. And instead of repair it, he replaced the body with a fiberglass one. Which was then destroyed in a fire in 1969. It was then rebuilt again, and this time as a spyder, before it was actually restored to how it looked when new. This was done by the current owner, famed Ferrari guy Jim Glickenhaus.
With these old racing cars, it’s sort of like the “idea” of them. Eventually every part will be replaced, but as long as you can link the chain back to when it was new, then you’ve got the real deal.
The engine is a 4.0-liter V12 that makes somewhere around 420 horsepower. The period racing history for this chassis includes:
1967 1000km Spa – 3rd (with Richard Attwood and Lucien Bianchi)
1967 24 Hours of Le Mans – 23rd (with Attwood and Piers Courage)
All of this is good and well, but there is still one more important detail (it’s not the price, which most cannot afford anyway and will be well into the eight figures). It’s this: this car has license plates. The late 1960s is when the end came for sports prototypes to also be made street legal. By the 1970s, the cars were too extreme. This is pretty extreme, but you can still take it to the grocery store. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
The insane front-engined Panoz Esperante GTR-1 put Panoz on the map, and once that class was eliminated from FIA GT competition, Panoz re-tooled and came up with the LMP-1 Roadster S. Then they also founded the ALMS so they had somewhere to race it in the U.S.
It looks like an open-cockpit GTR-1, and it kind of is. They were powered by a 6.0-liter Ford-based Elan V8 that made 620 horsepower. This particular car is without an engine. It is chassis #002, and its competition history includes:
1999 24 Hours of Le Mans – 11th (with Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen, and Max Angelelli)
1999 Petit Le Mans – 5th (with O’Connell, Magnussen, and Memo Gidley)
Those are some grade A late-90s/early-00s endurance racing names. These Panoz prototypes are LOUD – you know, when they have an engine. And this one would be welcome at most historic racing events. It has an estimate of $350,000-$550,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
This is a “bitsa” Duesenberg. It’s got bits of this and that Model J assembled to form a complete car. This is the case with seemingly every pre-war Bugatti, and more than a few Model Js have swapped engines and/or bodies.
So what do we have here? First, a real Model J chassis (2481) that was pulled out of one of Karl Kleve’s hoards. It was originally bodied as a Willoughby limousine. It also has engine J-474 in it, and that’s what really matters (even though it did not come from chassis 2481). Weirdly, they’ve coupled that 265-horsepower, 6.9-liter inline-eight with a Tremec six-speed manual transmission.
The body is a recreation. There’s something about dual-cowl coachwork that is hard to really nail, and every such recreation looks slightly… off. Maybe it’s the long wheelbase coupled with too-small-looking wire wheels. Or maybe it’s just the photos. Anyway, this is said to be a $1.8 million build, and it now has an estimate of $1,250,000-$1,500,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
Well, there’s no replacement for displacement. Back in the early days of competition motoring, companies just put bigger and bigger engines on their relatively simple chassis and hoped for the best. The crazy part is they rarely ever added cylinders. They just made them bigger. Coffee cans that you can count rev.
But! This car is not from 1909. Maybe a few of the components are, but this car was assembled much more recently. It started as a rolling 1909 Lorraine-Dietrich chassis that was fitted with an actual chain-driven Lorraine-Dietrich gearbox and a custom-built giant motor.
It’s a 16.4-liter inline-four that develops 200 horsepower and a crazy 850 lb-ft of torque, the latter at 1,500 rpm. Here’s an old car that can easily keep up with modern traffic. It has a pre-sale estimate of $600,000-$800,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Datchet, U.K. | July 22, 2023
Photo – Historics Auctioneers
Wolseley Motors was founded by Vickers – the armaments company – with engineer Herbert Austin on board to help design the cars. The first Wolseleys were sold to the public in 1901. Meanwhile, John Siddeley founded the Siddeley Automobile Company in 1902. Wolseley bought Siddeley in 1905, bringing the latter’s namesake into the fold.
Shortly after, Austin left to form his own company, and Siddeley was put in charge. He then promptly added his own name to the cars, thus forming Wolseley-Siddeley. In 1909, Siddeley left, and his name was then removed. So the car you see here is from a marque that only advertised from 1906 through 1909.
Power is from a 3.3-liter inline-four that was rated at about 15 horsepower. Not many of these survive, despite Wolseley being a dominant force in the U.K. car market around this time (interestingly enough, another auction house has another Wolseley-Siddeley in their catalog for not long after this car crosses the block). It’s been in the same family since 1956 and now has an estimate of $54,000-$68,000. More info can be found here.
Update: Sold, but the auction house won’t tell us for how much.
Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | July 14, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
Lotus has a long history in F1. From the days of Colin Chapman and Jim Clark to dominance in the ’70s and Mario Andretti’s only F1 championship. Lotus survived into the ’90s, selling out to what would become Pacific Racing, a team that disappeared after one season. The name then returned in the 2010s for a few years, which basically a holding place after Renault left and before they returned again.
Anyway, the Type 107 was designed by Chris Murphy (and team) and debuted for the 1992 season. The car was updated to “B” spec for 1993 and then to “C” specification for the first half of 1994 before it was replaced by the 109. Power in period was from a Ford-Cosworth V8 in ’92 and ’93 and a Mugen-Honda 3.5-liter V10 in 1994. Output was 725 horsepower for the Honda.
The history for this chassis, 107C-01 includes:
1994 Pacific Grand Prix at Aida, Japan – 8th (with Pedro Lamy)
1994 San Marino Grand Prix – 10th (with Johnny Herbert)
1994 Monaco Grand Prix – 11th (with Lamy)
Lamy then used this car in testing at Silverstone when it suffered a catastrophic failure and was essentially destroyed. After Team Lotus failed in 1995, the remnants of this chassis were purchased by the current owner in 1997 along with some spares and rebuilt to show-car status. The Mugen-Honda V10 is long gone, but a mocked-up Judd V10 without internals is in there. The estimate is still $90,000-$125,000. Read more about it here.
Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | July 14, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
Tyrrell was an innovative F1 team, especially in the 1970s. Ken Tyrrell started campaigning cars in other Formula in the late 1950s, arriving on the F1 scene in 1966. The team’s peak occurred in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Their final win came in 1983, and the mid-1980s were not kind. Their last season was 1998 before being bought by BAR, which became the Honda F1 team.
The 014 was the replacement for the 012 (which was a car that got Tyrrell disqualified from the 1982 championship season). The 014 was used for the latter half of the 1985 season and the first few races of 1986. The team’s drivers during that span consisted of Martin Brundle, Stefan Bellof, Ivan Capelli, and Philippe Streiff.
This car was raced with power from a Renault-Gordini turbocharged 1.5-liter V6. Only four 014 chassis were made, and the history for this one, 014/3, includes:
1985 Italian Grand Prix – 8th (with Martin Brundle)
1985 Belgian Grand Prix – 13th (with Brundle)
1985 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch – 18th, DNF (with Brundle)
1985 South African Grand Prix – 7th (with Brundle)
1985 Australian Grand Prix – 13th (with Brundle)
1986 Spanish Grand Prix – 10th, DNF (with Brundle)
This car is described as being “in as-last-raced condition” and does not have an engine. But the gearbox is there! So you can sit in it and pull through the gears making revving noises. The estimate here is $63,000-$100,000. Click here for more info.
