Tag Archives: Bonhams

Imperia Fabric Saloon

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1926 Imperia Type 8-25SS 8HP Fabric Saloon

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 8, 2018

Photo – Bonhams

Based in Liège, Imperia automobiles were first introduced in 1906. The company would grow throughout the 1910s and into the 20s, acquiring Metallurgique, Nagant, and Excelsior along the way. In 1934 they merged with Minerva but the merger disbanded in 1939. Imperial built a few cars after the war but the marque was gone by 1949.

The most interesting thing about Imperia (I think) was that their factory in Belgium contained a test track along the roof (which you can still see on Google Earth). The car you see here has a fabric roof and it powered by four-cylinder engine that probably displaces 1.1 liters, which would mean it makes 27 horsepower.

Imperias aren’t all that common today and this one has been owned by the consignor for the past 12 years. It’s a small, light, and affordable Belgian classic. It should bring between $24,000-$36,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Tojeiro-Butterworth

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1956 Tojeiro-Butterworth AJB Sports

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 8, 2018

Photo – Bonhams

Here is another one-off sports racing special carrying the name of John Tojeiro. In this case, Tojeiro wasn’t really involved with building the car at all. Instead, a racer named Major Ronald Clare Clifford Palmer bought a chassis from Tojeiro’s company and built his own car, using an engine from Archie Butterworth.

Butterworth had been designing and driving race cars since the end of WWII and had created a series of small four-cylinder engines for Formula 2 competition. It was one of these engines that Palmer and a friend purchased to install in this car. It’s a 1.5-liter flat-four, race-prepped and ready to run.

The body was custom built and pretty much looks like they sprayed liquid fiberglass over the components and let it dry. It’s a tight fit, which helps keep the weight down. The current owner bought it in 2011 and this thing has been completely gone over. It’s raced in historic events are some great tracks around Europe and now it’s someone else’s turn to enjoy it. It should bring between $110,000-$160,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Knox Touring

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1910 Knox Type O 5-Passenger Touring

Offered by Bonhams | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 18, 2018

Photo – Bonhams

Ever heard the saying “right place, right time?” Well Harry Knox lived it. He lived next door to automotive pioneer Frank Duryea who told him he should get into the auto business himself. So Knox set up the Knox Automobile Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1900.

When I think of Knox cars, this is what I picture. But what we have here is a large touring car. Knox started moving this direction around 1905, but their cars really started getting big in 1908. The Type O (which I show to be a 1909 model, though this one is listed as a 1910) was offered in two different wheelbases. This is the longer of the two.

It’s powered by a 45 horsepower, 6.1-liter straight-four. The Five-Passenger Touring body style was one of four offered in this chassis configuration and it cost $3,000 when new. The restoration of this example was completed in 2011. These later Knox cars don’t show up often, and the price of this one reflects that: it carries a pre-sale estimate between $175,000-$225,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Bonhams’ Scottsdale lineup.

Update: Sold $145,000.

Molzon Concept Corsa

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1968 Molzon Concept Corsa GT38

Offered by Bonhams | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 18, 2018

Photo – Bonhams

This aggressive-looking one-off was the pride and joy of former General Motors designer William Molzon. Molzon worked at GM under Larry Shinoda and wanted to create a sports car that was designed with both the design and engineering in mind from the get-go.

In 1963 he started his effort. The chassis is light, built using one-inch steel tubing. The engine is a race-modified 2.7-liter flat-six tuned to produce 200 horsepower. The body is fiberglass and it was hand-laid by Molzon over a Styrofoam base. The transmission is from a first-generation Porsche 911.

Weighing in at about 1,100 pounds, it’s about as nimble as things came in the 1960s. And it looks loud too, like it barks (in fact, it almost has a dog-like stance). But few people probably know just how loud it is – this car has only covered 959 since new. Molzon kept the car for 50 years, just recently departing with it earlier this year. Featured in Road & Track in 1970, the Molzon Concept Corsa GT38 should bring between $100,000-$125,000 in Scottsdale 2018. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $41,800.

Sabra Sport

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1962 Sabra Sport Roadster

Offered by Bonhams | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 18, 2018

Photo – Bonhams

The Sabra was Israel’s first and only sports car. Built in limited numbers by Autocars Co. Ltd of Haifa, the Sabra Sport was built alongside a few Autocars-branded models that were a little more ordinary-looking. The design of the Sabra was accomplished by Autocars purchasing the rights to the Ashley kit car.

The body is fibgerlass and it was built by Reliant, who actually ended up building the first 122 cars in England. They themselves built a version of the Sabra as the “Sabre” under their own marque. This is one of those “Israel-by-way-of-Tamworth, England” cars. It was delivered new to a Sabra dealer in the U.S.

The engine here is a 1.7-liter Ford straight-four making 61 horsepower. You could buy these in Coupe form as well. Only 379 were built between 1961 and 1968, including both the drop-top and hard-top models. Autocars Ltd actually lasted into the 1980s.

This car was never sold by that Florida dealer and was instead put in storage. It was discovered in 2000 with just 40 miles on it (!). It Completely restored thereafter, it has covered just 650 miles since new. It’s incredible. This example should bring between $50,000-$70,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Sold $40,700.

November/December 2017 Auction Highlights

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We’re winding up 2017 and we’re starting with Historics at Brooklands at Mercedes-Benz World. Two cars here shared the “top sale” honors. They were this 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL:

Photo – Historics at Brooklands

And this 1994 Lamborghini Diablo VT. Both brought $182,216.

Photo – Historics at Brooklands

The Peugeot van we featured failed to sell, but the Ligier microcar went for just $2,987 -a steal for a true oddity. Click here for complete results.

Brightwells sort of snuck a sale in under our radar in late November and we didn’t get to feature anything from it. The top sale was $89,965 for this 1963 Jaguar E-Type Series I 3.8 Roadster. Click here for more results.

Photo – Brightwells

Next up, Bonhams’ first of two December sales held in London. This, the Bond Street Sale, appropriately saw this very Bond-esque ex-Paul McCartney 1964 Aston Martin DB5 bring the most money of any car in the sale: $1,811,994.

Photo – Bonhams

That means that the Ferrari 288 GTO (and the Bristol 411) failed to sell. Click here for more from this sale.

RM Sotheby’s held their “Icons” sale in New York City and this 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione blew everything else away, selling for $17,990,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The three cars we featured from this sale all sold, with the Pagani bringing the most at $1,850,000. The Marmon sold for $962,000 and the Chrysler Special $885,000. Click here for the rest of the big dollar cars (and they were all big dollar cars).

Finally, for 2017, Leclere auctioned off some of Citroen’s private reserve. The top sale was the Tubyk Concept we featured for $43,747. The 1980 Xenia Concept missed its estimate, bringing just $8,616. Most Interesting goes to this semi-bizarre 2007 Citroen Jumpy “Snow Atlantic” by Sbarro which sold for $21,210.

Photo – Leclere

The other Sbarro creation was the topless Berlingo and it sold for $12,593. The two Eco 2000 prototypes both sold with the 1983 version bringing $11,268, while the 1984  version brought $19,222. And the Citela Concept sold for $17,233. Click here for complete results.

November 2017 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

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We’re starting this post off with a fascinating liquidation sale brought to us by Bonhams. They auctioned off the Lindley Bothwell collection of historic motorcars. The top sale, as predicted everywhere, was the unbelievable Peugeot Grand Prix car for $7,260,000. The other million dollar cars we featured were the Mercedes-Simplex for $1,072,500 and the Benz racer for $1,870,000.

Of the cars we featured, the only one that was remotely affordable was the Crestmobile that sold for $39,600. As far as interesting sales, this 1910 Pope-Hartford Model W 50HP Racer takes the cake, selling for $264,000.

Photo – Bonhams

The rest of our feature cars all sold. The twin-cylinder Packard sold for $423,500, the Austro-Daimler $176,000, and the Clement-Panhard $60,500. Click here for complete results, including quite a number of model trains and even some horse-drawn streetcars.

Half a world away, H&H Classics held their final automobile sale of the year. The biggest sale went to this 1963 Jaguar E-Type Series I 3.8 Coupe for $240,442. The Austin Prototype we featured failed to find a new home. Click here for complete results.

Photo – H&H Classics

Next up, Osenat’s final automotive sale of 2017. There were a few cars worthy of being featured from this sale, but we ran out of time. Blame Lindley Bothwell. The top sale was this 1972 Dino 246 GT for $297,145. Click here for more results.

Photo – Osenat

Sotheby’s sold one of Michael Schumacher’s F1 cars, specifically this 2001 Ferrari F2001, at a Contemporary Art Auction in New York. Kind of weird as F1 cars are more functional than they are art. Anyway, it brought an impressive $7,504,000.

Photo – Sotheby’s

Finally, Mecum in Kansas City. The top sale here was this 2005 Ford GT for $265,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Stellite we featured a while back sold again, this time for $3,750. My personal offer of $4,000 still stands. Email me and I’ll buy it. Click here for the rest of their results.

TVR 2500

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1971 TVR 2500 Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 6, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

The TVR Vixen of 1967 was an evolution of the Grantura that dated back another five years (the first Granturas go back to 1958, but the styling of the Series III cars is mostly represented here). While the styling may have been a carryover, the drivetrain underneath was the real news.

The first Vixens were powered by a 1.6-liter Ford unit. But the same year the Vixen was introduced, TVR also launched the Tuscan, which had a V-8 or V-6. Unfortunately neither of these engines met U.S. emissions standards so TVR built a best-of-both-worlds car: the 2500 (or as it was called in the U.S., the Vixen 2500).

Built in 1971 and 1972 only, the 2500 was powered by a 2.5-liter Triumph straight-six that made a modest 105 horsepower. This made it the most powerful Vixen model, but it lacked power when compared to its competition.

Fortunately, a recent owner of this particular example had this car restored in the 1990s. In the process, they hopped up the engine a little bit, making it more of a performer. Only 289 of these were built (though an extra 96 cars were constructed with a different chassis from the M Series… of which there was a “2500M” model that is unrelated to the car pictured above and the 96 “2500”s built on their shared chassis. Confused yet?).

This car should bring between $29,000-$34,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $33,845.

Bristol 411 Series IV

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1974 Bristol 411 Series IV

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 6, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

The fourth series of the Bristol 411 was only sold in 1974. It sports the same styling as the Series III, with revised grille and headlight setup. The engine was also different as Bristol went with more displacement, installing a 6.6-liter version of Chrysler’s V-8. The larger engine wasn’t enough to counteract a lower compression ratio and stricter environmental guidelines as power dropped to 264 horsepower.

This example was restored over a five year period between 2006 and 2011. The Series IV had the shortest production run, but I’m not sure how many were built (of the 287 total). Always rare and always collectible, this Bristol should bring between $59,000-$72,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $58,459.

Bristol 411 Series I

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1970 Bristol 411 Series I

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 2, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

The Bristol 411 was the replacement for the short lived 410. It debuted in 1969 and was built in five distinct series until 1976. We’ve previously featured a Series II car and what you see here is a Series I, which was built between 1969 and 1970.

The engine in the 411 was a 6.3-liter Chrysler V-8 making 335 horsepower. Top speed was 140 mph. For the Series II, Bristol added a self-leveling suspension. The styling would get an update for the Series III. Only about 50 examples of the Series I were produced, out of a total production run of 287 cars. This 77,000 mile example should bring between $79,000-$92,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.