Tag Archives: Bonhams

Renault Cape Top Victoria

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1909 Renault Series B V-1 20/30 Cape Top Victoria by Brewster

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Louis Renault and his brothers started building cars right before the turn of the century. They built a lot of cars early on, using De Dion engines at the beginning before switching to their own engines in 1903. Shortly after that, their range expanded and they built both small and large cars.

This Series B Type V1 was on the larger side, using a 4.4-liter straight-four making 20/30 horsepower. This large French tourer was actually bodied in America – on Long Island, in fact, by Brewster. The rear passenger compartment is enormous.

This car has known history back to the 1970s when it was an unrestored, low-milage car. It was restored in the late-1990s. It’s a beautiful, rare early Renault. A lot of smaller Renaults exist from this period, but the larger cars are much rarer. This car was undoubtedly owned by someone fairly rich when new and you can now feel just like them. It should sell for between $180,000-$230,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $120,333.

Cadillac V-16 Convertible Sedan

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1934 Cadillac V-16 Series 452-D Convertible Sedan by Fleetwood

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

With the top up, these big Cadillac Convertible Sedans seem a little boring. While certainly not ordinary, their four-door appearance belies that true beauty under that hood. With the top down they are magnificent. Can’t you just picture FDR riding around in the back?

The V-16 Cadillac was introduced in late 1929 for the 1930 model year. It’s one of the greatest American automobiles ever built. The engine is quiet, powerful and silky smooth. It was the first V-16 American automobile to go into production. The 452 refers to the cubic inches of displacement offered by this 7.4-liter V-16 that makes 185 horsepower.

The original V-16s were sort of boxy, but by 1932 they were redesigned to be sleeker and this 1934 Series 452-D looks quite Art Deco and windswept. It’s amazing how quickly automotive design matured between 1929 and 1934.

This car was bought new by a stockbroker in New York. It was specially ordered and the body was built by Fleetwood, which by this time was part of General Motors. In 1949, the engine was removed from this car and put in a race car. Luckily the chassis and body were kept and eventually reunited with the power unit a little over five years ago. The current owner acquired it in 2012. This huge car is one of not very many – by the mid-1930s, V-16 Cadillac production was down to about 50 or less per year, making this very rare. It should sell in the neighborhood of $450,000-$600,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $429,764.

The Only Two-Door Phantom VI

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1973 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI Cabriolet by Frua

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Rolls-Royce Phantom VI replaced the Phantom V (obviously). It was introduced in 1968 and lasted, ludicrously, through 1990. They were exclusive sedans and limousines favored by the likes of Queen Elizabeth II. A couple of hearses were also constructed and there were two convertibles built by Frua. One has four doors, making this the only two-door Phantom VI built.

It was designed by Pietro Frua for a Swiss diplomat for use in Switzerland and Monaco. In fact, he kept the car until 1997. It had one other owner before the current owner acquired it. It is powered by a 6.2-liter V-8 and power was “adequate.” Just look at the thing – it’s enormous. The car is over 19 feet long. It’s almost a foot longer than a ’59 Cadillac convertible. It’s one of the biggest two-door convertibles ever built.

And it is opulent. The interior has been aggressively nitpicked to the slightest detail from the leather-lined carpet to the owner’s initials on the horn. You really should see this thing from every angle, including the opposing opening hood. You can find more pictures here. It is expected to sell for between $300,000-$390,000. Click here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $550,098.

Maybach Zeppelin

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1933 Maybach DS-8 Zeppelin Cabriolet

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Wilhelm Maybach should be one of everybody’s automotive heroes. The quality of the engineering of his work is incredible. Born in 1846, he worked closely with Gottlieb Daimler in the late 1800s and his engines were in the first Mercedes car. He would later built giant Zeppelin engines for airships before building the cars that bore his name – some of the greatest automobiles ever built.

The Maybach Zeppelin line of cars were introduced in 1928. The DS-8 form was new for 1930 and built through 1938. The engine is a large 7.9-liter V-12  making 200 horsepower. It’s a powerful car for its day and the Zeppelin was the first German car with a V-12. This car features a very ahead of its time eight-speed manual transmission.

This car originally was a seven-passenger convertible limousine for heads of state. In fact, it was gifted on behalf of Adolf Hitler to a Maharajah in India. It eventually made its way back to Switzerland and was sold in 1997 to a German Maybach collector who had the state body removed and this cabriolet specially built. It’s based on a design by Spohn that they never actually built. The restoration was completed in 2005.

This is a massive car in every way. The engine is huge. The car itself is almost 17 feet long. Maybach only built about 1,800 cars between 1921 and 1940 – not many of them were this grand. This car should bring between $3,000,000-$3,600,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Duesenberg J-330

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1930 Duesenberg Model J Disappearing Top Roadster by Murphy

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

That’s quite the profile you see above. The term “Disappearing Top” was no misnomer – the top is completely hidden, resulting in a sleek rear end interrupted only by the rather functional trunk (when trunks were literal trunks).

This Model J has known ownership history back to brand new, when it was first bought by (or actually for, as it was a gift) the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The car has had many owners since and in 1959 it sold for $6,000 (which was a lot then but seems awfully cheap today). This Duesey has been in the current collection for about a decade or so. It has never been restored.

The 265 horsepower 6.9-liter straight-eight engine is all original. This car looks restored and has been scored in the highest possible category of Duesenbergs. It’s one of, if not the, best, original survivor Model J in the world. It should sell for between $2,500,000-$3,100,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of this sale’s lineup.

Update: Sold $2,664,538.

August 2015 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

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We’ll continue where we left off last time: Pebble Beach, specifically, Gooding & Company’s sale. The top dog here was a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider that sold for $16,830,000. Our featured Ferrari 250 GT Speciale “Shark Nose” wasn’t far behind at $16,500,000.

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

And honestly, not too far behind that was the Porsche 956, selling for $10,120,000. The Fiat Eden Roc, which came in without an estimate, surprised us a little, selling for a healthy $660,000. The 1912 Packard brought $280,000 and a previously-featured Delage failed to sell. Complete results are right here.

Up next is Russo & Steele’s sale where our featured Dual-Ghia sold for $412,500. The top seller was this 2005 Porsche Carrera GT Coupe for $781,000. Check out full results here.

Photo - Russo & Steele

Photo – Russo & Steele

Now let’s move into September, a month front-loaded with awesome auctions. Bonhams’ Beaulieu Sale was held on September 5th and the top sale was this 1929 Bentley 4.25-Litre Sports Saloon by Mulliner project for $1,059,594.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

We featured a bunch of cars from this sale and the only one that didn’t sell was the Frazer Nash Colmore. Here’s the rundown of all our featured cars that sold, from least expensive to most:

Click here for complete results. Actually, Bonhams held two sales in two different countries on the same continent on the same day. Their other sale, the inaugural sale at the Chantilly Concours in France. The sell-through rate wasn’t outstanding, with three of our feature cars (the Lorraine-Dietrich, Bugatti and Aston Sportsman) all failing to sell. The top sale was our featured Maserati Boomerang for $3,714,522. Interesting sales were led by this 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500K Cabriolet C for $678,861. Click here for full results.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

And the last sale of this rundown is Silverstone Auctions’ Salon Privé sale. We unfortunately weren’t able to feature anything from this sale, but the top seller was this 1968 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage Volante that brought $1,368,000. Click here for the whole catalog with results.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

HRG-Maserati

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1949 H.R.G.-Maserati Sports

Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | September 12, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

H.R.G. built light cars and racing specials between 1936 and 1956 in Tolworth, England. There were six factory models offered over the years, built in various amounts. This was not one of them. It is a one-off special commissioned by then-BBC presenter John Gilbert.

They took the chassis from their 1500 model and stretched it a little bit (this car looks very long and narrow). Gilbert also had a spare eight-cylinder Maserati engine lying around that came from one of their 1930s Brooklands racers that he wanted installed. The body was built to look like a Maserati racer, too.

Eventually, the Maserati engine was replaced – multiple times over the years so it could make more and more power. Right now it houses a 2.4-liter Jaguar straight-six. A six-cylinder Maserati cylinder block is included with this sale. The car was raced at Goodwood back in the day and is fresh off restoration in 2014. It should sell for between $94,000-$110,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $132,027.

Silver Ghost Skiff

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1914 Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost Skiff by Schapiro-Schebera

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Silver Ghost is the most famous of all Rolls-Royce models. Many were huge touring cars or sedans for the wealthy to be chauffeured around in. But not everyone wanted to sit out back and there are a number of “sportier” variants of the 40/50HP Silver Ghost, including this nautical-themed Skiff.

The Silver Ghost was so named because of an early factory demonstrator that was painted in silver. The car still exists – it’s actually owned by Bentley and is hugely famous. Between 1906 and 1926 (an eternity), Rolls-Royce moved 7,874 examples – including the 1,703 built in the U.S.

The engine from 1910 onward was a 7.4-liter straight-six making 50 horsepower. This car was delivered new to France before making its way to Belgium. Around 1919, just after WWI ended, the car was taken to Berlin and re-bodied from an enclosed sedan to the skiff you see here. The car would later reside in Cairo, Egypt for decades until being taken back to England for a restoration in the 1970s. The restoration was not all that intense, as the car was well-preserved in its desert home for many years. In fact, some of the car appears original.

In 1985 the car went to a new owner in California. It’s current owner has the car in Denmark. It has certainly led a well-traveled life. It is thought that this may be the only wooden skiff-bodied Silver Ghost ever built, even if it was a re-body (but although this was done in period, it’s really not a big deal). It should bring between $1,100,000-$1,400,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $1,117,387.

Porsche 908 Turbo

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1970 Porsche 908/03 Spyder Turbo

Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | September 12, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

We’ve featured a 1970 Porsche 908/03 Spyder before. While this car sports the same Martini racing livery, it looks markedly different from that car. The difference is this: the 908/03 was built between 1970 and 1971. The first cars were short-tail wedges without wings or any real aerodynamic bits. 1971 cars had vertical winglets out back. The original cars were powered by a 3.0-liter flat-8.

In 1972, the racing rules changes and Porsche brought most of the 908/03s back to the factory and retrofitted with upgraded body work and a smaller, 2.1-liter flat-6 that was twin-turbocharged to make 660 horsepower. This was one of those cars. You can see the aerodynamics are much more pronounced here with the big rear wing and giant air inlet above the driver. The competition history for this car includes:

  • 1970 Targa Florio – 5th (with Richard Attwood and Bjorn Waldegaard)
  • 1970 1000km Nurburgring – 46th, DNF (with Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen)
  • 1975 1000km Monza – DNF (with Kinnunen and Herbert Muller)
  • 1975 1000km Nurburgring – 3rd (with Kinnunen and Muller)

It was eventually sold into private hands and spent much of its life on the historic circuit. Thirteen 908/03s were built – this is the only turbocharged 908 that still exists. It is race-ready and should sell for between $3,400,000-$3,900,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Woods Electric

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1905 Woods Electric Queens Victoria Brougham

Offered by Bonhams | Ebeltoft, Denmark | September 26, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Woods Motor Vehicle Company was founded by a group of rich guys in Chicago. Among them were executives from Standard Oil, so it is odd that the company specialized in electric cars for nearly 15 years. But I guess the another board member (a co-founder of General Electric) got his way instead. The Woods name comes from Clinton Edgar Woods, the holder of the patent that the company purchased.

The first car was built in 1899 with series production beginning in 1903 and lasting through 1915 before the company switched gears and became Woods Dual Power (and building gas-powered and hybrid cars) before going out of business after 1918 (though, strangely, there was a gasoline-powered “Woods Electric” offered between 1905 and 1907).

The 1905 model line offered an electric car of varying wheelbases – 13 body styles in all. This car features Style 214A (which wasn’t actually introduced until 1906 – so this car may actually be a 1906). But it is listed as the only surviving 1905 Woods Electric. It can do about 30 mph and the closed body is removable if you want the air in your face as you drive. It’s super interesting and should bring between $82,000-$97,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $94,548.