Tag Archives: Bonhams

1917 Saurer Truck

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1917 Saurer Four-Cylinder Truck

Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 5, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Adolph Saurer AG was around from 1903 through 1982. That’s a pretty good run, especially considering they abandoned the passenger car business more or less before the company got going.

What’s great about this truck is that it is WWI-era. So many of these trucks were either 1. destroyed during the war itself or 2. scrapped to make newer, more reliable, quicker, and efficient trucks and other equipment for WWII. So to have one that has survived is amazing. It’s powered by a 5.0-liter straight-four.

While it might be slow as dirt, it’s exceptionally interesting and carries a nice restoration and relatively recent mechanical freshening. It should bring between $25,000-$31,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $35,020.

Aston Martin Sportsman

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1996 Aston Martin V8 Sportsman Shooting Brake

Offered by Bonhams | Chantilly, France | September 5, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Aston Martin has a great history of wagons – err… Shooting Brakes. A lot of the cars built earlier in Aston’s history were aftermarket jobs by outside coachbuilders. Not this thing. It was converted by Aston Martin themselves.

This car started life as a 1996 V8 Coupe, which is what the Virage was called from 1996 through 2000. Only 101 V8 Coupes were built. And only two were turned into wagons. The V8 Coupe was powered by a 5.3-liter V-8 making 330 horsepower.

This is a two owner car from new, with the current owner having used the car for hunting. I would presume it is fox or quail hunting or something as nothing could be more European. This is the last (or at least, most recent) Aston Martin Shooting Brake and it’s really cool. It should bring between $380,000-$600,000. Click here for more info and here for more form this sale.

Update: Not sold.

The 3rd Place Car from the 3rd Race at Le Mans

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1925 Lorraine-Dietrich B3-6 Le Mans Torpedo Sport

Offered by Bonhams | Chantilly, France | September 5, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

At one time, Lorraine-Dietrich shared as many 24 Hours of Le Mans victories as did Bentley (actually, they won it two years in a row, so they had more victories than did Bentley. And Porsche. And Audi. Combined). Sure, that year was 1925, the year in which this car competed – and its sister car won – the famed 24 hour race. It was the event’s third such running. Lorraine-Dietrich could trace its automotive roots back to 1896. Their last cars were made in 1935.

The model is the 15CV B3-6 which uses a 3.5-liter straight-six making somewhere from 85 to 100 horsepower. This was a factory Lorraine-Dietrich race car and its race history includes the following:

  • 1925 24 Hours of Le Mans – 3rd (with Henry Stalter and Edouard Brisson)
  • 1925 24 Hours of Spa – 5th (with Stalter and Brisson)

So, a very successful, early racer that continued racing with the factory through 1926 and was still competitive a decade later in the hands of privateers. Strangely, in 1949, the car was taken apart and used as farm equipment, but thankfully it was rescued and restored.

The restoration was completed in 1997 but it still looks great. Imagine how fun this would be at historic racing events. It’s entirely unassuming – unless you knew, you’d never be able to guess that this thing finished on the podium at Le Mans. It should bring somewhere in the huge range of $650,000-$1,100,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

August 2015 Auction Highlights, Pt. I

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We now move into August, which, of course, means Pebble Beach. But first we head a little inland to Reno, Nevada for Barrett-Jackson’s sale where seemingly everything was in some way a “custom” except this, the top seller 1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427/435 Convertible which brought $214,500. Complete results can be found here.

Photo - Barrett-Jackson

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

Of the Pebble Beach sales, Bonhams is the first up in our rundown. All of our feature cars sold with the Ferrari 212 Cabriolet being the biggest money maker, at $2,200,000. The Veritas was next at $907,500. The top seller overall was this 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Competizione Alloy Berlinetta for $8,525,000.

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The cool American Fiat sold for $130,000. Our two featured Aston Martins were both big money cars. The 2-Litre Sports sold for $781,000 and the Vanquish Roadster Prototype went for $660,000. Check out the complete results here.

Mecum’s Monterey sale is next. A previously-featured Duesenberg failed to sell at this sale but our featured Ruf CTR2 sold for $300,000. The top sale was this gorgeous-in-orange 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400 S for $2,300,000. Full results can be found here.

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

RM Sotheby’s had a three-day sale in Monterey this year, including a special Thursday night sale of what they billed as the “Pinnacle Portfolio” – a collection of super cars from a single owner. They sort of advertised it as a separate sale, so we’ll run it down separately. The top seller there was a 1964 Ferrari 250LM that went for $17,600,000.

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

The two cars we featured from this sale brought big bucks. The Pope’s Enzo went for what has to be a record for the model: $6,050,000. And the wonderful McLaren F1 went for a mind-boggling $13,750,000. I remember when you could find one of those on a dealer lot in the late-90’s for under $1,000,000.

The rest of RM’s sale was also huge. Seemingly every other car was either a “prototype” or some rare one-off variant that features a distinction that the factory never even made. Regardless, there was a tie for the top sale between a 1953 Jaguar C-Type Lightweight (first below) and a 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Competizione Tour de France (second below). Both sold for an astounding $13,200,000.

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

Many of our feature cars were no slouches either. The Ferrari 275S sold for $7,975,000. Other million dollar cars included the Aston Martin Speed Model for $1,155,000, this sale’s Duesenberg for $1,595,000, and the Jaguar Supersonic for $2,062,500.

The beautiful Aston Martin DB9 Centennial Spyder went for $693,000 and the Pungs-Finch brought $852,500. The Chevy CERV-I and the Bizzarrini P538 both failed to sell, while the Adler Rennlimousine disappeared from the catalog. Full results for both of these sales can be found here.

Hustler Space Shuttle

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1973 Hustler 6 Space Shuttle

Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 5, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Hustler was a brand of automobile that sold products of designer Williams Towns’ Interstyl design studio. The cars were all Mini-based and sold in kit form (out of Towns’ house at that). There were 12 different models offered between 1978 and the early 1980s.

This example is titled as a 1973 because it is likely based on a ’73 Mini, as the kits weren’t introduced until 1978. The unusual “6” was a six-wheeler that utilized two Mini rear subframes and a four-cylinder engine. It’s basically just one big greenhouse and the whole thing sort of looks like it’s made out of LEGOs.

Only three six-wheeler Space Shuttles were built (and between 300-500 Hustler kits were sold in total). This one has been fully restored. If you’re in need of something very interesting that nearly no one else has, here’s your ride. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $14,008.

Maserati Boomerang

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1972 Maserati Boomerang Concept by Italdesign

Offered by Bonhams | Chantilly, France | September 5, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

This wild – and iconic – 1970s Italian concept car was designed by the master himself, Giorgetto Giugiaro. This is a concept car in the classic sense of concept cars – out there ideas that really don’t have a shot at production. But unlike many, this thing is not only fully functional, but road registered.

It’s powered by a 4.7-liter V-8 from a Bora making 310 horsepower. The engine is mounted in the rear and the driver sits in a sort of glass greenhouse. The front of the sharp wedge has a giant, (and we mean giant) Maserati trident slapped on there so there’s no mistaking what company this car represents. Remember, this is from 1972 – cars that actually looked like this (wedges sharp lines and creases… think Lotus Esprit) were on sale for decades after.

The Boomerang premiered at the 1971 Turin Motor Show and made its rounds across Europe in 1972: Geneva, Paris, London, Barcelona. It was sold after the Barcelona show to a Spanish resident until a German took it home with him in 1980. It was restored and appeared at shows as early as 1990. A few other owners have had the pleasure to be this car’s caretaker and it had another slight restoration in 2003. It’s been welcomed at car shows all over the world and will continue to be. This is a rare chance to own a true concept car from one of the greatest automotive designers of all time. No pre-sale estimate is available, but if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Sold $3,714,522.

Bugatti Type 101C

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1954 Bugatti Type 101C Coupe by Antem

Offered by Bonhams | Chantilly, France | September 5, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Post-war Bugattis are essentially impossible to come by. The company Ettore founded built its final pre-war car, the Type 57, in 1940. The Molsheim factory was destroyed during the war and Bugatti no longer controlled it. Ettore died in 1947 and his son Roland attempted the bring the company back in 1949 supposedly building a handful of Type 57s.

In 1951, the revived Bugatti announced that they would be building a new Type 101 (or 101C in supercharged form) which was based on the pre-war Type 57 chassis. The engine (in this case) is a supercharged 3.3-liter straight-eight making 190 horsepower. Only seven would end up being built, including the prototype (two more Type 57s would later be converted to 101 spec).

The hoarders Schlumpf had three Type 101s, including the prototype, and they remain in that collection. One more is in a museum. The remaining three are in private hands. Bugatti only built one more prototype after the 101 (the 252). And that was it. So that means this is one of about 10 post-war Bugattis ever built.

It is the only Type 101 bodied by Antem and has a very racy two-door coupe body. The final 101 wasn’t fitted with a body until 1965. This car entered the Harrah collection in 1964 and would later be owned by Nicolas Cage and John O’Quinn. It was sold in 2009 to its current Belgian owner. It’s the only one like it and this has to be the easiest way to acquire a post-war Bugatti (before the whole 1990s supercar revival thing). It should sell for between $1,700,000-$2,000,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

An American Fiat

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1912 American Fiat Model 56 7-Passenger Touring

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 14, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

A lot of European firms opened an American arm in the early days of the automobile: De Dion-Bouton, Austin, Berliet, Napier, and perhaps most famously, Rolls-Royce, among others. Fiat did, too, and unlike Rolls-Royce (but like the others mentioned above), these cars are often referred to as American Fiats with “American” in the brand name, and not simply specified in the model name (like a Rolls-Royce “Springfield” Ghost).

Anyway, American Fiat was around from 1910 through 1918, when it was cheaper to open another factory than to pay import taxes. The Type 56 was built between 1912 and 1916, the largest car offered in any of those years. It is powered by an 8.6-liter straight-six making an estimated 50 horsepower.

The body is a Seven-Passenger Touring, which was just one of two body styles offered in 1912 (the range would proliferate with time). They were big cars and they weren’t cheap. It’s thought that this car cost in the neighborhood of $4,500 when new. The man who restored this car acquired it in 1952 and it was in his family until 2013. While I don’t know how many were built, not many of these survive. It’s pretty awesome, actually, and should bring between $175,000-$225,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: $130,000.

The First Post-War Aston Martin

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1948 Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 14, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

A few weeks ago we featured the last Aston Martin sold prior to the outbreak of WWII. Well here is the bookend to that car: the first Aston Martin built after the war ended. It is the first car built in the David Brown era – and in fact, the 2-Litre Sports (as it was originally called) would become the DB1. Only 15 examples of the DB1 were built (the 2-Litre Sports included).

Designed by Claude Hill, the 2-Litre Sports features a – you guessed it – 2.0-liter straight-four engine making 90 horsepower. Because they wanted to race this car to get Aston’s name back on the minds of the motoring public, the body was a rush job. It is cycle-fendered while the successive DB1s were all fully-fendered roadsters.

That race they were in such a hurry to enter was the 1948 24 Hours of Spa. And they won it with drivers St. John “Jock” Horsfall and Leslie Johnson. Then David Brown wanted to show the car at the ’48 London Motor Show so they re-bodied it slightly (to what you see here). They didn’t sell it (so David Brown gave it to his son) but they ended up taking orders for more cars (the 14 DB1s). This car put Aston Martin on a path to success that is still going strong.

This car, one of one, is one of the most important Aston Martins in existence. It should sell for between $600,000-$900,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $781,000.

Vanquish Roadster Prototype

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2004 Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Roadster Prototype

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 14, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Vanquish (also called the V12 Vanquish in the beginning) was Aston Martin’s flagship car (and supercar) in the early oughts. It was built between 2001 and 2007, with the final two model years available solely in Vanquish S form. The car was only every sold as a two-door coupe. There was never a convertible.

Except for this. A second generation Vanquish went on sale in 2013 and a convertible Volante variant was introduced for the ’14 model year. But for the original car, this is the only convertible. It was built by Zagato and shown at the 2004 Geneva Auto Salon. It was later shown at the “concept and prototype green” at Pebble Beach where the current owner managed to acquire it.

The car began life as a Vanquish testing mule but when converted by Zagato it was made entirely roadworthy. It was even wind-tunnel tested to make sure it was quiet in the cabin. The engine is the standard Vanquish 5.9-liter V-12 making 460 horsepower. 1,492 Vanquish coupes were built. But this is special. It is legally in the U.S. and has over 13,000 miles on it. Bonhams is estimating a sale price of $700,000-$850,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $660,000.