Tag Archives: Bonhams

Jordan 191

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1991 Jordan-Ford 191

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 2, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

Eddie Jordan’s Jordan Grand Prix competed in F1 between 1991 and 2005. This car is from their debut season, which saw drivers Bertrand Gachot and Andrea de Cesaris start the season. Roberto Moreno, Alex Zanardi, and a very young newcomer called Michael Schumacher also ran races for the team in place of Gachot.

Power is provided by a 3.5-liter Ford V8 that made about 650 horsepower. This particular chassis, #6, has the following competition history:

  • 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix – 7th (with Andrea de Cesaris)
  • 1991 Belgian Grand Prix – 13th, DNF (with de Cesaris)

It was used as a spare at Italy, Portugal, Spain, Japan, and Australia as well. Schumacher used this car at Spa during free practice one before it was raced by de Cesaris. That makes this the first F1 car ever driven by Schumacher during an F1 weekend. It’s had a few private owners since, and was used on F1 TV race coverage at Silverstone in 2021 when Mick Schumacher did some demonstration laps with it. It’ now has an estimate of $1,500,000-$2,150,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $1,658,926.

T26 Grand Sport Coupe

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1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 2, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

The Grand Sport was the short wheelbase sports car version of Talbot-Lago’s T26, which was their first car introduced after WWII in 1946. The T26 hung around through 1953. This particular Grand Sport, one of just 36 built, was ordered new as a bare chassis by racing driver Andre Chambas.

Chambas designed the body himself in clay and supposedly had it built locally by Contamin, a company that actually built cabins for cranes. Power is from a 4.5-liter inline-six that made around 170 horsepower. Chambas took this car racing, including:

  • 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans – 17th, DNF (with Andre Chambas and Andre Morel)
  • 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans – 13th (with Chambas and Morel)
  • 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans – 17th (with Chambas and Morel)
  • 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans – 9th (with Chambas and Morel)
  • 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans – 52nd, DNF (with Chambas and Charles de Cortanze)

The original coupe body was removed after Le Mans in 1950 and replaced with an open style. This remained on the car until after Le Mans in 1953 (during which the car spun out, and the gearbox was subsequently ruined). The original coupe body was reinstalled at this time.

The car has had quite a few owners in quite a few countries since Chambas sold it in the mid 1950s. It’s a pretty fantastic looking car with a pretty remarkable (all privateer) racing history. Actually, this Talbot has more starts at Le Mans than any other. Pre-sale estimate? $2,150,000-$2,650,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $2,424,585.

Nagant-Hobson

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1910 Nagant-Hobson 14/16HP Roi-des-Belges Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 2, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

Liege-based Nagant was actually founded as a firearms manufacturer, and some of their guns would be staples of the Russian military for decades. The company’s first cars came about in 1900 based on the Gobron-Brillie.

The first Nagant-designed cars arrived in 1907. They were sold in England under the Nagant-Hobson marque. This one is powered by a 3.1-liter inline-four and features a four/five-seater touring car body.

This car was partially restored in New Zealand before returning to Belgium in the early 1990s. It has remained with the consignor for the last 30 years and carries an estimate of $42,500-$64,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $51,043.

Volkhart V2 Sagitta

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1947 Volkhart V2 Sagitta

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 2, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

Kurt Volkhart was a German designer who had an understanding of aerodynamics. In the 1930s, he had come up with a small sports car he called the V1, but it never went beyond the prototype stage.

After the war, Volkhart resumed his aerodynamic work, this time basing his “V2” on an early Volkswagen Beetle (technically a wartime KDF 60) chassis. The slippery aluminum body was designed by Konig von Fachsenfeld. It has one of the lowest coefficients of drag ever recorded for a road car.

Power is supplied by a rear-mounted 1.1-liter flat-four good for 24 horsepower. This little thing was good for 88 mph, which was faster than the first Porsches. It was used as a daily driver for six years before being parked in the early 1950s.

A restoration in the 2010s took it back to its original silver color (from an older green repaint). Bonhams says this was the only one built (other random places state two). What it will bring is anyone’s guess. Click here for more info.

Update: Withdrawn.

Simplex 50HP

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1912 Simplex Model 50 Five-Passenger Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 27, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

The Simplex 50 was one of, if not the, finest pre-WWI American car built. It was the launch model for Simplex, a company that was formed when Herman Broesel purchased the company that made the S&M Simplex. Engineer Edward Francquist had just finished designing the engine for the Model 50, so it was the first car launched under the new Simplex marque.

The Model 50 remained on sale from 1910 through 1916. It was their most popular – although not their most powerful – model, powered by a 50-horsepower, 9.8-liter inline-four. It was a massive thing connected to a four-speed manual transaxle and dual chain drive. In 1912, this was a sports car, even though it seats five in a big Quimby-built touring car body.

About 250 Simplex 50HPs were built, and this one was purchased new by a Vanderbilt for his fiancée, tennis player Eleonora Sears. They never got married, but she kept the car for about a quarter century. It was most recently restored in the 2000s. This is one of the best pre-WWI cars you can buy, regardless of where it was built. The estimate is a hearty $2,500,000-$3,500,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $4,485,000.

Mistral Sports Racer

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1955 Mistral-Chevrolet

Offered by Bonhams | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 27, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

This Mistral sports special race car is sort of a descendant of the Microplas Mistral, which was a fiberglass body that was sold to re-body old British Ford sedans or even Triumphs. The Mistral body was licensed by Sports Car Engineering of Los Angeles in 1956 before they sold their company in 1958.

After this, the molds for the Mistral body were sold to Weltrex Plastics Limited in New Zealand. They produced about 10 Mistral bodies before winding up. This particular car was discovered in New Zealand a few years ago and restored in the US.

It’s powered by a 4.6-liter Chevrolet V8 making about 400 horsepower. It’s been outfitted with modern safety equipment in hopes of actually using it in modern historic events. Mistrals of any creation are rare birds, and this New Zealand edition is known to have been rare from the beginning. It has an estimate of $90,000-$120,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $62,720.

’96 Aston Vantage

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1996 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 16, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

The Aston Martin Virage debuted in 1989 at a low point for Aston Martin. These were pretty exclusive cars, with about 40 made on average each year. In 1993, the Vantage showed up, wearing pretty much the same bodywork but with a twin-supercharged 5.3-liter V8. Output was rated at 550 horsepower. This thing was a monster in the early 1990s.

Top speed was around 191 mph. The craziest part was this was the base Vantage. There were more extreme versions than this. Meanwhile Ford took over Aston and put the DB7 into production with an inline-six. It’s like it was from a different company than whoever created this thing.

Just 280 examples of the Vantage coupe were produced. A true supercar with grand touring proportions, this Vantage carries an estimate of $75,000-$125,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $124,424.

Dino 246 GT

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1971 Dino 246 GT

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 16, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

If I call this a Ferrari, I annoy purists who insist it was never sold as a Ferrari, which is true. If I don’t call it a Ferrari, I get eye rolls from everyone who agrees that, even though they were badged as “Dinos” in the 1970s, they are, for all intents and purposes, Ferraris. This is also true.

A third truth is that these are beautiful cars that were underappreciated for a long time. I think of it like 911 owners who look down upon Boxsters… presumably because they cost less yet are just as capable with, perhaps, a better overall balance.

The Dino 246 was sold between 1969 and 1974, available in closed-coupe GT form or targa-top GTS form. There were 2,295 closed coupes built, which outnumbered the open cars by about a thousand. Power is from a 2.4-liter V6 rated at 192 horsepower.

This was a British-market example when delivered new in Rosso Chiaro over black. It was restored in the 2000s and now has an estimate of $305,000-$370,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $329,154.

SLR McLaren 722 S

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2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 S Roadster

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | December 16, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

The SLR McLaren was Mercedes-Benz’s halo car produced between 2004 and 2009. It was actually developed in conjunction with McLaren, and various variants were produced after the initial coupe. These included the 722, a high-performance coupe, the Roadster, a drop-top version of the base coupe, and this, the 722 S Roadster, the hot convertible.

It debuted in Frankfurt in 2007, and just 150 were built. Power is provided by a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 that made 641 horsepower in 722 spec. Top speed for the roadster was a remarkable-for-a-convertible 208 mph.

This one-owner car has only covered about 60 miles since new. It’s finished in Sienna Pearl and features lightweight wheels, a revised suspension, and some design tweaks over the base car. The pre-sale estimate is $490,000-$735,000. These cars are still very expensive, which, frankly, I don’t quite understand. But anyway. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $854,283.

Opel Kapitan

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1952 Opel Kapitan Saloon

Offered by Bonhams | Milan, Italy | November 18, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

This has to be the nicest third-gen Kapitan anywhere. You generally don’t see Opels of this era, much less in this condition. The Kapitan was a big car when it was introduced in 1938, and it became the marque’s top model when production resumed after the war in 1948. The generation represented here was offered between 1951 and 1953.

A sedan was the only option and featured suicide rear doors. Power is provided by a 2.5-liter inline-six that was initially rated at 57 horsepower (later cars got a two-horsepower bump). Just over 48,500 of these were built in three years. But when was the last time you saw one, if ever?

It was restored a while ago and has been in Italy since 1991. It now has a pre-sale estimate of $20,000-$25,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.