Tag Archives: cars

Citroen Tubyk Concept

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2010 Citroen Tubyk Concept

Offered by Leclere | Aulnay sous Bois, France | December 10, 2017

Photo – Leclere

No, this is not a panda with wheels. Instead, it is a modern take on Citroen’s TUB light van of 1939-1941. The TUB was the first van ever to feature a sliding side door. This concept van debuted at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. It’s full-on French weird in that they-just-might-build-it kind of way.

This one isn’t powered but it should bring between $23,500-$35,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of the Citroen’s on offer.

Update: Sold $43,747.

Update: Sold, Aguttes July 2017, $7,156.

Citroen Xenia Concept

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1980 Citroen Xenia Concept

Offered by Leclere | Aulnay sous Bois, France | December 10, 2017

Photo – Leclere

Leclere has been tasked with unloading some extras from Citroen’s private collection. Among the many cars are more than a few concepts, including this 1980 Xenia. First shown at the 1981 Frankfurt Motor Show, this wagonoid design study was what wagons were supposed to look like in the year 2000. Apparently Citroen didn’t see the SUV craze coming.

Presumably unpowered (but hey, it has solar panels to run the air conditioning!), this would make an interesting piece in any collection. It should bring between $17,500-$29,500. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $8,616.

Bizzarrini 1900 GT Europa

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1968 Bizzarrini 1900 GT Europa

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 7, 2018

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Giotto Bizzarrini founded his company in Livorno, Italy, in 1964 after getting canned by Enzo Ferrari and after having worked at ATS and Iso. Bizzarrini S.p.A. built some race cars and their first road car was based on the Iso Grifo A3C and it was called the 5300 GT Strada.

It was a stunning road car and sold in small numbers and would ultimately be their most successful model. Meanwhile, Bizzarrini was working on a version of the 5300 GT for General Motors’ Opel division. It was a lighter model with a smaller engine. He liked it enough that he ended up building the car himself, and he called it the 1900 GT Europa.

It’s powered by a 1.9-liter Opel straight-four that makes 110 horsepower (a few cars had a 1.5-liter Fiat unit). With a fiberglass body, these cars are extremely light, making them good performers. Only 17 left the factory between 1966 and 1969, though a few more may have been assembled after the company closed down using spare parts.

Bizzarrinis rarely come up for sale, and the Europa model comes up for sale even less often. This one should bring between $300,000-$350,000. Click here for more info and here for more from RM in Paris.

Update: Sold $260,667.

Chevrolet Corvette ZR1

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1970 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1

Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 5-14, 2018

Photo – Mecum

Chevrolet just announced their newest Corvette halo model: the C7 ZR1. It’s a 750 horsepower beast that traces its name back to this car. The original ZR1 was a special option introduced on the Corvette in 1970. It was a $1,200 special engine option that also brought a heavy duty transmission, brakes, and suspension. It also blacked out convenience options such as power windows and air conditioning, making it a task-focused performance car.

Offered as a coupe or convertible, the ZR1 was available from 1970 through 1972 and even spawned a ZR2 variant. The engine is a 370 horsepower, 5.7-liter V-8, which might sound kind of wimpy compared to the 430 horsepower from some of the mid-1960s Stingrays, but you have to remember that emissions standards were beginning to squeeze the juice out of these motors.

Only 25 ZR1 coupes were built in 1970 out of a total three year model run of 53 cars. These don’t command the same money as a C3 L88, but they’re still some of the priciest Corvettes from this year. This one is all-original and shows just 16,000 miles. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $130,000.

The Oldest Alfa Romeo

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1921 Alfa Romeo G1

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Phoenix, Arizona | January 18-19, 2018

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Alfa Romeo traces its roots back to the Italian Darracq company that was founded in 1906. That company became Societa Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, or A.L.F.A., in 1910. During the First World War, Nicola Romeo became the director of A.L.F.A. and after the war he changed the name of the company to Alfa Romeo.

The new company’s first model was designed by longtime Alfa designer Giuseppe Merosi. Introduced in 1921, the G1 as it was called, was built in limited numbers through 1923 before being replaced by the more popular RL. It should also be noted that there were a few A.L.F.A.-branded G1s that made it out of the factory before the branding switched.

The G1 is powered by a 6.3-liter straight-six making 70 horsepower, quite a decent amount for its day. This car sports a racer’s body, having been most recently restored in 2000. It’s early years were spent on a farm in Australia before being rescued in the 1960s and it’s remained in the collection of New Zealand’s Alfa importer for some time.

Only 52 examples of the G1 were ever built and this is the only one known to exist, making it the oldest Alfa Romeo-branded automobile in the world. It should bring more than a million dollars when it goes under the hammer in January. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $445,000.

Ruf BTR

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1984 Ruf BTR

Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 5-14, 2018

Photo – Mecum

The BTR was Ruf Automobile’s first big time model. Ruf, of course, is interesting because they are their own manufacturer as they get Porsche chassis/bodies before a VIN tag is applied and tune them, before selling them under their own name. This car began life as a Porsche 911 (930) Turbo.

The BTR was available between 1983 and 1989. They built between 20-30 original cars, and converted (or upgraded) a few 930 Turbos after that to BTR specification. That specification is a turbocharged 3.4-liter flat-6 making 374 horsepower, which is 40-ish more horsepower than you would’ve had if you’d stuck with the Porsche.

When introduced this was among the fastest cars in the world, with a top speed approaching 190 mph. This car sports 35,000 miles and it’s a very rare opportunity to acquire one. A few Rufs have come up for sale recently, but this is a classic. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $160,000.

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.

Saoutchik-bodied Talbot-Lago

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1951 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe by Saoutchik

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 13-21, 2018

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

It’s kind of crazy to think this car is from 1951, especially if you consider the golden age of coachbuilding to be in the 1930s. This was pretty late in the game to get a custom-bodied car from a major coachbuilder as luxury cars pretty much standardized themselves not too long after this car was built.

But it helped that there was such a luxurious manufacturer like Talbot-Lago still operating at this point. The T26 Grand Sport was new for 1948 and Talbot-Lago sent all of the road cars to coachbuilders (there were race cars bodied in-house). This one was bodied by the legendary Jacques Saoutchik and it’s pure art.

Under the hood you’ll find the 4.5-liter straight-six that pumps out 190 horsepower. This body is one-of-one and is from one of the most sought-after coachbuilders of the post-WWII era. Few T26 Grand Sports were built and even fewer remain. You’ll need at least a million to top the reserve, but in the meantime, check out more about this one here and see more from Barrett-Jackson’s ever-expanding Scottsdale lineup here.

Update: Not sold.

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.

Copper-bodied Rolls-Royce

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1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville by Freestone & Webb

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 13-21, 2018

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

The Phantom III was the third (obviously) Phantom model introduced by Rolls-Royce and the final large car introduced by the company before WWII. First shown in 1936, the company built just 727 examples before production was suspended in 1939. It did not return after the war.

The body that this car carries was actually custom built in 1946 for the car’s second owner, as it was originally supplied with a limousine body. Freestone & Webb of London built this over the top, yet still gorgeous Sedanca de Ville body in a style that could’ve certainly been built in 1937. The windswept fenders and running boards are brushed copper over steel, as is the radiator and other trim pieces.

The Phantom III was the first Rolls-Royce to be powered by a V-12 engine – and the last until the Silver Seraph went on sale in 1998. That V-12 is a 7.3-liter unit that makes an “adequate” amount of power (though in reality it was about 160 horsepower). This is a very striking automobile that has been making concours appearances since it was essentially new. It will be one of a few cars offered at Barrett-Jackson this January with a reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.