Tag Archives: cars

Bedelia Cyclecar

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1913 Bedelia Type 8 Sport Torpedo

Offered by Gooding & Company | April 2024

Photo – Gooding & Company

Bedelia was a French marque that existed between 1910 and 1925. Prime time for cyclecars, which were light, low-powered cars that were cheap and efficient. They were a fad, really. And one that never came back. They were kind of like the proto-microcar.

Some of them featured tandem seating like this car. In today’s world, being positioned behind your passengers as the driver seems insane. The car features a V-twin engine turned to the side, unlike a Morgan of the same era.

This is another car that was acquired by the Mullin museum from as part of the Schlumpf reserve collection. It’s a project, but finding another one isn’t going to be easy (they’re out there, though). The estimate is $10,000-$20,000. More info can be found here.

Bugatti Wagon

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1927 Bugatti Type 40 Break de Chasse

Offered by Gooding & Company | April 2024

Photo – Gooding & Company

Bugatti’s Type 40 was produced from 1926 through 1930. In that time, just 796 examples were made, including this one, which originally wore sedan bodywork. The model was powered by a 1.5-liter inline-four.

But the story here is twofold. One, the bodywork. It was in the 1930s or ’40s when the car was rebodied with wooden rear coachwork. It bounced around France for a few years before story number two comes into play: ownership. In 1958 it was sold to American Bugatti collector John Shakespeare.

In 1964, Shakespeare made one of the worst decisions in the history of car collecting: he sold his entire collection to the Schlumpf brothers in France. The brothers, of course, assembled a massive hoard of cars, with a focus on Bugattis, at the expense of their hard-working employees, who eventually rioted and took control of the factory and collection. It now lives on as the national automotive museum of France. Everything in there, locked away forever, never to be enjoyed as they were meant to be: driven.

However, this car was part of the museum’s “reserve” collection. That is, “extras.” When you have the car collecting status that Peter Mullin did, sometimes you can escape some trapped cars, and he bought the entire Schlumpf reserve in 2008. He died recently, and Gooding is liquidating his museum. So, through some roundabout circumstances over 60 years, the car is resurfacing and may someday again be driven. The estimate is $100,000-$150,000. More info can be found here.

Marcos 2.5 Litre

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1972 Marcos 2.5 Litre

Offered by H&H Classics | Buxton, U.K. | April 2024

Photo – H&H Classics

The Marcos GT, the basic shape of which carried over long after the model went out of production in 1990, was first introduced in 1964 in 1800 GT form. By 1967 a smaller displacement 1600 GT version was introduced. Then, two years later, they made the available engine bigger, with the Marcos 2 Litre.

The 3 Litre model debuted in ’68 with a Ford V6. In 1971, Marcos produced 12 examples with a Triumph 2.5-liter inline-six and sold them as the 2.5 Litre. That’s what this is. A rare bird indeed. Output was rated at 150 horsepower. All of these engines were originally intended for the company’s new Mantis model. But they were leftover, thus the shoehorning into the GT.

This example was upgraded under current ownership and has just under 80,000 miles. The pre-sale estimate is $17,750-$20,250. Click here for more info.

MG Q-Type Racer

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1934 MG Q-Type Monoposto

Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | April 2024

Photo – Bonhams

The Q-Type was a purpose-built race car developed and built by MG in 1934. Just eight were produced, and they used modified MG K3 chassis and N-Type axles. There were two-seat examples and single seaters, with the latter (like this one here) being used at places like Brooklands.

They were originally powered by a supercharged 746cc inline-four good for about 113 horsepower. At some point in this car’s life, it was transplanted with 6.1-liter de Havilland Gipsy Major inline-four aircraft engine. Come 2009, most of what remained of the car was its bare chassis. Somehow the original hood was sourced and a replica body was built. During the rebuild it is said to have been given a supercharged P-Type engine that could push the car to almost 150 mph.

Before WWII, this car did compete at Brooklands and Donington Park. Well, the chassis did. Even still, only eight of these were built, and this one has an estimate of $175,000-$225,000. More info can be found here.

Kremer 917

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1981 Porsche 917 K-81

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monaco | May 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Porsche’s 917 is one of the most legendary race cars of all time. It was produced in quite a few variations after its 1969 introduction, including the quite famous 917K and the ultimate evolution: the 917/30.

Porsche stopped racing the 917 after the 1973 Can-Am season and moved on to the 936 for 1975. However, in 1981, Le Mans changed their rules and it sort of opened the door for the 917 to return to the 24 Hour. Porsche themselves didn’t have much interest, but Kremer Racing did. With the support of Porsche, they built a new 917 to Group 6 specifications and dubbed it the 917 K-81.

It’s a Kremer aluminum spaceframe chassis underneath similar to that of a Porsche-built 917, and it is powered by a 5.0-liter flat-12. The competition for this chassis consists of:

  • 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans – 38th, DNF (with Bob Wollek, Xavier Lapeyre, & Guy Chasseuil)
  • 1981 1000km Brand Hatch – 26th, DNF (Wollek & Henri Pescarolo)

Not super successful, and after Brands Hatch, that was it for the 917. The current owner acquired this car in 2011 and used it at various track days. The 5.0-liter engine was rebuilt recently, and the whole package has an estimate of $3,800,000-$5,500,000. Click here for more info.

British-Bodied Delage

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1938 Delage D6-70 Cabriolet by Coachcraft

Offered by Osenat | Fontainebleau, France | March 2024

Photo – Osenat

The D6 was, perhaps, the most successful model Delage ever had. The launch model, the D6-11, went on sale in 1932. Eight more variants would be produced before production wrapped… in 1953. This car is a D6-70 chassis, a model that was only offered in 1937 and 1938.

Originally, it would’ve been powered by a 2.7-liter inline-six rated at 78 horsepower. However, this car was purchased by its current owner in 1985 as a project, and part of completing that project was upgrading the drivetrain to D6 Olympic specification, which resulted in the inline-six jumping to 3.0 liters and sporting three carburetors – a setup rated at 100 horsepower during D6 Olympic production from 1948 to 1949.

This car was one of few delivered new to the U.K., where it was bodied by Coachcraft. While it’s been parked since 2020, the car was used heavily under current ownership, being driven to lands as far away as Syria. Now it has an estimate of $43,500-$65,000. Click here for more info.

1918 Rochet-Schneider

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1918 Rochet-Schneider 16500 Coupe-Chauffeur by Billeter and Cartier

Offered by Osenat | Fontainebleau, France | March 2024

Photo – Osenat

Rochet-Schneider was a French manufacturer that came into being when Edouard Rochet’s car company was joined by Theophile Schneider in 1905/1906. The company soldiered on until 1932, with its later years mostly focused on commercial vehicles (though passenger cars were still available).

This car carries the preposterous model name of “16500.” It is powered by a hefty 40-horsepower inline-four that is mated to a four-speed manual transmission. It is apparently capable of 55 mph.

It has been restored and sports town car bodywork by Billeter & Cartier of Lyon. It has an estimate of $55,000-$87,000. Click here for more info.

Chapron-Bodied Delahaye

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1940 Delahaye 135MS Roadster Grand Luxe by Chapron

Offered by Osenat | Fontainebleau, France | March 2024

Photo – Osenat

The MS variant of Delahaye’s 135 model line was the sportiest, and production spanned both sides of WWII. It would eventually give way to the 235 of 1951, and that car was really just an updated 135 underneath.

This particular car was delivered to Henri Chapron in mid 1939. The intent was to build the body and display it at the Paris Motor Show, but Germany came calling, so the car was sent to America to be displayed at the 1940 New York World’s Fair. Since they couldn’t take it back to France, it was sold new in the U.S., remaining there until the current owner bought it in 2005.

All 135MS examples were powered by a 3.6-liter inline-six, and this triple-carbureted version made about 145 horsepower when new. It now has an estimate of $325,000-$550,000. More info can be found here.

280SE 3.5 Cabriolet

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1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet

Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | March 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

This is among the finest classic Mercedes-Benz products you can buy. It’s also among the classiest. The W111 chassis was designed by Friedrich Geiger and is among three generation of Benzes that fall under the “fintail” category, even though these late coupe/cabriolet variants don’t really have tail fins.

The two-doors came a few years after the sedans and initially launched as the 220SE in 1961. A displacement increase in 1965 brought the 250SE to market, followed by the 2.8-liter 280SE in 1967. All of these cars had straight-six engines. Then, in 1969, Mercedes launched the unnecessarily confusingly named 280SE 3.5, which had a 3.5-liter V8 that made 197 horsepower.

Coupes and convertibles were offered with the V8, and just 1,232 examples of the cabriolet were sold. They have been six-figure cars for some time and continue to creep up. This silver-over-blue example has a little time left to bid, and you can do so here.

TVR 280S

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1989 TVR S1 280S

Offered by Brightwells | Leominster, U.K. | March 2024

Photo – Brightwells

The TVR S Series was produced from 1987 through 1994 and was kind of the gap car between the company’s wedges and their “modern” line of cars that consisted of the Griffith, Chimaera, Cerbera, and Tuscan.

The first S car was the S1, or the 280S. It is powered by a 2.8-liter Ford Cologne V6 that made 160 horsepower. The car could hit 60 in eight seconds on its way to a 128-mph top end.

This was the first new TVR product under director Peter Wheeler, and about 605 S1 cars were built before it gave way to the S2, etc. This one has been repainted blue and has an estimate of $7,700-$10,000. More info can be found here.