Tag Archives: classic cars

Maserati A6G/54 Spider by Frua

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1957 Maserati A6G/54 Spider by Frua

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 20-21, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

It seems like each year there is a theme among auction houses as to a certain type of car that is, for whatever reason, more prevalent at the Pebble Beach sales than usual. Two years ago it was open-wheeled race cars. This year it’s Maseratis. Both Gooding & Company and RM Sotheby’s are offering difference collections of Maseratis. The car you see here is probably the best one available.

The A6G/54 was introduced in 1954 (and built through 1956) and was the final version of the A6G, a car that dated back to 1947. It is powered by a 160 horsepower 2.0-liter straight-six and four body styles were offered, though none were built by Maserati themselves. Frua offered a Coupe and Spider, while Zagato and Allemano also offered a style each.

This is the fifth of 10 Frua Spiders and one of only 60 A6G/54s built in total. It was sold new in the U.S. and has spent a majority of its life on the west coast. Restored in the 1990s, this beautiful car does not come with a pre-sale estimate, which should tell you what you need to know regarding affordability. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $3,300,000.

California Spyder Competizione

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1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder Competizione by Scaglietti

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 20-21, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

California Spyders are among the most special Ferraris. They have a legend all their own and a beauty almost unmatched by their contemporaries and other Ferraris alike. But there were a select few of these cars that were given to people crazy enough to take them racing. It’s like putting a supermodel in a boxing ring. The difference though, is that this is one competent supermodel.

The long wheelbase California Spyder came before the short wheelbase version and were built in 1959. Only 50 were made. This car is powered by a 275 horsepower 3.0-liter V-12 engine – the Competizione spec being good for more ponies over the standard road car. The other thing that a competition Spyder had was a lightweight aluminium body. Only nine of these were ever constructed.

Specifically, this car was the first one built with disc brakes and it also has a competition transmission and large fuel tank. It was sold new in America by Luigi Chinetti to George Reed of Illinois who took the car racing. The competition history of this car includes:

  • 1959 Bahamas Speed Weeks, Nassau Trophy Race – 23rd (with Reed)
  • 1960 12 Hours of Sebring –  5th (with Reed and Alan Connell)
  • 1960 Bahamas Speed Weeks, Nassau Trophy Race – 12th (with Reed)

It also had quite the SCCA run in 1960. The car has had several owners since departing Reed’s care and was restored in the 1980s and again in 2011. It’s as good as they come and should bring between $18,000,000-$20,000,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $18,150,000.

Studebaker-Garford

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1910 Studebaker-Garford G7 Runabout

Offered by Bonhams | Monterey, California | August 19, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Studebaker is one of America’s greatest automobile marques, even if they went out of business in 1967. The company could trace its roots back to 1852 and in 1902 its first cars went on sale. Arthur Lovett Garford was a business man from Elyria, Ohio, who was successful in the bicycle industry. In 1904, he teamed up with Studebaker to build and sell cars.

Garford provided the chassis, Studebaker the engines. Up through 1911, the cars were branded as Studebaker-Garford (and here and there as each marque separately, as both tested the limits of their marketing agreement). The G7 was the name in 1910 for what was the Model D in 1909 and what became the G8 in 1911. It is powered by a 40 horsepower 5.4-liter straight-four.

The history of this example isn’t well known and it’s not clear that the body is original (records show that only Touring cars and Limousines were offered on the G7, while this is a sportier Runabout). This is a former Japanese museum car that is now back in the States. Studebaker-Garford isn’t a marque that shows itself often at auctions and this one should sell for between $80,000-$120,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $126,500.

Cisitalia 202 CMM

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1948 Cisitalia 202 CMM by Vignale

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 20-21, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

Cisitalia’s first cars were single-seat, open-wheel race cars built by Piero Dusio’s company in 1946. The 202 was introduced in 1947 and has become Cisitalia’s most famous and legendary car. And the CMM coupe you see here is among the most dramatically styled post-war automobiles.

This car is the second two-seat Cisitalia built and was bodied by Vignale. It features big fins out back and a two-piece windshield. You should really check out more photos of the car on Gooding’s site, here, because it’s amazing. This car is powered by a 60 horsepower 1.2-liter straight-four. With the aerodynamic bodywork in play, this car was able to hit 125 mph in testing.

Cisitalia used this car in the 1948 Mille Miglia, where it DNF’d with Piero Taruffi driving. It competed in other events, both in Europe and Argentina (where the car ended up when Dusio moved there in 1949). This car was discovered in Uruguay in 1974 and has had multiple Argentinian and Japanese owners since. It has been restored and is one of two 202 CMMs ever built. With that said, it should sell for between $2,000,000-$3,000,000. Click here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Fuller Touring

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1908 Fuller Model A Touring

Offered by Bonhams | Monterey, California | August 19, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

There were a couple of early manufacturers that went by the trade name of Fuller in the United States. The one we are talking about today was built by the Angus Automobile Company of Angus, Nebraska. The company was founded by Charles Fuller and existed between 1908 and 1910.

The Model A (also known as the Four-30) was offered as a Runabout or the Touring car you see here. The engine is a 4.0-liter straight-four making 40 horsepower. Only about 600 Fullers were built in total (they weren’t cheap but they were very well made) – but at least one still survives!

And the story behind this car is pretty incredible. It goes: a young man saw a Fuller in his hometown and set out on a lifelong quest to have one. Except instead of being able to buy one (as two World War scrap drives had destroyed most of them), he had to piece one together, scouring the country for parts over decades. The car was completed in 1967 and is being sold out of the family that constructed it. It will sell at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Sold $11,000.

Abarth Record Car

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1960 Fiat-Abarth 1000 Monoposto Da Record “La Principessa”

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 20-21, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

When you think of Abarth, you might think of the current Fiat 500 Abarth – a very sporty hot hatch. Or maybe you think of compact racers from long ago. We’d wager that most people don’t think of speed record cars.

Carlo Abarth built his first endurance speed record car in 1956. It set some records, working well enough to encourage Abarth to build a second streamliner the following year. The final cars were built in 1960 and this is one of them. Looking like one of the Auto Union streamliners from decades before, this car features a canopy top and is powered by a 1.0-liter straight-four producing 108 horsepower. Top speed was 136 mph – which should tell you that the aerodynamics here are quite slippery.

This car set eight endurance speed records at Monza in 1960 using drivers like Umberto Maglioli. Later that year Abarth displayed it at the Turin Motor Show and then it went into Pininfarina’s storage until they sold it in 1970. The same family that bought it from Pininfarina is the same family consigning the car at auction. It is in original condition and is one of those cars with a wild design that will only become more famous and legendary with time. No pre-sale estimate is available but you can read more here and see more from Gooding & Company here.

Update: Not sold.

Big Mercedes-Simplex

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1904 Mercedes-Simplex 28/32 Five-Seat Rear-Entrance Tonneau

Offered by Bonhams | Monterey, California | August 19, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Mercedes-Simplex was one of the premier cars of the pre-1910 era. They were big, powerful, and fast. The Simplex was produced by Daimler between 1902 and 1909 and was the successor to the Mercedes 35HP, a car largely considered as the “first modern automobile.”

There were multiple Simplex models, the largest being the 60 HP model. This is the mid-range 28/32HP – meaning it is powered by a 32 horsepower 5.3-liter straight-four. It will do 65 mph+. Imagine being able to keep up on the interstate today in a car from 1904… that has dual chain drive.

When new, a Simplex would have cost roughly $7,500 – an absolute fortune in 1904. This example was sold new in England and later used by the British military during WWI. It was discovered on a farm in the 1970s and has been completely restored (and “refurbished” a couple of times since the restoration was completed). It’s extremely usable and has seen its fair share of use at the London-to-Brighton run.

In total, 1,500 Mercedes-Simplex cars were built and only 20 pre-1905 Mercedes cars still survive. Only six of those are this model. It’s a beautiful machine and should bring between $2,500,000-$3,000,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $2,805,000.

Four-Door Rolls-Royce Convertible

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1971 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI Four-Door Cabriolet by Frua & Royle Cars

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 20-21, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

If the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI wasn’t rare enough (only 374 were built between 1968 and 1990 – an eternity as far as single model production goes), this Rolls-Royce is a one-off, four-door convertible.

The Phantom VI was the final version of the numerical Phantoms that began all the way back in 1925 with the Phantom I. A VI was actually Queen Elizabeth’s official state car until 2002. It’s powered by a 6.2-liter V-8 engine making 220 horsepower. VIs were sold as bare chassis and most were bodied by Mulliner Park Ward. This car was sold as a bare chassis to an Englishman who sent it to Frua in Italy for a Sedanca de Ville body to be fitted.

It never was and the chassis changed hands, this time to an American. It wasn’t until 1977 that the body you see here was designed. But it wouldn’t actually be completed until 1993 – after Pietro Frua had died and after the American owner’s collection had been sold. The new owner had Royle Cars Ltd. complete the Frua design and it was done just in time for the 1993 Geneva Auto Show, which makes this the final Phantom VI to be completed.

It also makes this practically a brand new car. It has covered only 72 miles in its life. It’s a Rolls-Royce, so the car’s interior is way off the end of the luxury scale, with a dizzying amount of details scattered throughout. It’s also one of the rarest bodystyles in the world: a four-door convertible. Not many people are crazy enough to build such a car. Only two Phantom VI convertibles were built, here is the other one. This one should bring between $800,000-$1,200,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Update: Sold, RM Sotheby’s Monterey 2017, $385,000.

Cheetah GT

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1964 Cheetah GT Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | Monterey, California | August 19, 2016

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Shortly after the sporty Corvette went on sale, tuners got their hands on it and began modifying it for racing. Bill Thomas was one of those tuners and he began his career in 1956. GM was impressed and paid him to help with the Corvair and Chevy II.

Thomas also opened Bill Thomas Race Cars in 1960 in Southern California. When Ford partnered with Shelby, General Motors felt a little left out and went to Thomas to see what could be done about it. Thing was, GM had a ban on factory racing so they had to support the program covertly.

So Bill Thomas and Don Edmunds designed the Cheetah. Chevrolet supplied the 400+ horsepower 5.5-liter V-8 and a bunch of other parts. The first two cars were bodied in aluminium by California Metal Shaping. After GM gave the thumbs up, the rest of the cars were fiberglass, done by Contemporary Fiberglass. GM wanted 100 cars to homologate it for FIA competition but they cancelled their support after only 11 cars were made between 1963 and 1965.

This is the fourth fiberglass Cheetah built. It was one of three purchased by Alan Green Chevrolet in Seattle and the only one of those to see action on the track, competing in the SCCA. A subsequent owner converted it for street use, which included stamping his own serial number on the chassis and replacing the body. In 2012, the original body was put back on the car.

There were extra chassis and bodies completed, but only 11 actual cars were ever built, turn-key, by the factory. These are legendary American performance machines that are much rarer than Shelby’s counterpart (and also like the Cobra, originals are way outnumbered by replicas). They rarely change hands and this fully restored example should bring between $300,000-$500,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Ferrari Daytona Wagon

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1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Shooting Brake by Panther Westwinds

Offered by Gooding & Company | Pebble Beach, California | August 20-21, 2016

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

We’ll start by urging you to go to Gooding & Company’s website to check out more pictures of this awesome car. Sure, it’s a Ferrari Daytona, but it has been turned into a shooting brake – a two-door wagon. The rear section features a lot of glass, including a huge rear window and gullwing-hinged side glass that fold up. It’s astonishing.

As a 365 GTB/4 this car is powered by a 4.4-liter V-12 making 352 horsepower. The design was actually done by Luigi Chinetti Jr. for a customer at his dealership. The body was built by Panther Westwinds, a manufacturer of sports cars in their own right.

The first owner was a Floridian who surely enjoyed driving this mobile, black, glass greenhouse. It would have a few other American owners (and one Belgian). The current owner acquired the car in 2013 and had it completely restored. It has only covered 4,500 miles in its life, which is incredible. This unique one-off is expected to bring between $700,000-$1,000,000. Click here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.