1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B Turismo Cabriolet by Pinin Farina
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February/March 2024
Photo – Gooding & Company
Alfa’s 6C 2300 model was short lived compared to the 2500 model that followed. It was in produced from 1934 through 1938. In that time, the company turned out just 760 examples, with the “B” variants coming into the line in 1935.
These 2300 B variants still used the same 2.3-liter DOHC inline-six that produced 70 horsepower on this single-carburetor unit. This long-chassis Turismo model wears one-off coachwork by Pinin Farina.
The car was later on display at the 1938 International Motor Show in Berlin and then spent decades in Switzerland and later France and Italy. It is one of 81 Turismo cars built between 1936 and 1937, and it was restored in the 1990s. The estimate here is $900,000-$1,200,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Iconic Auctioneers | Stoneleigh Park, U.K. | February 2024
Photo – Iconic Auctioneers
Chevron‘s B31 was a sports prototype race car that initially competed in the 1975 European 2-Litre Championship. It was an evolution of the 1973 B26 and was actually entered in high-level competition through 1990. Which is an insanely long time to keep a race car around.
This car previously was fitted with a Cosworth DFV but has since been taken back to its as-designed 2.0-liter Hart DOHC inline-four that was rated at 290 horsepower. It has a Hewland five-speed manual gearbox and fiberglass body work.
It is the fifth of six B31s built in 1975. It has a Martini livery and won a historic championship in 2013. It now has an estimate of $125,000-$150,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February/March 2024
Photo – Gooding & Company
Here’s another Niclausse. Like the one we featured a week ago, this car is coming out of the Mullin collection and was acquired by them in 2007 from the family of the original Spanish owners. It was the 247th car registered in Barcelona.
The Type S is powered by a 2.4-liter inline-four rated at 12/16 taxable horsepower. This is another Binder-bodied car. Potentially a double order for the original owning family, with this being the city car and the big tourer being for the country.
For a collection so well known for its extravagant coachbuilt French classics from the 1930s, the Niclausse – a pair of them at that – seems like such an unlikely thing to be shown side by side. But I guess if you have a line on two one-owner, unrestored almost-unheard-of brass-era cars, you grab them. This one has an estimate of $50,000-$75,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | March 2024
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The first Lamborghini Countach was the LP400, which was produced from 1974 through 1978. These were the cleanest of all of the models – the sleekest. Beginning in 1978, the LP400 S was the only Countach you could buy, and it had fiberglass wheel arch extensions and an optional V-shaped rear wing.
The 3.9-liter V12 carried over but lost some oomph, producing 350 horsepower, which was down 20 from the earlier model. The LP400 S was produced in three series until 1982, with this car here being a Series II model. That means it had a lower ride height and smooth-face concave wheels. 105 Series II cars were built, making it the most common LP400 variant.
Just 237 LP400 S cars were built in total. This one has had five owners and was refreshed in 2022. It now has an estimate of $700,000-$800,000. Click here for more info.
1903 Mercedes-Simplex 60HP Roi-des-Belges by J. Rothschild
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February/March 2024
Photo – Gooding & Company
The holy trio of Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Emil Jellinek were responsible for the Mercedes-Simplex, which was the first in a long line of top-tier grand Mercedes road cars. Think of this as the predecessor to the current Mercedes-Maybach sedans.
The car came about because Jellinek, who was Daimler’s Nice-based sales guy, needed a better car than the earlier Daimlers to sell to his rich clients. The new cars were named for Jellinek’s daughter, Mercedes. The first Mercedes was the 35HP model of 1901. It was followed by 1902’s 40HP. The 60HP, which was developed through ’02 and ’03, was even… more.
These were performance cars in their day, used at time trials and other competition events. Even this car was run at the 1903 Nice Speed Trials (setting the fastest time) and an Irish hillclimb later that year (also winning). The car is powered by a 9.2-liter inline-four that was rated at 60 horsepower and a downright low 1,100 rpm. It has a four-speed manual gearbox, and the entire design was meant to be easy to use. Hence the Simplex name.
These were capable of 80 mph and were long and low. Just 102 examples of the 60HP were built between 1902 and 1905. Only five are known to exist. This J. Rothschild et Fils-bodied car was purchased new by publisher Alfred Harmsworth, he of The Daily Mail and The Daily Mirror. It was the 740th car registered in London.
The car was inherited by Harmsworth’s son around 1922 and, in the 1950s, was restored and put on display in the Beaulieu Motor Museum, where it stayed from 1956 through 2023. It has remained with two other members of the Harmsworth family since. That is 121 years of single-family ownership. Gooding has an estimate of “in excess of $10,000,000” on this, the ultimate veteran era car. More can be read here.
Offered by Bonhams | Amelia Island, Florida | February 29, 2024
Photo – Bonhams
The roots of Napier could be traced back to a company founded in 1808. The original founder’s grandson took over the company in 1895 at age 25. Just a few years later they were building motor cars. And race cars.
The L48 was built for setting records. It’s powered by a massive 15.0-liter inline-six that makes an incredible 240 horsepower. At Ormond/Daytona Beach in 1905 the car hit 104 mph over the flying mile. That was a world record, and it was the first car to hit 100 mph in the U.S. and the first British car to break that barrier. In 1908 it broke 130 mph at Brooklands.
Napier later sold the car for scrap, which is pretty terrible in terms of keeping your history alive. The engine went into a boat and survived, later being discovered in Australia, where a replica of the original 1904 L48 was constructed around it.
Sure, this isn’t the exact car that set the speed records, but the wonderful one-off motor did. It’s still worth a lot: with an estimate of $900,000-$1,100,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February/March 2024
Photo – Gooding & Company
J. et A. Niclausse was the trading name for the car company started by Jules and Albert Niclausse in 1890. Thy were boilermakers and cars were sort of a side project produced in a separate factory. And the cars were not steam-powered, instead they were large gas-powered luxury cars.
Niclausse produced cars from 1906 through 1914. The Type D is powered by a 6.3-liter inline-four rated at 30/35 horsepower. It has rear drum brakes and a four-speed gearbox. The body was produced by Binder.
This example was sold new in Barcelona and remained with its original owning family until entered the Mullin collection in 2007 (alongside another Niclausse from the same family). The car has not been restored and will sell at no reserve with an estimate of $90,000-$120,000. More info can be found here.
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February/March 2024
Photo – Gooding & Company
Well, once the world found out that the Mullin collection was getting dispersed, we all should’ve prepared ourselves for some Voisins to come to market. This C28 is one of two known with “Clairiere” coachwork, a style that was introduced on the earlier C25 chassis.
The C28 is powered by a 3.3-liter Knight sleeve-valve inline-six rated at 110 horsepower. Of the two known to exist, the other is locked away forever in the Schlumpf hoard in France. So if you want one, this is it.
It has known ownership from knew, having been first delivered in Berlin in 1936, despite being titled as a 1929. It was owned by the Voisin family in the late 1990s and came into the current collection in 2010. The catalog carries a very reassuring disclaimer that the car has been in storage and “may not be currently operational.” So, you know, maybe it runs. The estimate is $350,000-$450,000. More info can be found here.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Miami, Florida | March 2024
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Herman Rigling and Cotton Henning were chassis builders during the “Junk Formula” years at Indianapolis. And their racing chassis were logged as “Rigling” in the Indianapolis 500 box scores. The junk formula was supposed to ensure stock-ish engines (in some cases, very stock). No superchargers, limited displacement, etc.
That said, you could still build a scratch-built racing engine and meet the criteria. Enter August Duesenberg, who built a beauty that this car first ran with at Indy in 1931. This car’s Indy 500 history includes:
1931 Indianapolis 500 – 35th, DNF (with Babe Stapp)
1932 Indianapolis 500 – DNQ (with L.L. Corum)
1933 Indianapolis 500 – 13th (with Willard Prentiss)
1934 Indianapolis 500 – DNQ (with Harold Shaw)
Let’s keep in mind that this was running at Indy during Duesenberg’s glory years. For 1933 the car used an engine from a Duesenberg Model Y road car. That engine was damaged by a later owner, who tried to adapt it to accept a Model J engine. That project was never completed.
After a late-90s/early-00s restoration, during which the car was fitted with a Duesenberg Model A engine, it relocated to its current collection in 2011. There are not many Duesenberg-powered race cars out there anymore, and even fewer in private hands. This one has an estimate of $500,000-$700,000. More info can be found here.
Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | February-March 2024
Photo – Gooding & Company
Cyclecars G.A.R. was founded in Clichy, France, in 1922, and, through a name change to Gardahaut et Cie in 1929, remained in production through 1934. M. Gardahaut designed the cars, and he took them racing in the mid-’20s to prove their mettle.
The G.A.R. was not a mass-produced car, and only three B5s are known to still exist. This one is powered by a 1.4-liter inline-eight that was rated at eight taxable horsepower. It also has a Cotal pre-selector gearbox and four-wheel drum brakes.
With known history back to 1970, the car came into the Mullin collection in 2011 and was restored two years later, debuting at Pebble Beach that year. It now has an estimate of $75,000-$125,000. Click here for more info.
