1909 Cooper

Posted on October 28, 2021 by classiccarweekly

1909 Cooper 22.5HP Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 5, 2021

If your tiny car company built six cars over 110 years ago, you’d think the chances of any of them surviving would be essentially nil. But don’t tell that to the long-deceased Thomas Cooper of the Cooper Steam Digger Company Ltd of Norfolk, England. His company typically built steam traction engines and farm equipment. But in 1909 he designed a two-stroke 3.3-liter inline-four that he debuted in a motorcar at that year’s Olympia Motor Show.

It had a three-speed gearbox and a two-speed rear axle. Only six cars were built, each of them different. This is the only survivor. It was parked in 1921 and re-discovered in 1951, where its history trail picks up.

It was later restored and acquired by its current owner in 1994. Museum duty followed, with the car last driven in 2014. It now carries a pre-sale estimate of $55,000-$83,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $44,735.

July 2019 Auction Highlights

Posted on August 3, 2019 by classiccarweekly

We shifting gears a little bit now. From here out, our monthly auction rundowns will only cover auctions from which we actually featured cars. Sorry all others, I don’t have the time. Life is busy. That also means it will be a straight-shot chronologically (well, based on when the results are published anyway). Previous rundowns used to be broken up a little bit, as we’d only feature one result from any particular auction house per highlight post. Not anymore!

We start this time around with Bonhams in Goodwood, where the top seller, by some margin, was the Williams F1 car we featured. It sold for $3,385,271, while the other F1 car – the Toyota roller – brought $86,416. Rounding it out was the Lister Storm for $583,311. Most Interesting goes to this 1956 Cooper T39 that sold for $151,228. Click here for more results.

Next up is Brightwells’ Leominster Classic & Vintage sale. This 1961 Jaguar XK150S coupe was the top sale at $134,401.

Cars we featured included the Maudslay ($74,264), the Mitsuoka Roadster ($26,130), and the Dennis flatbed (not sold). Final results can be found here.

Historics held a sale at Brooklands in July, and this 1981 Porsche 911 Turbo took top sale honors, selling for $114,822.

All three of our feature cars sold, with the Jensen bringing the most: $84,016. The Bristol 411 sold for $49,708, and the Healey $22,404. Click here for complete results.

Aguttes’ all-Citroen sale saw the Coupe Concorde we featured fail to find a new home. The Citela concept car we featured a while back also failed to sell here. Top money went to this 1968 Citroen DS 21 Cabriolet for $238,579.

Two other previously-featured concept cars did manage to sell here. The Eco 2000 SA 109 went for $1,137 and the Tubyk $7,156 – both way down from what they brought not all that long ago at a different sale. More results are available here.

Finally, we have Silverstone Auctions. Fresh feature cars in this sale consisted of the Renault 5 Turbo 2, which sold for $100,258. The top sale was $1,030,431 for this 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL.

A previously-featured AC Aceca sold here for $167,096. Final results are available here and here.

July 2015 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

Posted on August 8, 2015 by classiccarweekly

There were a bunch of sales in July (and there’s a bunch more in August). It seems like auction houses are really packing the calendar this year. First up in this rundown is RM Sotheby’s Motor City sale. The top sale was this previously featured Duesenberg for $852,500. Both of our new feature cars sold, with the beautiful LaSalle bringing $77,000 and the Ford Explorer Concept $14,300. A car we would’ve loved to have gone home in was this 1932 Packard Eight Phaeton, which sold for $140,250. Click here for complete results.

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

Now we’ll jump to England for Silverstone Auctions’ Silverstone Classic, which they actually broke down into two sales – one for competition cars, and one for everything else. We’ll break it down that way too. First up, the competition cars where this 1959 Cooper Monaco took top sale honors at $342,225.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

All three of our featured F1 cars sold, with the 1983 Osella-Alfa Romeo bringing $126,360. The ’86 Osella sold for $70,200. And the engine-less Toleman TG185 went for $48,266.

We weren’t able to feature anything from the road car portion of this sale, but the high seller was a 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo LE for $249,210. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

H&H Classics held a sale at Pavilion Gardens near the end of July. We weren’t able to feature anything from this sale either, but the big seller was this 1966 Jaguar E-Type Series I 4.2 Coupe for $107,530. Click here to see more results, including a host of more affordable cars.

Photo – H&H Classics

And finally, we bump into August with Mecum’s sale in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This is one of those sales where cars are sold at prices mere humans can afford. It’s great. The top sale, however, was this 1968 Shelby GT500KR Convertible for $190,000. Check out full results here.

Photo – Mecum

Artcurial Retromobile 2014 Highlights

Posted on February 16, 2014 by classiccarweekly

We featured quite a number of cars from Artcurial’s awesome Retromobile sale. The top sale there was this 1931 Bentley 8-Litre Sportsman Coupe by Gurney-Nutting for $2,955,945.

Photo – Artcurial

Our top feature car was from the sale’s second day all-Alfa Romeo sale. The Giulia TZ brought $1,289,366. Our other Alfa Romeo’s all sold: the Quattroroute brought $75,604, the Alfetta Turbodelta sold for $49,867, the 75 Turbo Evoluzione $38,606, and the Alfetta Grand Prix Edition $14,477. Cool – or crazy – cars were topped by this 1994 Citroen ZX Rally Raid car for $209,199.

Photo – Artcurial

Another weird Citroen (aren’t they all?) was this 1982 ECO 2000 Prototype that sold for $17,220.

Photo – Artcurial

Both of our feature microcars sold. The Reyonnah Prototype sold for $168,903 and the Pierre Faure Electric brought an impressive. $69,170. Our featured Ferrari 166 failed to sell as did the Duesenberg and one of our featured Delages – the D6-70 Mylord.

Our other three featured Delages all sold. The D6-70 Coach Panoramique brought $101,342. The D8 Roadster by Chapron sold for $438,318. And the incredible D8 S by Pourtout brought $1,281,647. And our Gregoire Phaeton sold for $56,301. One final cool car is this 1952 Cooper-Bristol F2 Biplace Sport. it was originally an open-wheel race car that was converted into a sports car in 1953 and sold for $716,099. Check out full results here.

Photo – Artcurial

2014 Scottsdale Highlights II

Posted on January 19, 2014 by classiccarweekly

The next auction we’ve got results on is RM’s annual Arizona sale. The big winner there was, no surprise, a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider for $8,800,000.

Our featured Chaparral did not sell while our featured, all-original, Duesenberg brought $2,200,000. Our other featured top-seller was the Porsche RS 61 for $2,750,000. The only other feature car that cracked the million dollar mark was the Hispano-Suiza J12 and it only hit $1 million with the buyer’s premium added on: $1,045,000. Interesting cars were topped by this 1960 DKW 3=6 Schnellaster Kastenwagen for $60,500.

Another cool car was this 1905 Reo Two-Cylinder Five-Passenger Detachable Tonneau that also sold for $60,500.

I really liked this 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca de Ville by Park Ward. It looks awfully regal and makes me want to hire a chauffeur (even if it’s for my Honda daily driver). It sold for $440,000.

A previously-featured Abarth race car brought $46,750. The OSCA 750S sold for $660,000. This 1935 Lincoln Model K Convertible Roadster by LeBaron looks like a lot of fun. It brought $242,000.

And finally, our featured Fiat 8V by Ghia sold for $946,000. Check out full results here. Next up is “Super Saturday” at Barrett-Jackson (and also, Sunday – which is still going on as I write this). The top sale of Barrett-Jackson’s entire sale was our featured 1967 Chevy L88 Corvette Coupe for $3,850,000. Another top seller was this 1963 Cooper Monaco Shelby King Cobra which went for $1,650,000.

The featured Duesenberg from this sale sold for $1,430,000. Another mega-bucks Corvette was the ultra-rare ZR2 we featured. It crossed the block for $495,000. For the same price, you could’ve bought this 1955 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport (which I think I’d much rather have).

One car that didn’t stand out to me until I read the lot description (and saw it cross the block on live TV) was this 1926 Packard Eight Model 443 Phaeton by Murphy that was customized at the request of its original owner, Rudolph Valentino. It sold for $264,000.

The featured Plymouth Belmont Concept car failed to meet its reserve and thus did not sell. You can check out full results here.

December 2013 Auction Roundup

Posted on December 14, 2013 by classiccarweekly

The first sale of December was Bonhams’ London Sale. Our featured Jaguar C-Type was the top seller at $4,762,011. The second top seller also came from the fabulous Ecurie Ecosse collection. It’s a 1956 Jaguar D-Type and it brought $4,212,831.

The coolest car from this sale also came from that collection. It was the Ecurie Ecosse team transporter (technically it’s a 1960 Commer TS3) and it sold for a huge $2,931,441.

This 1934 Aston Martin Ulster Two-Seater looks awesome and downright mean. It sold for $2,125,947.

Our featured Frazer Nash Targa Florio sold for $441,795. The oldest car in the sale, our featured 1903 Clement brought $569,937. The other four Ecurie Ecosse team cars all sold. The 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster brought $1,155,729.

Our featured Tojeiro EE-Buick Coupe brought $350,265. The other Tojeiro, this 1959 Tojeiro-Jaguar, sold for $624,855.

Another prototype race car was this 1960 Cooper Monaco-Climax Type 57 Mark II. It sold for $359,418.

And finally, the cheapest car of the bunch – a 1961 Austin-Healey Sprite. It went for a downright budgetary $101,304. And Schumacher’s Benetton sold for $1,009,281. Check out complete results here.

Next up was H&H’s Chateau Impney sale where this 1939 Lagonda V12 Drophead Coupe was the top seller at $328,600.

I didn’t get to feature any cars from this sale, but the first one I was going to feature was this beautiful 1938 Alvis 4.3-Litre Drophead Coupe. It sold for $125,900.

Other cars that were on my to-feature list included this 1919 Armstrong-Siddeley 30hp Open-Drive Limousine that ended up bringing $27,380.

I would’ve featured this 1928 Falcon-Knight Six-Cylinder Tourer but it’s not in the best of shape and I know there are other Falcon-Knight’s out there. But it’s still interesting. It sold for $18,400.

And finally, one of only two F2 cars built by Gerald Smith. It’s a 1957 Smith Formula Two Single Seater and it sold for $61,700. You can check out full results here.

We featured one car from Mecum’s Kansas City sale: this 1918 Cadillac. And it was stolen at a bargain price of only $29,000. The top sale went to another Cadillac from the same consignor. It was this 1931 Cadillac V12 Series 370 Convertible Coupe by Fleetwood. It sold for $175,000. You can check out full results from this sale here.

Coys got their December results posted in time for this recap. Our featured Victor Electric Highwheeler did not sell, but the Mercedes-Simplex brought an auction high of $1,174,900. You can see full results here. And the final sale covered this year is Bonhams’ Oxford sale, where this 1960 Bentley S2 Continental Flying Spur sold for a sale-high $178,843.

Our featured Frazer Nash-BMW failed to sell and the Sunbeam Tourer brought $60,369. I thought this 1924 Crossley 19.6HP Sports Tourer was pretty cool for $31,127.

And finally, our featured Vulcan Touring car brought an impressive $126,479 – bettering the upper end of its estimate. You can check our full results here.