1923 Calthorpe 10-15 Drophead Coupe by Mulliner

Offered by Brightwells | Bicester, U.K. | October 25, 2017

Photo – Brightwells

Founded in Birmingham in 1904, the Calthorpe Motor Company produced cars until about 1928. You’d think, having existed for over 20 years, we would have featured an example from this marque before, but we haven’t (more on that in a bit).

In 1917, Calthorpe acquired Mulliner, the famed coachbuilder of Bentleys and such. When Calthorpe failed in 1924, Mulliner was spun off and survived. Guess who built the body for this car. That’s right, Mulliner! It’s powered by a 1.3-liter straight-four making 10 horsepower. Only two models were offered in 1923 and this was the baby of the two. The 10-15 was available from 1922 through 1926.

Restored in the 1980s, this is believed to be one of about 10-12 Calthorpes that still exist even though they built roughly 5,000 cars after WWI (so no wonder we haven’t featured one: they never come up for sale). This is an affordable British classic rarer than just about everything else at its price point. It should bring between $15,600-$18,300. Click here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $27,569.

1937 Autovia Saloon by Mulliner

Offered by Brightwells | Bicester, U.K. | October 25, 2017

Photo – Brightwells

It took me a while to figure out it, but no, the picture is not blurry – it’s the paint on the car. It’s not a bad thing, this car has serious patina. And you won’t find a better one anywhere on the market, because this is the only Autovia on the market. It’s only the second one to come up for sale since 2013.

Autovia was founded in 1935 as a subsidiary of Riley. It was created to build fancy cars to compete with the other big British names of the day. This car sports a four-door body from Mulliner, one of the preferred coachbuilders for Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much room for another luxury marque in Britain during the 1930s. Riley went bankrupt and was absorbed by another company and Autovia was dissolved in 1938, after barely a year of production.

Autovias are powered by a 99 horsepower, 2.9-liter V-8. This example cost £975 when new and Autovia only built 44 cars in total. Only 11 still survive today. This one is all-original and has only covered 1,000 miles since the end of WWII. It should bring between $110,000-$135,000. Click here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $98,463.