Horch 855 Special Roadster

1939 Horch 855 Special Roadster by Glaser

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Los Angeles, California | October 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Horch has an interesting history which we have probably discussed here before. They were a German luxury car manufacturer by the 1930s – the most luxurious of the four Auto Union marques. In 1935 they introduced the 850, which brought with it a fairly large inline eight-cylinder engine.

There were various versions, including the original 850, the uprated 851, and the uprated and shorter 951 and 951A. And then there were the sportier variants, including the original 850 Sports, the now-quite-famous 853 and 853A, and the ultimate iteration: the 855. The Horch 853 is a pretty sought after pre-war classic, but the 855 is pretty much impossible to get your hands on.

Part of that is the only built between five and seven of them. The other part is that only two remain: the 853-based prototype and this, the only production version left. It wears Special Roadster bodywork from Glaser. The 855 is powered by a 120-horsepower version of the 850’s 4.9-liter inline-eight. It had a top speed around 87 mph, weighed less than the 853, and typically had a shorter wheelbase.

This car was sold new in the Netherlands and was brought to the U.S. by a returning member of the military in the 1940s. It spent time in a museum in the 1950s, was used in at least one movie in 1959, and moved to its current collection in 1980. In 1992, Audi found out about the car and convinced its reclusive owner to lend it to them. Audi then restored it and kept it on display in their museum until this sale. You can read more about it here.

Haynes Roadster

1921 Haynes Model 47 Special Roadster

Offered by Bonhams | Amelia Island, Florida | May 20, 2021

Photo – Bonhams

When Elwood Haynes removed the Apperson name from his company, he took one of America’s pioneering automotive names out on its own. The company lasted as “Haynes” from 1905 into 1925. By the time the ’20s rolled around, Haynes attempted to move upmarket. Like way upmarket.

The first 12-cylinder Haynes arrived in 1916, and the company had been offering Vanderbilt Cup-style speedsters since 1907. In 1921, they offered the Model 47 “Light Six” and the Model 48 “Light Twelve.” This Model 47 is powered by a 4.7-liter inline-six that puts out about 70 horsepower.

It’s a sporty car, and Haynes knew it. They aimed it squarely at the Mercer Raceabout and priced it accordingly: about $3,500 when new. Driver Howdy Wilcox would test a 1922 road car model at Indianapolis and hit almost 80 mph. I think that this means that this car qualifies as “usable.” It should sell for between $75,000-$100,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Pebble Beach-Winning Horch

1938 Horch 853A Special Roadster by Erdmann & Rossi

Offered by RM Auctions | Monterey, California | August 17, 2012

This is one of the stars of the auction weekend in Monterey. If it looks familiar, that might because you’ve seen it featured as winning Best in Show at a number of high-class Concours d’ Elegance all over the country, namely Pebble Beach in 2004. Over the past eight years, this car hit the show circuit hard. I saw it in person in 2009 and I can attest that it is truly a magnificent car.

Horch was founded in Ehrenfeld, Cologne, Germany in 1899 by August Horch. The company moved to Reichenbach im Vogtland in 1902 and in 1904 relocated again, this time to Zwickau. August Horch was forced out of the company in 1910 and he went across the street and set up Audi. The company that bore his name would continue on without him, being merged into Auto Union in 1932 (coincidentally, Audi was also part of that group and is the sole surviving marque).

The Horch 853 (and 853A, as you see here) were introduced alongside other models of varying sizes/configurations in 1937 – but all used the same 120 horsepower 5.0-liter straight-eight engine. The main competition for these cars came from Mercedes-Benz and their lineup up elegant roadsters, namely the 540K. The Mercedes had a variant called the “Special Roadster” and they all look pretty much the same – about 25 were built.

Only eight Horch 853A Special Roadsters were built. The first one was bodied by Horch, the next six by Erdmann & Rossi, and the final one by Glaser. They are all different. The first three cars were referred to as “Series One” cars, while the final five are “Series Two.” This is one of three surviving Series Two cars.

One note about these cars when new: Horch wouldn’t sell you one until they concluded that you resided in an acceptable realm of society. They picked you to buy one of their cars instead of the other way around (well, you had to want one, I guess. But they almost certainly refused to sell them to certain individuals, although somehow Hermann Göring slipped through their screening process. I guess personality and likability weren’t among their requirements). In any case, this cost “significantly more” than its 540K counterpart.

Ownership history is known from the end of the war and the car was restored by RM, being completed sometime prior to being shown in August of 2004. This is one of the nicest pre-war cars around – and one of the most famous. But you better crack open your piggy bank(s) if you want to own it, as the estimate is between $6,000,000-$8,000,000. For  the complete lot description, click here. And for more from RM in Monterey, click here.

Update: Sold $5,170,000.