Philos Torpedo

1913 Philos A-4-M Torpedo

Offered by Aguttes | Brussels, Belgium | October 2024

Photo – Aguttes

Philos was based in Lyon, France, and existed from 1912 through 1923. This early car was restored around 2000 and looks like the type of Edwardian car you would see in a children’s movie that took place prior to WWI. It’s so colorful and covered in brass.

This early two-seat Philos is powered by a 1.1-liter inline-four that was rated at eight (presumably taxable) horsepower. The engine was sourced from Ballot. The survival rate for Philos cars isn’t that high, as this is the second one I can recall coming up for sale in the last decade.

It has an estimate of $16,000-$28,000. More info can be found here.

Morgan-Monotrace Torpedo

1926 Morgan-Monotrace TMX Torpedo

Offered by Gooding & Company | April 2024

Photo – Gooding & Company

What do you call a motorcycle with four wheels? That’s not the start of a joke, but a description of what we’re dealing with here. It’s essentially a two-passenger motorcycle with… training wheels.

The Monotrace was designed by a German firm called Mauser but were built under license in France by Mecanicarm of St. Etienne between 1925 and 1928. The marque was Morgan-Monotrace, and the company was unrelated the Britain’s Morgan Motor Company.

The engine is a 520cc single. It’s got tandem seating and chain drive. Approximately 310 were built, and this one was in the Schlumpf reserve collection before coming to the Mullin museum. Very few of these exist, and this project-status example has a reserve of $10,000-$15,000. Click here for more info.

Bedelia Cyclecar

1913 Bedelia Type 8 Sport Torpedo

Offered by Gooding & Company | April 2024

Photo – Gooding & Company

Bedelia was a French marque that existed between 1910 and 1925. Prime time for cyclecars, which were light, low-powered cars that were cheap and efficient. They were a fad, really. And one that never came back. They were kind of like the proto-microcar.

Some of them featured tandem seating like this car. In today’s world, being positioned behind your passengers as the driver seems insane. The car features a V-twin engine turned to the side, unlike a Morgan of the same era.

This is another car that was acquired by the Mullin museum from as part of the Schlumpf reserve collection. It’s a project, but finding another one isn’t going to be easy (they’re out there, though). The estimate is $10,000-$20,000. More info can be found here.

1914 Germain

1914 Germain Torpedo

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 1, 2024

Photo – Bonhams

Germain was a Belgian automaker that existed for almost 20 years. Yet they disappeared by the start of WWI. Based in Monceau-sur-Sambre, the company was founded around 1897 and wrapped it all up by 1914.

Later cars like this one used Knight sleeve-valve engines, which in this case consists of four cylinders, cast in pairs. Taxable horsepower was 13. Bonhams guesses that this is a “Type S” model, and not many later Germains were produced.

This one is believed to have resided in Belgium since new, having been with its current owner since the 1970s. It now has an estimate of $44,000-$66,000. Click here for more info.

Mass Torpedo

1909 Mass Model B Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Gooding & Company | Online | December 2023

Photo – Gooding & Company

Automobiles Mass is a mostly unremembered French automaker that existed from 1907 until 1923. Based near Paris, the company was founded by a Mr. Masser-Horniman, who was apparently English. The chassis/engines were assembled at the French factory, but the cars were then bodied in England. Very economical.

This car is powered by a 3.3-liter inline-four rated at 30 horsepower. It has a three-speed gearbox and rear drum brakes. The body was constructed by Shaw Brothers in the U.K. It has known ownership back to the 1950s and spent years in a Colorado museum.

The catalog notes that it has received “improvements” over the last few years to get it into the condition it is today. This is not a well-known or common car (in fact, I can’t remember another one coming up for public sale in the last ~15 years). It has an estimate of $40,000-$55,000. Click here for more info.

Vermorel Type L

1929 Vermorel Type ZX Torpedo

Offered by Aguttes | Paris, France | April 2, 2023

Photo – Aguttes

Vermorel exhibited their first car in 1899, but production didn’t start until 1908. After just a few years they were a fairly sizable company. Passenger-car production ceased in 1930, and commercial vehicles soldiered on until 1932.

The Type ZX was introduced in late 1928 and was offered in a few different submodels through the end of Vermorel production in 1930. It’s powered by a 1.7-liter inline-four.

This particular example wears torpedo tourer coachwork with two windscreens and rear jump seats. It was restored decades ago and has not been used recently. It will need some work. It also has a pre-sale estimate of $21,000-$32,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $34,202.

Simplex 50HP

1912 Simplex Model 50 Five-Passenger Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 27, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

The Simplex 50 was one of, if not the, finest pre-WWI American car built. It was the launch model for Simplex, a company that was formed when Herman Broesel purchased the company that made the S&M Simplex. Engineer Edward Francquist had just finished designing the engine for the Model 50, so it was the first car launched under the new Simplex marque.

The Model 50 remained on sale from 1910 through 1916. It was their most popular – although not their most powerful – model, powered by a 50-horsepower, 9.8-liter inline-four. It was a massive thing connected to a four-speed manual transaxle and dual chain drive. In 1912, this was a sports car, even though it seats five in a big Quimby-built touring car body.

About 250 Simplex 50HPs were built, and this one was purchased new by a Vanderbilt for his fiancée, tennis player Eleonora Sears. They never got married, but she kept the car for about a quarter century. It was most recently restored in the 2000s. This is one of the best pre-WWI cars you can buy, regardless of where it was built. The estimate is a hearty $2,500,000-$3,500,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $4,485,000.

A Long, Low Lanchester

1915 Lanchester Sporting Forty Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 4, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

The Lanchester Motor Company was founded by Frederick, George, and Frank Lanchester, a trio of brothers who built their first car in 1895. The company was acquired by BSA in 1930, and it wound up as part of Daimler, which came under the control of Jaguar in 1960. But by that time, the Lanchester marque had been discontinued for five years.

This car is very striking. Early Lanchesters were kind of funky looking, with the driver more or less sitting over the engine, no front hood, and an upright radiator directly in front of the passenger compartment, which was still rearward of the front axle. It was… awkward.

The Sporting Forty was introduced near the end of 1913. It had a more conventional layout, with the engine moved forward in the chassis. Imagine a company bragging about that today. It’s powered by a 5.5-liter inline-six. Just six were built before WWI broke out. In 1919, the “40” was re-introduced, but it was a somewhat different car.

This example was Lanchester’s demonstrator and is the only remaining Sporting Forty. A restoration was completed around 2004. Bonhams has an estimate of $200,000-$245,000 on it. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $256,286.

Bugatti Type 22

1914 Bugatti Type 22 Torpedo by Chauvet

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 18-20, 2022

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This car looks like a toy. From pretty much every angle, too. The body is by Carrosserie Chauvet, a coachbuilder that was active in the north of France from 1912 until 1929. This is their only surviving body on a Bugatti. It’s a small boattail torpedo with two tiny seats up front and maybe more seating under a hard tonneau behind a second cowl? Hard to say. The photos really leave a lot to the imagination.

The top looks like it would get ripped off of this thing at about 20 mph. Which is probably a good cruising speed here, as the car is powered by a bright red, Ettore Bugatti-signatured 1.4-liter inline-four that made about 30 horsepower.

The Type 22 was a road car, and they were built from 1913 through about 1922. Production totals are not widely known, but it was not many. And even less are left. This one has an estimate of $200,000-$250,000. Read more about it here.

Update: Sold $335,000.

1926 Lorraine-Dietrich

1926 Lorraine-Dietrich A4 Torpedo Sport

Offered by Aguttes | Neuilly, France | March, 27, 2022

Photo – Aguttes

Lorraine-Dietrich cars came about when their parent company, a locomotive manufacturer, branched out into automobiles in 1896. Initial cars were an Amedee Bollee design, and by 1902 the designs were by a young Ettore Bugatti. Later events saw a short-lived merger with Isotta Fraschini and a sweeping of the podium at the 1926 24 Hours of Le Mans.

This A4 is also from 1926. It’s powered by a 12-horsepower, 2.3-liter inline-four and served as the company’s entry-level model. This car was restored in the last decade, starting that time out as a bare chassis and pile of parts.

So the body is a new one, but it looks the part, especially in French racing blue. The pre-sale estimate is $39,000-$60,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $47,234.