Photos by Robert Landman
The French flag flew high at Amelia Island this year as a 1931 Voisin C20 Demi-Berline won Best of Show.
The Voisin was once part of the famous D. Cameron Peck collection. The Munder Collection purchased the Voison from the Blackhawk Collection in 2007, and it underwent a complete restoration.
The Voisin on the field of dreams. In 1931, the car cost only about $7,800, but that was a fortune in those depression years. Those beautiful disc wheel covers were created by one of our sponsors, Lmarr Disk.
Gabriel Voisin was born in 1880 and died on Christmas Day in 1973. He first studied architecture, but the study of airplanes quickly became his sole obsession.
The Voisin drives around to receive the Best of Show Award.
After making a fortune in the airplane industry, he decided to concentrate on cars instead of planes, resulting in the very unconventional cars which today are art objects.
Bill Warner left, with Lee Munder, of the Munder Collection.
The 1931 C20 was a V12 of 4860cc, with an underslung chassis. Voisin produced a line of four, six and twelve cylinder models from 1919 to 1939, many using a variety of the Knight sleeve valve principle.
The interior reflects Voisin’s interest in airplanes, with many gauges, switches and levers to keep the chauffer busy.
Hello Pete,
What a machine. Keep up the neat articles.
Regards,
Frank
Good day all.
Voisin created some absolutely remarkable cars. This one has been my personal favorite since I saw some phots of this very car when I was a kid – many decades ago. It is even more bizzare, spectacular, and conservatively retrogressive in style when seen in the metal firsthand, as it appears in photos. It needs to be seen in three dimensions to get the full impact. I spent almost an hour examining its minutest details and angular shape augmented by wondrous curves when the car was at the Behring Museum in Danville California some years ago. It’s unforgetable image is indelibly etched into my memory. It simply has to be seen to be understood. The details are unorthodox in the extreme, and so abundant as to be a cornacopia of delights for any car-guy. Wonderful stuff, these Voisins. French car manufacturers and designers have a very-different vision of what constitutes an automobile.
To the editor:
My Grandfather owned this car for many years!
It was he who originally purchased the car from the Peck collection, I have photos of the car at the sale the day he purchased it.
I was just a boy when I would sneek under the
car cover and pretend to drive this great car – good thing my Grandfather did not catch
me. I would like to give to Mr.Munder copies of all the photos my father and I have, would you please pass on my address if he is interested. My father was present the day the car was purchased, and the day it was unloaded off a flat car from Chicago to Omaha NE.
Dad is 82 years old, sharp as a tack, drives his Viper everyday, and he could fill Mr. Munder in on the cars missing history. One interesting story is my Grandfather spoke to Mr. Voisin during the cars original restoration.
I am so happy to see the car restored in such a grand way and that it is out where car people can enjoy it’s beauty! Congratulations to Mr. Munder on his best of show! Best Regards Doug