Rick Carey on New Lives after the Auctions

Rick Carey with the Bothwell Peugeot

1910 Thomas Flyer Model K 6-70 Flyabout Phaeton s/n 318
Bought by the city of Chattanooga, then passed on to the Chattanooga Fire Company where its 748 cubic inch 70 ALAM horsepower inline six was ideal for pumper service. It once was part of classic tire pioneer Harold Coker’s collection, the first of the eleven Thomases he would own, and was restored with reconstructed coachwork. It sold, appropriately enough, at Bonhams Amelia Island auction in 2016 for $816,750 and with an updated restoration appeared here at the 2019 Amelia, ready to continue its long career of concours, shows and tours.

1913 Locomobile Model 48 M Series III Baby Tonneau s/n 6410
When this Loco sold at RM Hershey in 2008 (for $357,500) it was observed that, “The only thing ‘Baby’ about this Locomobile is the body style name: in all other respects it is a big car” reinforced by its 48 ALAM horsepower 525 cubic inch inline six engine. RM sold it at Hershey again in 2015 for $242,000 in pretty much the same condition as it had been seven years before. It has had needed attention since then and was both elegant and accompanied by exhibitors in period outfits that matched its style.

1913 Stevens-Duryea Model C6 Touring s/n 26392
Marvelous, simply marvelous: a car that shows loving preservation since at least 1946 in the hands of Roderick Rice with its dull, chipped paint and aged fittings but still runs, drives and stops. The 45 ALAM horsepower 460 cubic inch inline six is up to the task of moving it with sufficient, if ponderous, haste. Bonhams sold it at the Simeone Foundation Museum in 2017 for $170,500 and the new owner has kept it in pristine unrestored condition while improving its functionality. A magnificent automobile from one of America’s pioneering auto dynasties, now in caring and knowledgeable hands preserving its history.

1914 Peugeot L45 Grand Prix s/n 1
What’s to say about this Peugeot? It’s a late example of the first series of dual overhead camshaft engines pioneered by Peugeot and now chosen by every manufacturer which values volumetric efficiency in an internal combustion engine. Its race history includes the French Lyon GP in 1914 (the Peugeot team’s spare) and third at Indianapolis in 1916 driven by Ralph Mulford. Art Klein drove it after the Great War and in 1923 it was second in the AAA dirt championship driven by Joe Boyer. Lindley Bothwell bought it from Klein in 1949. Even in the early decades of the last century a ten-year competitive history is nothing less than remarkable. The 4,491cc 4-valve per cylinder four-cylinder engine makes something like 112hp with a single-throat barrel throttle Miller carburetor. Its chassis, engine, drivetrain and bodywork are as-built by Peugeot in 1914. Only one other dohc Peugeot survives (in the Collier Collection), a 3-liter. Bonhams sold it at the dispersal of the fabled Lindley Bothwell collection in 2017 for $7,260,000 and it now resides in Jacksonville, Florida. One of these days we’re going to hear and see it run again, the progenitor of every high performance internal combustion engine, now 105 years old.
[Disclosure: I wrote its description for the Bonhams auction catalog, a great honor, pleasure and privilege.]

1924 Delage GL Skiff Torpedo s/n 15427, coachwork by Labourdette
Jean-Henri Labourdette was justly famed for the delicately-shaped, elaborately planked, riveted and finished wood skiff-type coachwork his carrosseries produced. This Delage GL with 5,954cc inline six-cylinder 100hp engine, 4-speed gearbox and 4-wheel brakes is the archetype of Labourdette’s reputation. A 2008 winner of the French Cup at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it features an unpainted aluminum bonnet, black painted clamshell fenders, dual vee windscreens and lovely Stephen Grebel headlights and a pedestal spotlight. Although it once served as an early collector’s tow truck (which highlights the strength and torque of the engine) the bodywork is largely original and has been meticulously maintained. It’s been sold twice by Gooding & Company at Pebble Beach. The first time was in 2004 when it brought a negotiated price “in the neighborhood of $400,000”. A year after its Pebble Beach award it changed hands for $660,000 and it is seriously magnificent at The Amelia in 2019. Its patina is wonderful.

1934 Lancia Belna Eclipse Convertible s/n F341349
Most often seen on French cars, the Georges Paulin-designed retracting hardtop coachwork of the Lancia Belna executed by Pourtout is a rare Italian-chassised example, one of two known. Lancias of the day with their small narrow-angle vee engines, a 35hp 1,196cc four in this case, and sliding pillar independent front suspension are technical marvels of effect and efficiency. This example had been in the collection of John Moir for many years, representing the letter “L” in his famed “A-Z” collection, when it was sold by RM Auctions at Paris in 2015, bringing €212,800 ($242,975 at the time.) Finely constructed and beautifully presented, the elaborately complex power-operated retractable hardtops of Fifties American cars, and even more recent expressions of the technology, would do well to take note of the simplicity and balance of Paulin’s Eclipse design which could be retracted or erected by a single person in a few seconds with only some elastic bands for assistance.

1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Sports Tourer, s/n 57541, coachwork by Vanden Plas
Bonhams sold this British-bodied 3,257cc 200 horsepower supercharged inline-eight powered 4-seat tourer by Vanden Plas here at Amelia in 2016 in older restored condition for an entirely appropriate $9,735,000. At the time there was debate over the British 4-seat coachwork with severely cutdown doors and further discussion about how much better it might look with the rear wheel spats with which it was adorned when built but were lacking in 2016. That debate was effectively silenced with its appearance here at the Amelia now liveried in medium grey with maroon upholstery with a matching subtle maroon side accent and outfitted with rear wheel spats. It is nothing less than gorgeous even if blithely divergent from the designs of Jean Bugatti and other French coachbuilders of the period. It went from excellent to sublime and authentic in the current owner’s possession.

1956 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Speciale, s/n 0465GT, coachwork by Pinin Farina
Just a sweet example of an early Ferrari built to unique configuration and equipment by Pinin Farina for Emmanuele Nasi, part of the FIAT-owning Agnelli family. It’s loaded with special features and when RM sold it here at Amelia in 2012 it was described as, “’Pretty coachwork’ hardly credits the good looks of this body with its haunchy rear fenders, diminutive fins, plain front fender flanks and subtle black roof. It is far more attractive than its contemporaries from Boano.” The paintwork in this early morning photo looks uneven because of moisture condensation and sunshine warming the panels unevenly. It brought $1,430,000 in 2012 and it has been maintained and preserved to the high standards it deserves, a gorgeous early Ferrari 250 GT with unique coachwork and features.

1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione s/n 1603GT, coachwork by Pinin Farina
The early long wheelbase California Spiders (in this case with a lightweight alloy body) were show-off drop top cars that raced competitively with sports-racers. That is nowhere better shown than by this Cal Spider’s fifth place overall at Sebring in 1960 driven by George Reed and Alan Connell, Jr. Restored by the best, Motion Products in the late 80’s and refreshed by Bob Smith Coachworks in 2011, it has Ferrari Classiche certification. It is an historic car (the first Cal Spider with disc brakes) with an enviable competition history and gorgeous lines, sold by Gooding & Company at Pebble Beach in 2010 for $7,260,000 and then again in 2016 for an awe-inspiring $18,150,000. It’s still an awe-inspiring Ferrari.

1960 OSCA 750 S Spider s/n 769
The class winner at Sebring in 1960 and 1962. In 1965 with engine enlarged to its present 850cc it won fourteen SCCA races. OSCA was the acronym for Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili, the Maserati brothers successor company, and they were every bit as successful at building efficient small displacement engines (this is 850cc and some 75hp) as any of Italy’s constructors of lightweight racing cars. Not only that, but they succeeded in making them aerodynamically efficient and beautiful at the same time. This little jewel was sold by RM Auctions at Arizona in 2014 for a hefty $660,000 price but its appearance here, and competitive performance in historic racing, makes it all worthwhile.

1961 Cooper-Climax T54, the Kimberley-Cooper Special Indy Car s/n 61IS01
There’s a little chassis number confusion here. At Christie’s Pebble Beach Auction in 1998 it was stated “IS6101”, but at RM Monterey in 2018 it was “61IS01”. The overstamped pop-riveted ID plate in RM’s 2018 photos shows “61IS01”, but it is clearly the same car: Jack Brabham’s 1961 purpose-built car to run at the Indy 500 with a 2.7-liter Coventry Climax four making some 253hp on fuel-injected alcohol and an offset suspension for turning left only. Like so many of its contemporaries it became a Chevy-powered sprinter of no distinction but was eventually restored with an original engine that reputedly had been used in Roger Penske’s “Zerex Special”. All that is largely irrelevant (until someone comes up with a car claiming the same history, that is) to its status as the beginning of the “rear engine revolution” that would overtake Indianapolis in a scant few years and make the roadsters of legend obsolete.

1964 Porsche 356 SC Cabriolet s/n 160371, engine 811908
This isn’t about the car, but about a former owner, Janis Joplin, who bought it used from Otto Zipper for $3,500. Dave Richards painted it in hippie psychedelic style as “The History of the Universe” using house paint and it was Joplin’s daily driver. Later repainted its original Dolphin Grey, it got a redo in Dave Richards’ style in the 90’s and was displayed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame before it was sold by RM Sotheby’s in New York in 2015 for an astounding $1.6 million hammer (four times its pre-sale low estimate), $1.76 million with commission. Displayed here with a period Gibson EB-0 bass guitar similar to that used by Peter Albin, bassist for Big Brother and the Holding Company from the collection of the Amelia’s Director of Communications, Chris Brewer, a celebration of the Sixties.