Auction Heroes
August 1, 2008
Selling cars at an event as intoxicating as the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is a bit like peddling wine at the conclusion of a vinyard tour. Who wouldn’t want to take home a bit of the magic being bottled on-site?
Small wonder then that some of the world’s top automotive auction houses routinely set up tented shop in and around the Monterey peninsula’s fabled four-wheeled fashion show. This year is no exception, with Bonhams & Butterfields, Gooding & Company, Russo and Steele, and RM Auctions bringing a range of European and domestic beauties to gavel before and audience that runs from mere dreamers to keen-eyed collectors. The elite quartet offered a peek at their headlining act.
Bonhams’ star is a 1939 Talbot-Lago T150 C SS. This swooping
beast stands out due to the fact that it was not crafted by Figoni et Falaschi
or the Talbot factory, but rather master coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout—who
hammered out only four such cars
using George Paulin’s designs. And that, as
they say, is just the beginning.
"This car seems to tick all the boxes on the collector car checklist. It’s a $3.5 [million] to $4.5 million car, it is totally unrestored, it has a gentleman racer history, and it is a piece of automotive artwork," says Mark Osborne, head of Bonhams’ collector motorcars department. "It was designed by a genius and is an incredibly rare survivor."
In fact, this Talbot-Lago spent the past 40 years with an American collector with a passion for French style. It was purchased for a pittance in the 1960s, when the car was considered outdated. "And it hasn’t turned a wheel since," says Obsorne.
Though the Talbot-Lago once did, and with distinction thanks to race-inspired design. Paulin had an eye for speed, which he exercised to great success on streamlined cars such as the Delage D8 120, Bentley Embirico, and later applied to this Talbot-Lago. After laying idle during World War II, the car was campaigned by gentleman racer Pierre Boncompagni, also known as Pagnibon, who acquitted himself quite well in contests throughout the south of France and north Africa.
"Personally, I think this car would be wonderful if restored sympathetically to its condition during those racing days, which would allow it to appear in the Mille Miglia and Colorado Grand [historics]," says Osborne, whose close inspection of the car revealed vestiges of the past. These included semicircular sheets of metal attached behind the massive headlights, no doubt a pit-stop repair aimed at increasing airflow to the radiator. "It’s crude but effective, and something I’d certainly keep. Today’s big concours have preservation classes, and this car is the perfect contender for that," says Osborne.
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