On Saturday 12 March RM/Sotheby's are holding their annual auction to coincide with the Concours d'Elegance being held at Amelia Island. From the abundant offerings we limited ourselves to a choice of tempting saloons as spring is far from being in the air. As you sit down with a book about whichever car takes your fancy, lean back, close your eyes and try and conjure up that unique smell that is peculiar only to vintage cars with saloon bodies.
Take the 1927 Voisin C14 Lumineuse with its 2.3 litre six cylinder sleeve valve engine famous for its silence and smooth torque. The interior features mechanical workings that are exposed rather than hidden behind wood or upholstery, emphasizing the beautiful mechanical quality of a Voisin’s engineering—similar to opening the back of a fine watch.
All of Voisin's cars display his bold, original, unconventional thinking and few express his advanced genius better than the Lumineuse with its angled windows to permit sunshine to illuminate the interior which features mechanical workings that are exposed rather than hidden behind wood or upholstery, emphasizing the beautiful mechanical quality of a Voisin’s engineering—similar to opening the back of a fine watch. Add to all of this its light weight and you have the most delightful vintage saloon car imaginable.
Equally dramatic but altogether different is the 1930 Stutz SV-16 Monte Carlo with fabric body by Weymann which all helps keep the weight down. It's interesting to note this Monte Carlo was one of very few Stutzes ever pried away ( in 1974) from the Stutz-obsessed recluse and eccentric Alexander Miller during his lifetime.
One of only 19 surviving Ruxton cars is this 1932 Ruxton Model C Sedan and one of the most groundbreaking cars of its era, as the very first American car to be designed with front-wheel drive. Its body is by Budd coachbuilding company of Philadelphia to a design by Joseph Ledwinka (cousin of Tatra designer Hans Ledwinka).
Yet another rare saloon is the 1934 Auburn Twelve Salon Phaeton -
used for about 25,000 miles by the first owners until their deaths when it was inherited and put into storage by their three children, remaining there until 1979, when it was finally sold to the second owner who had spent 18 years pursuing it!
Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy RM/Sotheby's.