Bonham’s Cars auction sale – 2024 Retromobile week

Like the previous years, whilst the Retromobile auto show takes place at the Porte de Versailles in the south of Paris, Bonham’s Cars organizes its auction sale ‘Les grandes marques du monde à Paris‘ in the Grand Palais Ephémère, at a few steps of the Eiffel Tower, during the works in the Grand Palais. On February 2nd 2024, the auction sale gathered a fine selection of rare cars, from the beginning of the twentieth century until recent years. Throwback to the show with a (personal) pick of the vehicles listed in this sale.

The highlight of the sale was one of the twelve Ferrari Enzo – named after the Italian manufacturer’s founder – built in the beginning of the years 2000s to celebrate the winning of the Formula One championships at the turn of the twenty first century. It has been sold for 3.9 millions of euros, in case you plan to add an Enzo in your garage the next time one will be auctioned.

The birth of supercars era

Geneva Motor Show, 1966: two years after presenting the 350 GT to tickle Ferrari, Lamborghini unveiled the Miura P400 with its mid-mounted engine and its audacious design by Marcello Gandini, which is considered as the first supercar. The Miura P400 S auctioned here – the upgraded version of the original model, produced from the end of 1968 – had been restored in the late eighties and resprayed in an attractive Giallo Fly.

The Lamborghini Countach, the successor of the Miura, had been presented during the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, before being delivered to its first clients in 1974. Also designed by Marcello Gandini, the model had set new standards in the sport cars market. Bonham’s offered a Countach LP400S Series II, featuring significative improvements to the chassis and the suspension compared to the original LP400, in a rare Blu Notte Metallizzato paintwork.

Orange duck

With its duck tail rear spoiler and its lateral bands with cursive letters, the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is perhaps the most iconic 911 ever produced. Presented on October 5th 1972 at the Paris Motor Show, the production of 500 models was required for the homologation in the FIA Group 4 (special grand touring cars) but the car was so successful that 1580 cars (excluding 10 prototypes without any chassis number) were eventually sold. The one presented here was one of the first 500 made, in a blazing orange bodywork.

Bond style

Keep on with some James Bond vibes. In Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel Goldfinger, the British spy drives an Aston Martin DB mark III, a model which had been produced between March 1957 and July 1959 to replace the DB2/4. The fully restored exemplary proposed by Bonham’s with its deep black bodywork, had been delivered in September 1957 in California.

In 1963, when started the preparation of the movie Goldfinger, John Stears, the special effects expert of the movie, convinced Aston Martin to let them use their DB5 prototype for the filming, which were quite similar to the DB4 series V like the one listed here in a lovely light blue color, the last of the 55 DB4 series V Vantage produced at that time, according to its chassis number.

Ready for the Mille Miglia

Let’s go now to post-war Italy with two gorgeous cars eligible for the Mille Miglia race. Better known for their racing cars during the interwar period, Maserati presented its first grand tourer in 1947, the A6, with a monocoque unibody coachwork by Pinin Farina that was new at this time. Among the 61 cars built between 1947 and 1950, only 10 were updated with a rebuilt engine and three Weber carburettors, increasing the maximum speed beyond 150 km/h. The Maserati A6 listed in the auction was one of them.

An aerodynamic body painted in light green, fender skirts covering the rear wheels and a grilled three part nose with cromed bars, this Fiat 1100 S berlinetta from 1948 looks like no other car – it received the nickname ‘Gobbone’ (hunchback) – and participated to the Giro di Sicilia, Mille Miglia and Coppa d’Oro Delle Dolomiti races between 1953 and 1955.

Maserati Grand Prix

Likely one of my favorite car from the show: although it comes from a restoration project made with mostly original pieces, this Maserati tipo 8C registered for the road had all the vibes of a Grand Prix car from the thirties, and was part of various exhibitions and concours d’élégance in these recent years.

Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

The Rolls Royce 40/50HP Silver Ghost is kind of a legend: from the Serge Gainsbourg’s car that hits Melody Nelson‘s bike, to the one driven by Odjob, Auric Goldfinger’s manservant, it was considered as the ‘best car in the world’ as coined by the British magazine Autocar in 1907. The car offered here, which had been on the road since 1988 (!), was sold for charity.

Bonus: lets’s go camping

Let’s finish with the T10 ‘Autotutto’ (‘all purpose’) Romeo, which was a commercial van launched by Alfa Romeo in 1954. The one proposed by Bonham’s had been converted into a lovely camping van, featuring a double bed, a foldable table, multiple storage units, a sink and a gas stove: all the confort to go with style to Le Mans Classic or any other classic car event!

Photos credits: @elegantinparis

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