This 1937 Delage Could Fetch $6 Million at Auction
Since the very first Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance back in 1950, just 74 cars have taken home the coveted Best of Show award. One of the victors is this exquisite 1937 Delage D8-120 S Aerodynamic Coupe, with flowing bodywork by Parisian coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout. It was the worthy recipient of Pebble’s top prize in 2005.
For Best in Show winners to come on to the open market is almost unheard of. But next month, this streamline-bodied coupe will be one of the stars of the RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction, held at the Monterey Conference Center in Northern California from August 13 through 15.
The 1937 Delage D8-120 S Aerodynamic Coupe set to be auctioned next month through RM Sotheby’s.
Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
“This is nothing less than a coachbuilt masterpiece, and one of the most important French Art Deco cars ever created,” Harvey Stanley, director of private sales for RM Sotheby’s, tells Robb Report. Does being a Pebble Beach Best of Show add to the car’s collectability? Says Stanley: “One thousand percent. It is the ultimate accolade for a car, adding immeasurably to its provenance.”
The car is part of a 22-lot field from the Sam and Emily Mann Collection, an assemblage that also includes actor Clark Gable’s breathtaking 1935 Duesenberg JN Convertible. The New Jersey–based couple spent more than four decades amassing a stable of some of the world’s rarest prewar, coachbuilt cars, but they have now decided to sell.
During its early history, this car was the daily driver of Louis Delâge, founder of his eponymous marque.
Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The Delage on offer was the prototype for the French builder’s D8-120 S model, a more athletic version of the D8-120. Compared to the latter, it features a 4.75-liter straight-eight engine, a lowered suspension, less weight, and bigger brakes. But it was the vehicle’s handcrafted, custom aluminum-and-steel body that set it apart. Shaped by the young French designer Georges Paulin—an early pioneer of the use of wind tunnels to improve aerodynamics—the long-tailed coupe was a sensation when it was unveiled.
According to the RM Sotheby’s research team, Louis Delâge had planned to showcase the car at the 1937 Paris Salon. Yet by the time the car was finished, applications had closed. Undaunted, Delâge and builder Pourtout simply drove it to the show’s Grand Palais venue and parked it outside the entrance for all to behold. The car would go on to be Louis Delâge’s daily driver.
The car is powered by a 4.75-liter straight-eight engine.
Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Fast forward to 1953 and the Delage was apparently involved in a fender-bender and dispatched to famed coachbuilder Saoutchik for repairs. It’s not clear why, but Saoutchik modified the original Pourtout styling, adding a blunter, more upright nose and a flat windshield, while replacing the two-piece rear window with a single piece of glass.
Fully restored, the car was acquired by William A. Raidy, a newspaper magnate who drove it for the next four years during his visits to France, before shipping it back stateside. He passed it on to New York–based experimental filmmaker William Maas. The car was later acquired by Alfredo Brener, an East Coast collector of coachbuilt performance machinery.
The Delage on offer seen crossing the awards ramp at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it was named Best of Show in 2005.
Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Then came well-known New Jersey–based collector Sam Mann. Mann had reportedly pursued the car for almost a decade but had failed to convince Brener to sell. When Brener began to lose interest in the Delage, which, by now, was in need of a complete restoration, he finally agreed.
Mann immediately sent the car to a top classic-car restoration house, Stone Barn, of Vienna, N.J., for a complete rebuild that would take over two and a half years. Using original photographs, and input from the Pourtout archives, the restoration team reversed the ungainly Saoutchik body modifications, and the curved windshield and twin rear-window design returned.
The flowing bodywork was designed by Georges Paulin and made by coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout.
Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
After its 2005 Pebble Beach win, the car was entered in that year’s inaugural Louis Vuitton Classic in New York City, where it was judged Best of the Best. This aero-bodied Delage has long been Mann’s favorite. He states: “It is the cream of everything we have ever owned, and the purest example of the automobile as art.”
Who is going to buy this ultrarare piece of French coachbuilding? Stanley from RM Sotheby’s predicts that it could go to a younger buyer than the market might expect. “When you have the best of the best, with such beauty in its styling, I wouldn’t be surprised that the buyer will be someone in their 40s. I think the market is changing, and I see a resurgence in interest for prewar cars that are special.”
When the current owner first acquired the car, he had it undergo a complete rebuild that took over two and a half years.
Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Stanley also expects this Delage to garner more awards in the future. “People talk about certain cars being a ticket to the world’s leading car events,” he notes. “This car not only provides a ticket to the likes of Pebble Beach and Villa d’Este, but a ticket to win them.” The price of that ticket will be determined by the highest bid in August, which is expected to range from $5 million to $6 million.
Click here for more photos of this 1937 Delage D8-120 S Aerodynamic Coupe.
The 1937 Delage D8-120 S Aerodynamic Coupe being offered at the RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction in August.
Darin Schnabel, courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
