Previewing the Mullin Collection
Gooding & Company will hold an auction on April 26 during which they will offer selected lots from the Mullin Collection. The sale will be held at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California and will include some selections from the Schlumpf Reserve Collection of lesser-known French marques.
The full catalogue along with pre-auction estimates will be made available on April 1, but Gooding & Company announced a few of the cars they will offer to hold us over until the entire selection is revealed. All four of the cars listed below are set to be offered with no reserve.
Introduced in 1934, the Type 57 quickly became Bugatti’s most successful road-going model. The Type 57C took performance even further with a factory-fitted supercharged engine. The French coachbuilder Gangloff offered an elegant 2/3-seat Cabriolet body style for the Type 57 called the Aravis, named after a mountain pass in the French Alps.
Only three examples of the rare Gangloff-bodied Aravis remain today. This particular car, chassis 57768, was originally ordered new by the Avignon Bugatti agent Granat & Fils for famed Bugatti racing driver Maurice Trintignant. Resplendent in ivory bodywork with contrasting dark blue fenders and trim, it was successfully campaigned in-period by Trintignant himself at the 1939 Grand Prix du Comminges race.
More recently, after joining the acclaimed Mullin Collection, this Aravis underwent a concours-level restoration by Sargent Metal Works. It then went on to be exhibited at prestigious concours events like the 2005 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it was awarded First in Class honors. Following that victory, the Aravis was displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum’s Peter and Merle Mullin Artistry Gallery in Los Angeles.
Gooding & Company’s estimate on this car is $2,500,000 – $3,500,000.
Established in 1904, Hispano-Suiza emerged as one of Europe’s leading pre-World War II automotive manufacturers, renowned for finely engineered models like the Alfonso XIII, H6, and the legendary J12. Introduced in 1931, the Hispano-Suiza J12 offered unparalleled performance, power, and ease of operation encapsulated in an elegant, simplistic yet opulent design.
As one of the era’s most expensive automobiles, the J12 boasted a mighty 9.4-liter V12 engine producing a remarkable 220 horsepower – proving it had both the capability and the striking looks befitting a true supercar of its time. The 1935 Hispano-Suiza J12 Cabriolet presented here is a car of exceptional pedigree, having passed through the esteemed collections of Dr. Sam Scher, Richard Paine, and John Mozart.
Featuring unusually attractive coachwork penned by Vanvooren, this elegant J12 Cabriolet joined the renowned Mullin Collection in 1992, where it has remained a prominent centerpiece. The J12 has also been exhibited multiple times at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, earning numerous Class Awards in recognition of its exceptional quality.
Gooding & Company’s estimate on the Hispano-Suiza J12 Cabriolet is $2,500,000 – $3,500,000.
The Delage D8-120 was an elegant and powerful grand touring car produced by the French luxury automaker Delage in 1937. It represented the pinnacle of the company’s engineering prowess in the pre-war era.
Delage had earned a reputation for building some of the finest automobiles in Europe during the 1920s and early 1930s. The D8 series, introduced in 1929, featured a advanced 4.5-liter straight-8 engine designed by elite engineers like Arthur-Auguste Michaux and Maurice Gaultier.
For 1937, Delage launched the top-of-the-line D8-120 model powered by a larger 4.8-liter version of the straight-8 making 120 horsepower. This prodigious output provided blistering performance for its time, with a top speed around 100 mph.
The D8-120 exemplified the premium engineering and elegant French coachwork styling for which Delage was renowned. It featured a low-slung chassis with advanced independent front suspension and hydraulic brakes. Delage’s own coachworks as well as elite coachbuilders like Letourneur et Marchand, Pennock, and Figoni et Falaschi clothed the D8-120 in sumptuous and stylish bodies.
Only around 75 examples of the exclusive D8-120 were produced before Delage ceased operations. The car set to be offered by Gooding & Company is a Three-Position Cabriolet that was featured in a film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in 1951 and received an award in the Chapron Coachwork class at Pebble Beach in 2016. Gooding & Company expect this to sell for $800,000 – $1,000,000.
Gooding & Company estimate the Delage D8-120 to be worth $800,000 – $1,000,000.
The Bugatti Type 46 was a large and luxurious automobile produced by the French manufacturer from 1929 to 1936, the successor to the Type 38. Ettore Bugatti designed the Type 46 himself with a 5.4L eight-cylinder engine paired with a three-speed manual transmission.
Many coachbuilders left their marks on the Type 46 such as Gangloff, Weinberger, and Bugatti’s own coachworks in Molsheim. The Type 46 Semi-Profilée Coupe was an exceptionally aerodynamic and elegant variant of Bugatti’s large touring car from the 1930s. It featured unique semi-teardrop coachwork that was appeared to be far ahead of its time.
While most examples of the Type 46 were configured with more conventional coachwork in the form of touring or sedan body styles, a select few were finished in the elegant “semi-profilée” coupe design that presents so well on this car.
It’s estimated that six examples of the “semi-profilée” Type 46 were produced, making it far and away one of the rarest configurations of its time. The example to be offered for sale by Gooding & Company is known to have been ordered by Vladimir Gut, a Bugatti agent in Prague, and spent much of its early years in the collections of prominent Czech enthusiasts.
Gooding & Company expect the 1930 Bugatti Type 46 Semi-Profilée Coupe will sell for $650,000 – $850,000.