The French four seized by the bank

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What exactly went wrong we don’t know, but the fact is that auctioneer Henderson will be selling a whole lot of interesting cars, which they describe as a "Large package of bank seized vehicles". The sale will take place on June 25th at the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. And there are four remarkable French prestige PreWarCars on offer.

1. Bugatti T57 Gangloff coupé recreation

Most extraordinary of them all may well be a Bugatti Type 57 with reconstructed Gangloff coupé body. It’s a spectacular-looking car in all respects and one that only existed in Gangloff’s archives — it was never made in its own day. From the seller’s sales blurb it is “built according to the original sketches on a Type 101 chassis and powered by an engine from a Type 57 Atalante (3,257cc). VIN#57524.”. We also found that same chassis number with a Belgian registered 1937 Type 57 Ventoux that was sold in auction in 2013. Was that really the car used to build the coupé?

2. Delahaye 135 Chapron roadster

From the same era and class is a 1937 Delahaye 135 roadster with a ‘Coupé des Alps’ body by Chapron. The car was photographed in August 1944 in the Annecy Liberation parade with the man who had owned it from new — Monsieur Cyriel Depery – and three members of the resistance. Just two more owners followed until 2014, when it was shown at Rétromobile in need of full restoration and sold to the US. Next stop: Pebble Beach 2016, where it debuted in fully restored condition and scooped up a best in class award for Chapron-bodied cars.

3. Delage D6-70 Figoni & Falaschi

What else would fit in here, a Figoni & Falaschi perhaps? Check. The bank-seized collection offers a 1939 Delage D6-70 with convertible body from just that coachbuilder. It’s not so dramatically styled as some of F&F’s other creations, but it’s a stunner nevertheless and one that supposedly debuted at the Concours d’Elégance of the Bois de Boulogne when it was new and won gold there, too. Its life in the spotlight was short, though, as WW2 interfered and the big convertible was laid up in Portugal only to be found back there in 1974. A restoration followed and the car ended up in the US in 2001.

4. Peugeot Darl'mat roadster

Are we missing a famous name in this quartet of extravagance? Saoutchik? Letourneur et Marchand? Franay perhaps? Hang on; we’ve got a Pourtout to finish it off in the shape of Peugeot’s extraordinary Darl’mat — with aluminium body built by the French coachbuilder. This car’s history doesn’t get a mention in the sales write-up but “It underwent an exceptional restoration finished in stunning light metallic silver over blue leather”. And it must be said that it does look quite fantastic.

Words Jeroen Booij. Pictures Henderson Auctions.

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