18 fab ’50s classics for sale now

You’re spoilt for choice!

Why buy three 1950s rarities when you could buy 18?

Much has been made of the incredible three-car lot of Alfa Romeo BAT cars being sold by RM Sotheby’s in New York today (28 October 2020), but there are plenty of other pretty ’50s offerings out there this week in Gooding & Company’s Geared Online sale and in RM Sotheby's London sale.

Both are open for bids now, with Gooding’s closing on 30 October and RM Sotheby's bringing the virtual hammer down a day later.

These might not be unique prototypes, but we think they’re fully deserving of time in the limelight.

1. 1956 Maserati A6G/54 Spider (est: $2-2.75m, Gooding & Co.)

Not only is this the pick of the 1950s cars at Gooding & Co’s Geared Online sale, but it’s the top lot of the cars up for auction this week.

More than simply one of the nine Frua-bodied Spiders, this was the very first. That means the aluminium dashboard is painted entirely in the body colour with no decorative trim on the instrument panel. (The rest are upholstered.)

As the promotional car it featured in Quattroruote and Motor Trend before being sold through the Paris showroom to an elusive Mr Cavet. It reappeared in America, gained a 289 Ford unit and was repainted blue, but thankfully was saved and returned to its original specification in 1999 by a Maserati collector, with the help of Dr Adolfo Orsi Jr.

It’s since been displayed at the Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena, won first in class at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on its public debut, and been taken back to its bare metal.

It hasn’t been displayed since – a bonus for any prospective buyer.

2. 1955 Porsche 356A Carrera GS ‘Sunroof’ Coupé by Reutter (est: £390-475,000, RM Sotheby’s)

Currently in The Netherlands, having been restored in Italy, and bought new in New York, there’s a lot to like about this jetsetting 356.

Not least that it is one of very few with a factory manual Golde sunroof. Being a GS it’s a fairly hot 356, too, at 100bhp from its twin-Solex carb, four-cam engine. Though not the original, it’s period correct.

And then there is the lovely Lago Green Metallic paint, which it has worn since it left the factory in 1955.

3. 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900c Ss Coupé (est: $240-280,000, Gooding & Co.)

This stunning Alfa Romeo is not for the shy and retiring. Originally red, once silver, and at some point long ago painted the yellow of the Modena flag, it’s had a Nardi floor-gearchange conversion, popular in period. 

Recent work has shown the body has endured very well, aided no doubt by spending much of its life in California, and the engine and ‘box have been rebuilt.

Get your road-rally entry forms at the ready.

4. 1951 Muntz Jet (est: $75-95,000, Gooding & Co.)

You’ll be forgiven for not knowing what this is, or never having seen one before. This is the 26th of 29 built (numbered 126, obviously…) by ‘Madman’ Muntz’s start-up manufacturer in California, before the company moved to Illinois – to make a few hundred more before shutting up shop.

Salmon coloured, never offered by public sale before, and once owned by one of the Ice Capades skating superstars, it’s a chance to buy a car from well off the beaten track. 

It doesn’t stop there: it’s powered by a 154bhp Lincoln V8, one of the first Jets to not have the Cadillac, and it’s one of only two known to have aluminium bumpers. 

5. 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300S Roadster (est: £525-575,000, RM Sotheby’s)

A car for the rich and famous when it launched, and which cruised along with the likes of Cary Grant at the helm, just 141 300S Roadsters were built. 

RM Sotheby’s reckons this is perfect for carefree touring in grand style, with its triple-Solex 3-litre straight-six and graceful interior.

Visions of drop-top dusk motoring don’t get much better.

6. 1955 Volkswagen Beetle (est: $45-65,000, Gooding & Co.)

About $50k for a Beetle? But when a Beetle heads to an auction house such as Gooding & Company, you can be sure it’s a goody. 

A five-year restoration was completed in 1999, using new-old-stock items where possible, the oval-window VW is finished in period-correct Strato Silver and looks as though the renovation finished yesterday.

Oh, and it has a Judson supercharger…

7. 1957 Continental Mark II (est: $70-90,000, Gooding & Co.)

The sight of this cruising around Europe as the holiday transport for a San Francisco family must have been something else. And it will still turn heads today.

Bright white, with a lovely interior combination of white leather and nylon biscuit inserts, it’s a big and handsome thing that has lived the Cali life – except for that sojourn to Italy.

Up front is a large 6-litre engine and its bay looks pristine, having been refurbished in the mid-2000s – and it even comes with the proper chrome keys, too. 

8. 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (est: $1-1.3m, Gooding & Co.)

Nothing more than the words ‘Mercedes-Benz’, ‘300SL’ and ‘Gullwing’ needs to be said here, really.

But this has its own special story. The seller bought the car in 1996, having dispatched acclaimed expert Jerry Hjeltness to find an example to restore. This was tracked down to a garage in California, where it had sat for 20 years, with what Hjeltness described as the best panel gaps he’s ever seen. Colour aside, it was original, too.

Bought, fully restored and painted silver, it was a concours winner first time out and has been little used since the owner drove it and his trophy home to Colorado. And it’s just had $40,000 spent on it.

9. 1954 Jaguar XK120 SE Roadster (est: £100-130,000, RM Sotheby’s)

Don’t be deceived by the apparent state of the car and the estimate. This is a Jaguar XK120 that’s little short of a family heirloom, having remained with its first keepers until 2017 when it was bought by a dealer in The Netherlands. It’s so ‘as-owned’ that it still has the grime it carried over from America. 

The car was parked in the family’s garage about 40 years ago, its odometer at 44,000, and was barely touched. So it’s very original, including paint, soft-top and tools – only the bootlid has been replaced at some point – and needs a little mechanical work to be fully mobile again. 

Prime for preservation, this.

10. 1956 Austin-Healey 100M ($190-220,000, Gooding & Co.)

This Austin-Healey 100M has a hefty estimate, but those final four characters make all the difference. The best in recent years was an example with Coys in 2017, which sold for around £180,000, and if this hits top estimate it will be around the £170,000 mark. So if the bidding is right, we could have a record on our hands.

One of the finest 100Ms in America, so says Gooding, owned by Manfred Knauf from new until 2010 and most recently in the custody of the Austin-Healey Concours USA committee’s chairman, so it stands up. He sent the M for a nut-and-bolt restoration, which was completed in 2016, and has had the car certified as being factory built.

So this is no pretender, but possibly a pretender to the crown.

11. 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I saloon (est: $40-50,000, Gooding & Co.)

Nearly 90,000 miles have serenely wafted beneath the wheels of this 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I saloon, delivered new to America late in the decade – which feels like some going to find such use. 

Now black, and showing signs of its 1995 repaint, the red pinstriping and leather interior create quite the combination unlike most Rollers. Being a late ‘50s model, its 4.9-litre ‘six’ is fitted a twin SU carburettors, too.

It’s being sold with no reserve, so could be a steal… 

12. 1955 Porsche 356 Carrera 1500 GS Speedster by Reutter (est: £1.1-1.3m, RM Sotheby’s)

Just 15 Carrera Pre-A 1500 GS Speedsters were built, and this is one of them. Restored a decade ago and still stunning, it has been owned by major collector John McGraw and was returned to its home country a few years ago, where it was further fettled.

At some point it lost its original engine, but remarkably it was traced and reunited by its then-owner and Speedster expert Stephen Heinrichs.

Not many of the Speedster survivors can be in better nick than this, and if you want a 356 and money is no object, the Speedster is the only option.

13. 1952 Alfa Romeo 1900C Cabriolet (est: $250-350,000, Gooding & Co.)

This is one of those garage finds: parked up in the 1980s and left to its own devices. And so it slowly begin to crumble. This Alfa has had just two owners and covered just 10,000km since the 1960s, although that did still take it to just shy of 100,000km, so keen was the first owner.

He was a US Army sergeant stationed in Darmstadt, Germany, and he sold the car to its second owner, a teacher on his base. She brought the car back with her to America, complete with forces plate, used it sparingly and left it in the garage.

Naturally, it’s all original and largely complete – just very worse for wear. But its rarity and originality mean that hefty price-tag makes sense.

14. 1951 Bentley B Special “Blue Train” by Racing Green (est: £265-305,000, RM Sotheby’s)

Which Bentley Speed Six Woolf Barnato used to beat the Blue Train to London in 1930 may be a question not fully, happily, put to bed.

But it definitely wasn’t this one. This is a replica of the Gurney Nutting Coupé, built by Racing Green on a Mark VI chassis and a Bentley straight-eight, that was believed to be the car Barnato used. Until it transpired that car might not have actually been built in 1930.

Regardless, it’s a striking machine and this recreation was completed in just 2019. What’s more, it comes with a drinks cabinet, should you arrive in Cannes with time to spare.

15. 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300Sc (est: $750-950,000, Gooding & Co.)

One of the top-five lots in Gooding’s Geared Online auction, and it’s easy to see why. Rare, as one of fewer than 50 built, and freshly restored with original colours, it even still has the bespoke luggage set created by Karl Baisch.

Quite what the car did between leaving the factory in 1956 and 2001 is lost to history, but it was purchased by Merc expert Rudi Koniczek from an Arizona workshop and revealed to be very original – paint aside. 

Koniczek kept the car for 15 years before selling it on, but was asked to undertake a two-year renovation by its new keeper – and, importantly, return the 300Sc to its original brown.

16. 1953 Allard JR Le Mans Roadster Continuation (£180-240,000, RM Sotheby’s)

Whether this is really a 1950s car is another matter, but it’s built as if the year was 1953. The Allard family has taken the decision to build a continuation series from the original plans (provided by the 90-year-old Dudley Hume, the original designer) and materials, on a customer-by-customer basis.

This is the first JR completed, with the chassis number 3408 after the 3401-7 run 67 years ago. 

It’s an important car for a lot of reasons. 

17. 1954 Jaguar XK120 Roadster (est: $25-40,000, Gooding & Co.)

Part of the fun of this barn-find Jaguar is tracing its history. Much of what the consignor and Gooding & Company know is vague, going by little hints of what is on the car.

That includes where it’s spent its life: Ohio, because of the map found in the door pocket. So when the day’s done, you can disappear down a rabbit hole of trying to track owners and more, including how it fared in the races, rallies and concours that are commemorated by plaques on the dash.

An ideal candidate to repair and preserve, it’s matching numbers and freshly freed from its slumber.

18. 1956 Grand Prix Squalo Child’s Car (est: $20-30,000, Gooding & Co.)

And now for something a little different…

The original 1956 ticket price of $575 seems a long time ago now, as this barely used Squalo Ferrari child’s car prepares to head towards the $30,000 mark. Which isn’t as preposterous as it sounds: at Amelia Island in 2018 it fetched $25k.

After all, some of the tech in this would be the envy of some full-size cars at the time, with magnesium wheels, four-wheel adjustable torsion bar suspension and adjustable steering.

The shape resembles the Ferrari 553, ‘Squalo’, that Mike Hawthorn took to victory at Circuit Pedralbes in 1954 – though arguably it’s more 500 than 553. And this is no battery-powered kids’ car, either – it is propelled by a 2hp AU7R ‘Red Seal’ Continental engine.

Alfa Romeo BAT 5, Alfa Romeo BAT 7, Alfa Romeo BAT 9d

But if only Alfa Romeo’s incredible ’50s prototype BAT cars will do, $20m and they might be yours.

Bidding for the trio ends on 28 October.

And check out the lots for RM Sotheby’s London sale here, and for Geared Online from Gooding & Company here.