Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

By Lizzie Pope
News
 | 26 Feb 2019
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

This pretty little piece of classic perfection is a Veritas Scorpion Cabriolet. And you can be forgiven for not recognising it, as best estimates state that the Veritas marque only made 78 vehicles in total, across all models.

Now, though, this post-war German sports car is getting its moment in the spotlight, having been consigned to Bonhams’ prestigious Amelia Island auction next month.

It’s predicted it will sell there for £270-340,000 – and given its exclusivity and beauty, that hardly seems excessive.

Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

The company was founded in March 1947 by Ernst Loof, a German motorcycle champion and later manager of the BMW sports department, fellow BMW employee Lorenz Dietrich, and George ‘Schorsch’ Meier, Auto Union driver and 1939 motorcycle TT winner, under the name ‘BMW – Veritas’.

Their aim? To create a successor to the BMW 328 and their first car, a 328-based racer, hit the track in 1948.

The first Veritas road cars came the following year when the Komet, a two-seat cabriolet, broke cover at the 1949 Paris motor show, although in truth this was little more than a roadgoing racer.

This 100bhp offering was joined by the 140bhp Komet S, and these were followed by a three-seat coupé called the Saturn and the Scorpion cabriolet; a Jupiter saloon was planned but never built.

The Veritas dream died in 1953 and Loof rejoined BMW. He passed away three years later.

Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

This particular car is a 1950 Veritas Scorpion Cabriolet, chassis number 5095.

It was given its blue paintwork and brown-leather interior during a restoration in the early 1990s, and has more recently benefited from a recommissioning by BMW Classic, which aimed to preserve as much of the originality as possible.

The Scorpion’s body was repainted, and its glass, chromework and cabin were retained and refreshed, making it aesthetically pleasing and fully functional.

Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?
Classic & Sports Car – Is this the most beautiful classic car you’ve never heard of?

BMW Classic also worked on the car’s mechanical components. A previous owner fitted electric fans, a modern radiator and an updated oil cooler to make it an easier vehicle to enjoy regularly, and these are still present.

No more details concerning its previous life were able to be unearthed, so it’s being sold with an updated German registration, invoices detailing BMW Classic’s recent work and an inspection report from last April.

It will be interesting to see what such an unusual classic achieves when it crosses the block at Bonhams’ Amelia Island sale at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club, Florida, on 7 March; we’ll have a full results round-up soon after it finishes. 

Images: Pawel Litwinski / Bonhams

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