A unique Hispano-Suiza was awarded the top prize at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last weekend. The 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Nieuport-Astra Torpedo, better known as the ‘Tulipwood’ car, was built at the request of Andre Dubonnet on a short wheelbase chassis with specially lowered bonnet and radiator. He commissioned aeroplane builders Nieuport to construct the body along the lines of a fuselage, using narrow strips of steam-bent wood rivetted to an aluminium frame. His aim was to compete in the Targa Florio, where he finished first in his class. Following the event Dubonnet drove back to Paris where he had Nieuport fit a windscreen, wings and lights to create his ideal road car.
Away from the show fields the auction companies all returned some outstanding results, across all eras of cars, with even supposedly ‘out of fashion’ pre-war cars apparently bucking recent trends and achieving some great prices. Broad Arrow got things started on Wednesday taking over $40m with the top seller being Maserati MC12 at $5.2m. Bonhams followed up with a $44m sale that led with an outstanding collection of hypercars that was topped by the Bugatti Divo at $8.5m. Also worthy of mention was the outrageous Audi Sport Quattro S1 which sold for almost $1.8m.
Going head-to-head on Friday and Saturday, both Gooding and RM easily broke the $100m + total. Gooding almost took top sale of the week with the $25m achieved for the short wheelbase 250 Cal Spider but notable mentions should go to the $1m+ sale of a 911 RS2.7 Touring and an outstanding $885,000 for the stunning Lamborghini 400GT. On a personal note, the writer’s pick of Gooding’s offerings was the delectable Delahaye 135 drophead which took a surprising but totally deserved $665,000. Meanwhile, over at RM, the 2025 Ferrari Daytona SP3 just took top price for the week at $26m but it was the performance of some pre-war cars that was perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the sale; $5.3m for the 500K Special Roadster, $4.4m for the Model J Duesenberg Torpedo and $2.2m for the Bentley 8 Litre Coupe Cabriolet. Hispano-Suiza H6B, Packard 904 and ’04 Fiat 32HP all broke the $1m barrier.
