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Auction preview: an untouched, unseen Belvalette-bodied Voisin
It's often been said in recent years that there can't possibly be many barn-finds left to discover and restore - real, interesting barn-finds, we mean, not a Vauxhall Chevette which has spent 25 years in a council lock-up underneath some cardboard boxes. We're talking about Bugattis, Voisins, pre-war Alfa Romeos and the like. The heyday for making discoveries like that was the 1950s and '60s, but they've been dwindling ever since.
We're always happy to find that we're wrong about this sort of thing, and it was therefore a great pleasure for us to stumble across a totally unrestored Voisin in the catalogue for the Aguttes's auction on 2nd April. It's not just any Voisin, either, but one with unique and very luxurious bodywork by the esteemed Parisian carrossier Belvalette.
To give the car its full title, it's a 1927 Voisin C3L coupé chauffeur. The C3 was introduced in 1921, still using the four-litre valveless engine which had been used in the first Voisin, the C1. The C3L appeared the next year, the 'L' simply denoting a long chassis.
There was a selection of catalogued body styles, but this car was among those which were sold as bare chassis. Being a 1927 model, it was one of the last C3s built, and its coachwork was entrusted to Belvallette, which had long been a well-respected name in Parisian society on account of the elegant carriages it constructed throughout the 19th century. It adapted to the horseless age very naturally, becoming particularly well-known for its torpédos transformables.
This beautiful coupé chauffeur with interesting retractable front windows, said to be a previously unheard-of feature, was built new for M. Auboin, father of the late Olivier Auboin-Vermorel, who died in 2014. The Auboin family made its fortune from quarrying and construction in the early 20th century. It seems that one day M. Auboin simply parked his Voisin in the motor-house and left it there, never to resurface until now.
Scruffiness aside, it has survived extremely well, and wants only a sympathetic touch to bring it back to life. It's said to be 99 per cent complete, so it most certainly does not call for a shiny restoration. Just dust it down, recommission it, and then drive it. Don't forget to put it on show a few times for our benefit, too... If you're the right custodian for it, it's being sold with an estimate of €50,000-70,000 (£45,000-60,000).
Incidentally, if you were wondering about the name Vermorel, Oliver Auboin-Vermorel was indeed connected to the car-maker by that name through his mother. What's more, he also owned a 1912 Vermorel Type L torpédo. That's also a fine 'oily rag' barn-find, having been laid up in the 1960s, and it, too, is for sale with an estimate of €20,000-30,000 (£17,500-26,500).
Words: Zack Stiling; pictures: Aguttes
Publiziert:
Dienstag März 28th, 2023
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Kommentare
Igor
05 April 2023, 10:19
Kurt
03 April 2023, 03:05
The spikes on the inner of the front fenders, what are they for?
Weiter lesen
Simply to strenghten the fix.