Quirky Classics at Shannons Spring Sale

MELBOURNE – Aug 7, 2012: There are classics that always draw a crowd and Shannons have two of the very best in the upcoming Melbourne spring Classic Auction.

From America the instant conversation-starter is cute and striking 1956 Nash Metropolitan Coupe finished in fetching Burgundy over White.

Bucking Detroit’s ‘bigger is better’ dictum, the eccentrically-styled, 3.8 metre-long sub-compact Metropolitan coupe had a shorter wheelbase than a VW Beetle and was the first American car to be marketed specifically to women as the second vehicle in a two-car family.

Powered by a four-cylinder Austin A40 engine and built at Austin’s Longbridge factory in Britain, just over 100,000 were built between 1953 and 1962, with the majority delivered to North American customers, making right hand drive examples very rare.

The factory right-hand drive 1.5-litre-engined Metropolitan being auctioned is believed to have been delivered new to either Australia or New Zealand.

Cosmetically restored in the 1970s, it was placed in long-term storage from the late 1980s until this year, but was recently recommissioned with reconditioned brakes and new whitewall tyres.

Sold with its Owner’s Manual, this quirky Nash can be driven as is or restored to bring it back to top-line condition, with its Austin mechanicals parts cheap and relatively easy to find.

The Metropolitan is being offered with no reserve and for its collectible and curiosity value alone is expected to sell in the $8,000-$12,000 range.

Another car in the auction that will make its new owner the centre of an instant society is the 1974 Tatra 603 Sedan.

Tatra, the Czech company that in 1897 produced the first motorcar in Eastern Europe and today is the world’s oldest carmaker behind Daimler and Peugeot, began building advanced air-cooled luxury cars in the early 1930s.

The Tatra T603 with its distinctive three-headlight design and rear-mounted, aluminium air-cooled 2.5-litre V8 engine, was built from 1956 in response to the poor quality of Russian official cars in the Post War Soviet occupation period and remained in production until 1975.

The 1974 model being auctioned was one of just 1,514 built over that 20-year period and one of the few that made it to Australia. It is offered in generally good condition with no reserve, with Shannons quoting a guiding range of $14,000-$18,000.

These two quirky classics are amongst nine no reserve vehicles in the Melbourne auction. Others include a 1929 Ford Model A Tourer Project ($4,000-$6,000), a 1958 MV Agusta 125cc motorcycle ($6,000-$10,000), a 1961 Studebaker Lark V8 ($5,000-$8,000), a 1969 Datsun 2000 Sports ($6,000-$8,000), a 1970 one-owner from new Toyota Corolla KE11 sedan ($3,000-$5,000), a 1985 Porsche 928S ($8,000-$12,000) and a 1988 BMW 635CSi ‘Shadowline’ Coupe ($10,000-$15,000).