This is the most amazing carmaker you have ever heard of.
There are a lot of special machinery at the August Monterey Car Week auctions. This Avions Voisin C28 Aerosport goes under RM Sotheby’s hammer and might be the coolest.
Gabriel Voisin was a polymath, a great mechanic, engineer and architect, an inventor, an industrialist, poet, philosopher, and musician. His greatest passion was aviation. He claimed that he built his first flying machine in 1902 – a year before the Wright Brothers.
Charles, his brother, opened an aircraft factory in 1904. Avions Voisin was able to build 10,000 aircraft during World War I, thanks to huge contracts. Voisin began to build automobiles after the war.
Voisin’s cars quickly gained a reputation as being technologically advanced. They had sleeve valve engines that run remarkably quietly and smoothly. They were not commercially successful. The C28 was the company’s last chance. It was powered by a six-cylinder engine of 3.3-liters and 102 horsepower. The car also featured a Cotal preselector gearbox and Lockheed hydraulic brakes. It was also extremely luxurious. Avions Voisin, however, was in financial trouble after the Great Depression. They folded in 1939. This was four years after the C28 launched.
Voisin’s primary contribution to his cars was styling. He applied aerodynamic principles at the time. His greatest opus,an expression all he knew, was the C28 Aerosport. It looks amazing, almost like a comic book version Art Deco. It could look like a 1930s Batmobile if you paint it black. You’ll find many cool details, such as the large opening sunroof or triple windshield wipers. Although it is a acquired taste, I find it to be absolutely beautiful.
There are eight to ten Aerosports that were built, and this one is the only known example. It is also believed to be one of two prototypes that were built. This car was shown at the 1935 Paris Motor Show. It had a long and interesting life. The body was damaged by an air raid in World War Two. The body was rebuilt with a sedan and it went through many owners before becoming more decrepit. The vendor restored it to its original glory, but it was still a painstaking rebuild.
It will be sold for a substantial sum. RM Sotheby’s estimates that it will sell for “upon request.”