Elegant 1920 Renault Type EU Coupé de Ville featuring rare coachwork
Elegant 1920 Renault Type EU Coupé de Ville featuring rare coachwork and carries an intriguing history that intertwines with automotive enthusiasts and prestigious institutions. Its tan exterior with brown fenders, coupled with a leather front bench and cloth rear cabin, exudes elegance and vintage charm. Under the hood lies a 2.8-liter inline-four engine, paired with a three-speed selective sliding-gear transmission with reverse, delivering a driving experience true to its era. The presence of rust around the radiator cowl and inside the right-front fender, along with cracking on the body can be seen and Currently not running. Showing 63k miles, and total mileage is unknown.
This 1920 Type EU Coupé de Ville was delivered new to Auto-Palace Concessionaires on 1 October, and thusly purchased by a wealthy Parisian family. With its elegant Henry Binder Coupe de Villé body, this Renault must certainly have been an eye-catching, chauffeur-driven affair. The car’s finely detailed HERA window regulators are noted period accessories which only the most well-heeled individuals would have elected for installation.
Approximately 10 years later, the car was purchased during a prop-finding trip to Paris by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios for use in their films; notable screen credits include the 1931 film Mata Hari starring Greta Garbo, and a role as the star car of the 1941 Marx Brothers feature The Big Store. At some later point, it was acquired from an MGM backlot by the renowned antique automobile collector Lindley Bothwell of La Habra, California. Bothwell did little with the car, and later sold it in October 1966 to businessman, collector, and owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Terry Hulman. Hulman reportedly had the Renault restored to its present polychrome brown livery and a period-style upholstery at this time, whereupon the car was shipped to his collection in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Upon Hulman’s passing in 1977, it was transferred to the assets of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation and displayed within their public museum for much of the following decade. It was deaccessioned from the museum’s holdings in October of 2020 and acquired by the consignor. Since purchase, the consignor has had the fuel tank and fuel delivery system sorted, and reports that the car performs without issue.
Now accompanied by personal correspondence between Bothwell and Hulman, this remarkable and uniquely outfitted 1920 Renault Type EU Coupé de Ville boasts both undeniably interesting provenance and charming aesthetics.
Price: 49,500
