To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' The Guyton
Collection event, 4 - 5 May 2019.
Estimate:
$125,000 - $175,000
- "Kenosha's Duesenberg," one of the great unsung Classics
- One of just three known surviving examples
- Immaculate concours restoration
- Presented at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
- Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) Full Classic
While it is Packard, Lincoln, and Duesenberg that often get all the
press, other American manufacturers produced superb luxury
automobiles during the 1930s.
Among the finest unsung heroes of the era was Wisconsin automaker
Nash's Advanced Eight, the innovative specifications of which
included a silky smooth inline eight-cylinder engine with a
nine-main-bearing crank, Bohnalite aluminum pistons, and aluminum
connecting rods; dual ignition; Timken worm drive rear axle, Gemmer
steering box; Bijur automatic chassis lubrication; thermostatically
controlled radiator shutters; and Delco adjustable shock absorbers.
Luxuriously trimmed, beautifully designed and built bodies,
custom-built to individual order, finished off the model that
historian David Brownell famously dubbed "Kenosha's
Duesenberg."
The top-of-the-line 1093 Advanced Eight offered here is one of only
three survivors with this handsome convertible sedan body, built
for Nash by the famous Seaman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to
information in the file, it was originally delivered to Washington,
D.C., later moving to Virginia, where it was acquired by Ron
Gottschalk of Bettendorf, Iowa, in 1961. Mr. Gottschalk
cosmetically restored the car and showed it locally for some years,
eventually applying for Full Classic status with the Classic Car
Club of America. As a result this car became the very first Nash
accepted by the CCCA, and continued to be shown in their events
until 2005.
That year the Nash was acquired by Fred Guyton, and afterward
underwent a frame-off, ground-up professional restoration, to the
highest possible standards of fit and finish. Particular attention
was paid to the drivetrain, including sourcing New Old Stock
Bohnalite pistons and remanufacturing the worm drive rear axle
gears and components. Many of the cosmetic and trim components also
had to be newly made, as the parts do not interchange with the
smaller series Nashes. The result was truly spectacular, and was
shown to much acclaim at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
- one of the very few Nashes ever so-honored.
Today the restoration of the Nash is still concours quality and
beyond reproach, with very few appearances outside of the Guyton
Collection since its Pebble Beach debut. It is therefore eligible
for almost all of the major American concours d'elegance, as well
as of, of course, AACA and CCCA events.
Almost certainly this is the finest restored Advanced Eight extant
- an incredibly rare, beautifully engineered Full Classic, worthy
of standing in its new owner's collection alongside Duesenbergs and
Packards . . . just as it would have sat in 1932.
To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction,
please visit the RM website at rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/gc19.