Saoutchik bodied 1948 Cadillac Series 62

In 1948 noted New York City furrier, Louis Ritter, commissioned Saoutchik to create a special convertible on a Cadillac chassis.

He borrowed only few styling cues from the Cadillac line and used them in a distinctly French way with hopes that the car would gain attention from America. This car was displayed at the Paris Salon of 1948 where it stole the show.

The story goes that the first owner drove the car out to Hollywood and used it there for only a few months before tiring of it and selling it. It was then acquired by a mid-western business man, Harold McLean, from Santa Barbara whose wife's favorite colors, it seems, were lilac and purple.

http://www.coachbuild.com/2/index.php/encyclopedia/coachbuilders-models/item/saoutchik-cadillac-series-62-three-position-convertible-1948

1938 Graham 97 Supercharged Cabriolet by Saoutchik, 1938 Paris Salon car for the Saoutchik stand, 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance class award winner

Writing in the June 1984 issue of The Classic Car, automotive historian Karl Zahm described the Saoutchik Graham best:

“This Graham is a rakish car made by the absence of running boards and its aerodynamically inspired fin molded into and forming part of the rear deck adds to its streamlined look.

The car is also fitted with unique parallel opening doors built under license by its developer, British coachbuilder James Young, Ltd. A double-bar, pivoting swing hinge is used, allowing the fifty-two-inch wide doors to swing out and back over the rear fenders – always parallel to the car’s sides.
The door windows are also unusual in that they work on a double retractable system. Upon rolling down the window, the rear or larger part retracts first, allowing the wind wing section either to return into the body of the door or be left upright in operable position.”

The car is recorded by Saoutchik historian Peter Larsen as having been originally sold to a Maurice Reb who was stationed in Algeria with the French Army. However, the CO of the French Army in Algeria, requisitioned the Graham. Reb put up a fuss and was subsequently conscripted to the General’s chauffeur until the end of 1939!

Late in 1940, Reb returned with the car to Algiers and around this time, it was converted to run on coal gas due to severe wartime fuel supply restrictions. Reb sold the Graham to the Army in late 1942, who then put a military vehicle gas engine in the car. It remained there for two more years; during this time, it was photographed in the town of Touggourt, where it remained in service as a staff car.

The Graham was eventually acquired in 1944 by an American Chrysler employee, Thomas Demetry, from the French Army Service of Supply, and was exported from the Algerian port city of Oran to the United States for $175.

The car was then traded among enthusiasts in Michigan until 1966, when its final Great Lakes State owner, Morley Murphy, sold it to legendary collector William Harrah.

The car was sold at one of the Harrah’s Automobile Collection dispersal auctions in 1981 to Edmund Kowalski of California, who exhaustively documented its restoration over a 30-year period of research on two continents.

http://www.rmsothebys.com/am17/amelia-island/lots/1938-graham-97-supercharged-cabriolet-by-saoutchik/1701972

Thanks Doug!

rare former show car now a pile of rust, was worth 1.9 million dollars to some fool.

This is the show car that toured Europe as the jewel of the Saoutchik coachwork... now, well, there isn't much left of the passenger side and it's been re-ended. So, why $2 million? For a conversation piece that can't be rebuilt? I say can't because there would be very very little of the original car left in anything that resembled a restored car. At best, something can be built that looks like what this had once been. No bumpers, no hubcaps, no interior from the original... and not much whole sheetmetal, just a lot of holes

Images from https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/this-pile-of-rust-and-dust-just-sold-for--1-9-million-171817268.html

The newest addition to the Mullin Museum, the 1938 Hispano-Suiza / Saoutchick Xenia (winner of Goodwood, Amelia, Pebble Beach, Greenwich awards)

2000: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance (Restoration debut) - Most Elegant Closed Car

2001 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance - Best in Show

2001 Meadowbrook - Engineering Excellence Award

2001 Greenwich Concours - Best in Show, Most Outstanding French Car

2005 Pasadena Art Center - Student Choice Award 2008 Rodeo Concours - Best in Show

2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Best in Show

2010 Driving in Style, 1930-1965 - Featured vehicle at High Museum of Art

2011 The Allure of the Automobile – To be featured at Portland Art Museum

The creation of Andre Dubonet, successful race car driver, and WWI fighter pilot.

Early in life, Dubonet developed a passion and took great delight in speed and adventure and desired to perfect the future of road transportation and in particular, the suspension system. As his favorite car was the Hispano-Suiza, he picked the 1932 H-6C chassis, which he had seen previously at the Paris Auto Salon and began sketching designs for a prototype, drawing upon his aviation background and racing experience. Further, this 1938 car was designed to reach 125mph which rivaled any car of the time and had a cutting-edge four-wheel independent suspension. In fact, the innovative suspension technology mounted each front wheel on a single arm that extended forward from the kingpin, while a pair of oil-filled, coil spring cylinders offered resistance and swiveled as each wheel turned, improving rise and handling. This original suspension system was later licensed by General Motors and used on its Chevrolet and Pontiac brands. Dubonnet designed his steel masterpiece at 19ft long and claimed that his Hispano-Suiza hyperflex suspension system would give it the “suppleness of a cat”. He took his designs to French coachbuilder, Jacques Saoutchik who helped him with the framework of the automobile, and then partnered with engineer Antoine-Marie Chedru to develop his patented independent front-suspension system. What followed was a dramatically streamlined build with an emphasis on aerodynamic styling, affectionately named Xenia, after Dubonnet’s first wife. Far ahead of its time, the Xenia resembles the fuselage of an airplane with a slender, tapered shape and pointed tail. A new parallel opening door system was used as part of the aerodynamic design and special attention was given to the undercarriage for clean air movement. The curved glass of the windshield and doors are reminiscent of airplane-styling and the panoramic windscreen and removal top were exceptionally futuristic. It featured an 8 liter overhead-valve inline 6 engine capable of 144bhp in standard form. To protect this revolutionary automobile during World War II, the Xenia was hidden away in 1939 and did not resurface until 1946 in Paris. The Xenia was then purchased by Alain Balleret, President of the French Hispano-Suiza Club who began the vehicles restoration. for more about the Mullin Museum: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/mullin-museum-is-finally-open-but-only.html For 3 less artisticaly stunning photos, but one shows the incredible door hinge mechanism: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/08/look-at-beauty-and-art-of-pebble-beach.html When someone is as unusually brilliant and involved with cars as Andre, the story doesn't stop with just one creation... have you seen the Tulip Wood Hispano Suiza? http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/newest-addition-to-mullin-museum-1938.html
last 3 images from http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/03/feast-your-eyes-on-the-1938-hispano-suiza-dubonnet-xenia/

A look at the beauty and art of Pebble Beach Concours winner, 1938 Hispano-Suiza H6C Dubonnet Xenia Coupe with Saoutchik body

1938 Hispano-Suiza H6C Saoutchik Xenia Coupe

Winner of the Most Elegant Closed Car award at the 2000 Pebble Beach Concours, this is a streamlined design of a car company known also for its aircraft manufacturing, and due to it's conceptualization from a ww1 fighter pilot, (they may have gotten the nod becuase of the aircraft connection) Andre Dubonnet, heir to the Dubonnet aperitif business and race car driver. All windows are curved glass, the panoramic windshield, gullwing windows, and suicide doors.

Engine design was shared between the aircraft and cars... one crankshaft was carved from a 700 lb billet steel block. Consider that the types of engines in the 30's were huge displacement and fewer cylinders, like a 487 cu in straight 6 cyl... and that Hispano Suiza had aluminum cylinder block and overhead camshafts at a time when Rolls-Royce's venerable Silver Ghost was still using side valves, and an iron block cast in several pieces.

It was also ahead of Rolls-Royce in the braking department. While the Rolls had brakes on the rear wheels only, the Hispano had four-wheel brakes, servo assisted by a shaft driven off the rear of the transmission. Rolls-Royce later adopted this system under licence from Hispano and used it for many years.
http://www.thoroughbred-cars.com/cars/france/hispano%20suiza/Hispano%20Suiza%20H6C.htm