Classic car collectors rev up interest in Voisin

The 1935 Voisin Type C25 Aerodyne in December 2012, at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, which has amassed a collection of automobiles on exhibit designed by Gabriel Voisin. The Voisin automobiles exhibited a marriage of aerodynamic efficiency, Art Deco aesthetic, mechanical detail, and luxurious interiors.By David Undercoffler Peter Mullin cracks open the door of a 1935 Voisin Type C25 Aerodyne at the back of the auto museum bearing his name. He points out the intricate details of a vibrant Art Deco interior, restored to its original lustre.A small ashtray hangs on the inside of each door — made from etched Lalique crystal.Light streams into the car through three small glass windows in the fully retractable roof. A bold black and white patterned fabric covers the doors, seats and roof, sourced from the same French textile mill that wove the original fabric more than seven decades ago.“You can see why this one is kind of the favourite,” Mullin says of the C25 with a smile.Once relegated to the scrap heap of automotive history, the Voisin brand has undergone a renaissance within the classic car world. The cars, which cost as much as a Bugatti in the 1920s and ’30s, are worth millions of dollars today. They were the creation of Gabriel Voisin, a colourful yet fastidious French architect and engineer who made a fortune selling aeroplanes during World War I.Mullin’s navy blue and grey C25 won Best of Show at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, arguably the most prestigious prize in the classic car world. Another Voisin, a 1934 C15 ETS Saliot-bodied Roadster, won Best of Show in 2002.When Pebble Beach Concours hosted Voisin as the featured marque in 2006, it provoked a frenzied reaction among collectors.“It was like finding the lost Rembrandts,” said Richard Adatto, an expert in classic French cars and a member of the classic car show’s selection committee.Before 2006, he said, no Voisin had sold for more than $1mn. After that, prices nearly doubled. Peter Mullin’s C25 could be worth as much as $5mn today, said David Gooding, president and founder of the Gooding & Co auction company. Most experts estimate there are 250 to 300 known Voisin automobiles, though they are starting to turn up as barn finds throughout Europe.Fortunately for Mullin, he got into the brand early. “I fell in love with the Art Deco nature of Voisin a number of years ago,” Mullin said. “One by one, they found their way into the collection.”In addition to his prize-winner, Mullin owns 15 other exceptionally rare and valuable Voisin models on display at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, until the end of April. The museum is also home to dozens of gleaming pre-war cars from other French marques like Bugatti, Delahaye and the odd Talbot-Lago.Peter Mullin owns nearly everything in the building. But the Voisin cars have become his favourite, not just for their intricate details, but because they embody the values of the man behind their nameplate.Gabriel Voisin was a colourful figure who made a name for himself in the early 1900s as an aviation pioneer. Despite being in their mid-20s, Voisin and his younger brother Charles started the world’s first aircraft company. Their early planes set several European flight records.Gabriel Voisin kept the company open after his brother was killed in a 1912 car crash, and sold several thousand fighter planes to the French military and its allies for use in World War I.After the war ended, a glut of planes and little demand for new ones pushed Voisin to build a machine with a more benevolent purpose. He spent roughly the next 20 years building some of the most elaborate and expensive cars of the era. The rigours of aviation engineering and attention to detail carried into Voisin’s forward-thinking automobiles. “Everything was designed all the way out,” Adatto said. “Even the taillights were handmade.”Many of Voisin’s cars have struts connecting the front wheel fender to the grille — like the wing struts common on aircraft from the era. The cars were largely built from lightweight materials such as aluminium or magnesium. Most cars from that time — and even today — were built from heavier steel.Inside, the dashboard of many Voisin vehicles had gauges to show oil pressure and temperature in an era when most cars didn’t even have a fuel gauge, Adatto said. A complex engine design used sleeve valves rather than the standard overhead poppet valves found on engines today.Though not as powerful as cars with inline eight-cylinder engines, sleeve valve engines like the one in Mullin’s C25 were known for their quiet, if somewhat smoky, operation. “There’s an old saying that if your Voisin doesn’t smoke, then there’s something wrong with it,” Mullin said with a chuckle.Mullin said his 1935 C25 sold new for 88,000 francs, roughly the same price as a Bugatti roadster of the day. Yet a Voisin had infinitely more panache, said Jonathan Stein, an automotive historian and classic car judge.“They were like spaceships,” Stein said. “There was nothing in the contemporary design idiom to prepare people for Voisin.” — Los Angeles Times/MCTGranTurismo MC Stradale makes its debut in GenevaThe MC Stradale will be the star on the Maserati stand, alongside all the new Quattroporte versions as they make their European debut.From the moment the spotlight hits the new range — starting with the new Quattroporte, set to make its European debut at the Geneva Motor Show — Maserati reminds us of those luxury sports models which provided the basis for the brand’s growth. In line with this philosophy, Geneva will see the world debut of the new four-seater GranTurismo MC Stradale, the optimum expression of sportiness combined with the luxury of a coupé made in Modena. Although the new Quattroporte is the first Maserati to be built at the new Avv. Giovanni Agnelli plant in Grugliasco (Turin), the GranTurismo MC Stradale will be built at the historic factory in Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena.Just like the previous two-seater version, the new four-seater GranTurismo MC Stradale takes its inspiration from the racing version which competes in the Maserati Trofeo Championship, offering the perfect combination of sportiness, luxury and elegance, comfort and style, functionality and dynamism that can now be enjoyed by four people. The new aesthetic exterior features, with their clear racing edge, are highlighted by the new carbon fibre bonnet which frames an important central air intake and two rear extractors and the new forged 20” alloy rims. The new GranTurismo MC Stradale boasts a cabin that has four comfortable seats and an interior design featuring new materials and style.Also confirmed, the 4.7 litre, 460 HP aspirated V8 engine which made its debut in the GranTurismo Sport and which is now, with its installation on the new GranTurismo MC Stradale, present throughout the entire 4.7 litre GranTurismo range. Combined with an MC Race Shift 6-speed electro actuated gearbox, this engine ensures outstanding performance — with a top speed of 303kmph — which can be enjoyed in this new four passenger configuration. The safety of the vehicle is guaranteed by the Brembo carbon ceramic brake discs. In keeping with Maserati’s principles, the new GranTurismo MC Stradale makes the most of the work invested in the previous model in terms of reducing fuel consumption and emissions.