A divergence from his expensive and sophisticated cars, the Type C31 was Voisin’s minimalist microcar, designed for drivers searching for economy rather than luxury. At the onset of World War II, the Depression and its fuel shortages convinced Voisin to build a low-cost, functional car for the common man. The car was intended to be lightweight, fuel efficient, easily managed, and powered by a small electric motor.

Following World War II, testing began for a small two-seater car named the Biscooter, powered by a 125-cubic- centimeter Gnome et Rhône engine. Gnome et Rhône, which purchased the Voisin marque in 1937, produced a variety of motorcycles along with the Type C30s. A four-seat Voisin Type C31 Biscooter was exhibited at the Paris Salon du Cycle et de la Moto in 1950 with a chassis and bodywork made of lightweight aluminum that included a basic hood and adjustable windscreen. Unfortunately, production of the Biscooter was halted by the Gnome et Rhône management. In 1951 a redesign was suggested, but it was abandoned after the alternative version— created by the new company’s designers—malfunctioned and two drivers were hospitalized during its first test drive.

Frustrated by the company’s management, Voisin took his designs for the Biscooter elsewhere. In 1953 Damian Casanova, heir to the Catalan Farga Casanova ironworks and head of the Autonacional factory in Spain, acquired the license to produce the Biscúter-Voisin in Barcelona. Though unsuccessful in France, the little car was welcomed in Spain, with between 15,000 and 20,000 units produced from 1953 to 1959. In the fifty years of the Voisin marque’s existence, the tiny Biscúter remains its most highly produced and successful vehicle.

The Postwar Bugatti Whispers of a new Bugatti for the 1951 model year set Bugatti fans astir—the Type 101’s modern style was much anticipated. After Jean Bugatti’s tragic death in 1939, and the death of his father and Bugatti founder, Ettore, in 1947, the youngest Bugatti, Roland, took his place at the head of the firm in an effort to revive the mourning marque. Despite the waning finances and tense nerves of the company’s directors, Roland’s Type 101 was revealed in 1950.

The Type 101’s chassis was essentially a Type 57 with a few new parts that replaced those that had been discontinued during World War II. The Type 101 had a solid front axle, two Weber carburetors, and a Cotal semi-automatic transmission. The engine was made of leftover prewar blocks and parts of the 1939 Type 57Cs. Unfortunately, because of its outdated prewar technology and uncompetitive price, the model was not well received by the public. Additionally, the lack of a European luxury market due to the postwar depression meant that most European cars were produced for export with left-side drive. The Type 101 was right-side drive, and therefore it did not appeal to the booming American market. Very few were sold.

Chassis 101501’s beautiful coachwork was designed by the Gangloff firm. The open coachwork, a two-door, four-passenger cabriolet, encapsulated the skirted pontoon styles that had become so popular in the American market. The resultant car was displayed at the 1950 Paris Auto Salon as a supercharged Type 101C version. Only six Type 101s were ever made.

Chassis 101501 was first sold in 1953 to Mr. P. Rentz, the director of a cheese dairy in Ostheim in the Alsace region of France. The Bugatti went through a succession of nine owners in France, Germany, and the United States, including noted U.S. Bugatti collector Gene Cesari, before Walter Grell of Switzerland purchased it in 1988. Peter Mullin bought the Type 101 in 2010, and it is now part of the Mullin Collection.

“The best of the coach-built era, with a modern twist.” —Peter Mullin The Delahaye 235 was an exclusive sports car that exuded the luxury of prewar handcraftsmanship combined with postwar technological innovation.

Following WWII, economic power shifted to the U.S., where mass production became the new model to serve a growing American market. Only a handful of coachbuilders survived the postwar depression. Those that did designed for American clients that preferred large, “enveloped” bodies. The 235’s fully enveloped fenders and large steering wheel with its chrome rim and central crown insignia were quintessentially American, mimicking styling that could have been found on any Cadillac of the era.

While the Delahaye 235 was marketed as a new model, designed and styled for the postwar market, it was built on a modernized prewar Type 135 MS chassis. It sported a new grille, but retained the old 3.5-liter motor, with minor modifications to the camshaft and carburetors that boosted the horsepower to 150. The Saoutchik styled body was constructed from a unique combination of aluminum (applied to the body from the doors forward) and steel (applied to the rear), providing balance while reducing the car’s weight. When the car made its debut at the 1951 Paris Auto Salon, the public deemed it exquisite, but the price tag—nearly double the Jaguar’s—was too high. The 235 was Delahaye’s last luxury car, and none was more elegant than this example.

Chassis 818005 was owned by a French collector for nearly fifty years and was only stored away when it stopped working in 1964. It was rediscovered in France in 2006 by Jacques “Frenchy” Harguindeguy, an American collector from Walnut Creek, California, who displayed it in its original condition at the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance. Peter Mullin purchased the car in 2007 and subjected it to a comprehensive restoration.

The two-seat convertible coupé built by Stabilimenti Farina of Turin won the award for best custom coachwork at the 1951 Paris Auto Salon. This Talbot-Lago T 26-GS is the only known Talbot-Lago Grand Sport to have been bodied by an Italian coachbuilder. The modern design, produced by the Italian Stabilimenti Farina firm, reflected the Americanized style of the era, complete with elongated pontoon body and chrome accents on the custom radiator.

By 1951 the market had become disenchanted with Talbot-Lago’s touring models and focused instead on the Grand Sport—an energetic model first introduced in 1947 based on the marque’s winning grand prix technology. A total of thirty-six cars were produced in the Type 26-GS series, each one a custom order for a wealthy patron. Such chassis were usually the province of Figoni & Falaschi, Jacques Saoutchik, and other French luxury coachbuilders, but the custom body produced for this vehicle is unique.

In 1950 a Portuguese car collector ordered a Grand Sport chassis from the Talbot-Lago factory in Paris. He talked to several coachbuilders in France, but settled on a two-passenger convertible coupé painted bianco latte (milk white) designed by Italy’s Stabilimenti Farina. When the body was finished, the owner insisted that the wooden mockup used to design the car be destroyed so no one else could have a Talbot-Lago like his. In 2006 the car was restored from the ground up, receiving a rich burgundy body that was unveiled at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance, where it won First in Class.

The owner of this car, Chassis 110160, took it to Portugal following the 1951 Paris Auto Salon. Another car enthusiast, Jacques Touzet, fell in love with it the moment it arrived in Lisbon. Touzet followed the owner around for two years, contacting him repeatedly regarding the vehicle. Persistence eventually paid off when Touzet was able to buy the car in 1953. Touzet thoroughly enjoyed his purchase for the next forty-seven years, but in 2000, he decided he was getting a little too old for his toy. The car was purchased by Charles Morse, who then sold it to Peter Mullin the following year.

For the 1950 racing season, Anthony Lago formulated a car that launched his iconic Type 26 chassis to the forefront of speed and endurance technology. The end of World War II saw the advent of a new form of competitive racing that tested a machine’s speed and endurance among a class of cars honed to a degree of power beyond that of production models. For the competition’s inaugural year in 1950, Talbot-Lago entered the Type 26 Grand Prix. Its class: Formula One.

The Formula One category was founded in 1948, but did not have its first national competition until 1950. Competitors were challenged to build cars that met one of two regulations: one for supercharged cars with maximum 1.5-liter engines, and one for unsupercharged models with maximum 4.5-liter engines.

Talbot-Lago chose to create a simple, unsupercharged 4.5-liter car on a Type 26 chassis—a chassis touted as the “fastest production chassis in the world,” by Autocar Magazine in October 1948. This car, Chassis 110052, is from the marque’s second series Type 26s, made blazingly fast with the addition of twin ignition plugs that created an additional 50 brake horsepower and top speeds of more than 166 miles per hour. The factory-built body is a sleek bullet with a tapered rear that maximizes aerodynamic efficiency. The bare exhaust pipes are a reminder of this refined machine’s true ambitions–speed and endurance.

Talbot-Lago operated a factory racing team for roughly ten years. Although it was small and its financial resources were limited, it did much to elevate the prestige of French racing and develop the reputation of international Formula racing worldwide.

For those interested in restoration, the Delahaye 135 MS in the Mullin Collection is a road map for experts and enthusiasts who want to know what a truly original Type 135 MS looks like. This vehicle, Chassis 800727, is a remarkable, near-original example of Delahaye’s Type 135 MS chassis and coachbuilder Henri Chapron’s exquisite Art Deco coachwork.

The Delahaye Type 135 was produced in a variety of models prior to World War II. After the war the sport version, Type 135 MS, resumed production from 1946 to 1952. The six-cylinder MS had three carburetors and was capable of 135 horsepower. Even in today’s traffic, the extra horsepower of the Delahaye Type 135 MS engine makes driving this car a great motoring experience.

Chassis 800727 is a Chapron cabriolet with elegant postwar styling rooted in classic French lines. Henri Chapron called this his Vedette style: a cabriolet with covered rear wheels, chrome trim, and a top that folds down into the coachwork and disappears. Having spent the majority of its life preserved as a show car or in a museum, this untouched example provides invaluable guidance for anyone who wishes to undertake the renovation of a Delahaye. The exterior paint remains the blue-gray combination chosen by Chapron, who called the color Nice blue, after the premier city on France’s Côte d’Azur. The interior is original; the gauges are a slightly faded, and the knobs are worn, but everything works and has a comfortable feel. The seats are upholstered in blue and white leather with white piping, and the varnished wood frames surrounding the seatbacks match the trim on the doorsills and dashboard surround—each element combining to create a luxurious interior.

The entire car is a perfect example of the custom work at which Chapron excelled, and it has the kind of patina that collectors covet.

A Delage D6-3L that took second place in the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans was considered lost until a curious owner went in search of his unusual-bodied Delage’s forgotten heritage. In 1965 Boston native Peter Viner purchased a peculiar-looking, three-liter Delage with an aluminum body that sported distinctive streamlined tail fins. Viner believed that this bizarre coupe disguised the long-lost D6 chassis driven by the Delage race team in the winning 1946 and 1947 seasons. After much research, his speculations were confirmed by several authorities, including marque specialist François Jolly. Peter Viner had found Henri Louveau’s Chassis 880004.

Racing returned to France in 1946 at the end of World War II. Louis Delage’s successor, Walter Watney, was ready at the track with five Type D6-3L racecars. The powerful vehicles capable of speeds of more than 124 miles per hour successfully raced throughout Europe for the next three years. Of the five Type D6-3L racecars, Chassis 880004 campaigned most frequently. It was purchased in 1947 by Henri Louveau, who drove the car to several victories, including a second-place finish at both Le Mans and the Grand Prix of Spa-Francorchamps in 1949.

In 1953 the car transferred to Jacques Nollé, who had it rebodied as the unusual coupé acquired by Viner. Through the years its history was lost until Viner unearthed its story. Not long after purchasing the car in 1995, Peter Mullin restored it to its original 1947 racing configuration by Auto Classique Touraine in Tours, France. The Delage two-seater, cloaked in Gallic blue, returned to the track in 2002.

Chassis 880004 was purchased in 1947 by racecar driver Henri Louveau, who frequently entered it in competitive events. In 1950 Louveau put the car up for sale, and it was eventually purchased by Jacques Nollé in 1953. In 1955 Nollé had Chassis 880004 rebodied as a coupé by coachbuilder Pichon-Parat, but afterward Nollé had difficulty registering the car for racing. He sold it to Richard Gallagher, an American serviceman stationed in France. Gallagher later sold the Type D6-3L to another American soldier, Peter Viner, who eventually brought the car home with him to the United States. It was kept on the East Coast for many years until 1995, when Peter Mullin purchased it and had it restored to its original 1947 racing configuration by Auto Classique Touraine in Tours, France, in 2002. Chassis 880004 is now owned by the Mullin Automotive Museum.

This Aravis was created for Maurice Trintignant, famous racer of Bugatti’s factory team. A man well-acquainted with the wheel, the Aravis was the one car he regretted selling. Named for a mountain pass in the French Alps, the Aravis is a stunningly realized member of Jean Bugatti’s Type 57 production line. Bugatti himself claimed that Chassis 57768 was “the most beautiful Type 57.”

Bugatti chose the Gangloff firm to construct the coachwork for this Aravis. Gangloff’s refined styling was chosen for many Bugattis not bodied by the Bugatti factory themselves. Gangloff executed the signature Bugatti style with exacting precision. The distinctive Jean Bugatti two-tone paint and decorative beltline finishing were, by this point, a hallmark of the Bugatti design. The profile and dipping shape of the teardrop fenders cascade toward the ground, an effect that entices one to believe the rear axle itself is engaged and launching the vehicle forward—a silhouette built for speed.

For car manufacturers, racing was an essential marketing tool. The Aravis, a two-door, two-seat cabriolet with an additional side-facing child’s seat in the rear, boasts an engine inspired by and created for Grand Prix racer Maurice Trintignant. A racecar driver who used a production model for everyday travel provided an unparalleled endorsement of a marque’s prowess. Thus, Bugatti heralded Trintignant’s ownership. When Peter Mullin acquired the car and decided to return it to its original condition, he was granted the unique opportunity of collaborating with Trintignant to ensure the authenticity of the restoration. After 60 years, his extraordinary memory of the car had not dwindled.

Jean Bugatti created this Type 57C Aravis especially for Maurice Trintignant, a Grand Prix racer on the Bugatti factory team. Trintignant sold the car in 1947 to Jacques Roblin. From him, it passed into the hands of Madeleine Mitton, and in 1964, into the possession of Rudi van Daalen Wetters. In 2002 Peter Mullin purchased it from Wetters. When Mullin chose to restore it to its original mint condition, he was fortunate to be able to consult with Trintignant, whose memory of the car was undiminished by time. The restoration was completed and the car won its first award at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance in 2005.

The future looked brighter after this French beauty’s debut at “The World of Tomorrow,” 1939 New York World’s Fair. No one guessed that the car of tomorrow was running on empty. After the racing success of its Type 145, Delahaye’s production version, the Type 165, was chosen to represent France at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, whose theme showcased the leading technology of the era.

The Figoni & Falaschi bodied, aerodynamic cabriolet was stunning—all it lacked was an engine. The New York World’s Fair was an important event for the French automotive industry. After many years of German and Italian domination on the track, Delahaye had produced a record-breaking Type 145 that raised the prestige of French automotive engineering throughout the world. The World’s Fair featured this great technology on a global platform. It had to be perfect.

Construction began in the beginning of 1939, and was a struggle to finish on schedule. Delahaye had planned a Type 165 featuring the 145’s retooled V-12 racing engine in a shock of extravagant aerodynamic coachwork by Figoni & Falaschi. The bright red, streamlined cabriolet featured Figoni’s characteristic voluptuous curves in what has come to be known as the teardrop style. The hood had a cutout so that the engine could be viewed, and the firewall was engine-turned, as were the valve covers—all of which made for a showy display. Deadlines passed and ultimately it had to be shipped before the engine was completed. It appeared on the stand with a hollow shell of an engine, and no one was the wiser.

Eventually the car’s original engine in France was sold separately from the chassis, which was sold in the United States. In the late 1980s the chassis resurfaced in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Peter Mullin and fellow enthusiast Jim Hull found and reunited it with its original V-12 engine from France. Beyond the paint and plush interior, the restored Type 165 is one of the most historically rich artifacts in the Mullin collection.

The Voisin marque displayed the Type C30 in a new and stylish coupé model for a final appearance at the Paris Auto Salon in 1938. The Mullin Type C30S Coupé is the last luxury model designed and influenced by the innovative genius Gabriel Voisin. After years of administrative struggle, the Voisin factory soon disintegrated with the looming prospect of war, and in the postwar years the firm was unable to revive the marque.

The Type C30S Coupé remains a testament to the innovative genius of Gabriel Voisin, who strictly adhered to his design principles, and it garners a special place in the Mullin Automotive Museum’s collection. Voisin was an advocate of streamlined designs well before they were popular. His cars were based on theory and science that exalted simple shapes that flowed with the wind rather than abruptly muscling through. Even the C30, though in many ways tainted by administrators who forced Voisin to make a car according to modern aesthetics rather than his own understanding of science, maintained the light, aerodynamic qualities so appreciated by modern collectors of Voisin cars.

In this final iteration, the last model designed and influenced by Voisin, the chassis was shortened to 10.3 feet from the previous year’s Type C30 chassis in order to increase overall power. As in the Type C30 Goëlette cabriolet, also in the Mullin collection, the coupé does not have the typical hood ornament or Voisin sleeve-valve engine; rather, it has a 3.56-liter Graham-Paige engine with a supercharging centrifugal blower system. The Type C30S was expensive and sold poorly. In total, only about thirty of the Type C30Ss were produced between October 1937 and the beginning of World War II in September 1939.

A Retired Racer that has grown more beautiful with age In 1937 Lucy Schell, founder of the Ecurie Bleue racing team, ordered four Delahaye Type 145s to compete in the French government’s automotive engineering challenge, the Million Franc Prize. The Mullin Automotive Museum is home to three of these historical cars. Chassis 48773 is one of the three.

The Mullin Chassis 48771, 48772, and 48773 were exotic V-12 racecars built for speed and endurance. The original aluminum coachwork was utilitarian and devoid of anything that would take away from the aerodynamic form needed to reach high speeds. They experienced much success on the track—racing in international grand prix throughout Europe during the 1937–1939 seasons.

With its racing career at an end, Chassis 48772 was bought by coachbuilder Henri Chapron, who transformed it into one of the most beautiful examples of classic French coachwork of the postwar era. Having by necessity been unproductive during World War II, Chapron began to rebody the car as a two-seat coupé in 1947. The long, narrow, and underslung body was ideal for sleek-looking coachwork. The car bore the signature Delahaye radiator with enveloped, teardrop-shaped fenders and an elaborate beltline that dipped with the downslope of the fenders toward the rear. Its priceless and historic twelve-cylinder engine has remained intact.

Saoutchik’s teardrop-shaped wings and sculpted cockpit mated with Dubonnet’s signature hyperflex suspension system offers drivers an entrancing sensation of flight.

One of the most extravagantly streamlined cars produced in an era of tall and boxy coaches, the Xenia’s wildly futuristic design reflects the prewar fascination with machines and flight.

André Dubonnet—inventor, racecar driver, and World War I fighter pilot in the SPAD (Societé Anonymé pour l’Aviation et ses Derivés), or Stork, Squadron—was among those entrepreneurs who sought to use his engineering and aviation background to test the limits of technology. Rather than merely building a sophisticated coach to market standards, Dubonnet designed the Xenia to showcase his inventions and aerodynamic designs.

The Xenia features an independent, coil-spring hyperflex suspension system, engineered by Dubonnet’s company and later adopted by Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Buick, among others. Dubonnet claimed the suspension system had “the suppleness of a cat”— memorialized by the Dubonnet logo, a jumping cat. The resulting smooth handling gave the evanescent feeling of floating on air. Dubonnet chose the H6 Hispano-Suiza engine to power the car and commissioned aerodynamics expert Jean Andreau to design the streamlined coachwork, which was built and engineered by luxury coachbuilder Jacques Saoutchik.

While the overall body is evocative of the elegant lines indulged in by coachbuilders of the Art Deco era, the details of this car are its truly Deco components. One exquisite feature is its door mechanism. Using a centrally mounted handle, the doors effortlessly slide open and backward, parallel to the body.

The Xenia was André Dubonnet’s personal car. It was hidden during World War II and did not resurface until June 9, 1946, when it led the parade celebrating the reopening of the Saint Cloud highway tunnel outside Paris to civilian traffic. Alain Balleret, president of the French Hispano-Suiza Club, purchased and restored the Xenia in the 1960s. In 1999 the American Charles Morse purchased it at auction. Peter Mullin purchased the Xenia in 2003. Today it is owned by the Peter Mullin Automotive Museum Foundation.

Jaw dropping luxury coaches were Joseph Figoni’s forte, the streamlined racer built for hugging turns at break neck speed was an exciting challenge—the truest test of aerodynamic forms. Everyone familiar with the world of classic cars knows that vehicles are often transformed at the whim of an owner. It sometimes happens, however, that a car’s metamorphosis is officially decreed by the factory: this one, Chassis 90203, is such a vehicle.

Chassis 90203 began life as Chassis 82930 and was the first in a series of special Talbot-Lago racecars bodied by famed luxury coachbuilder Joseph Figoni in 1936. Figoni styled the car with an open race body like that of a Type 150-C-SS with a short wheelbase chassis. The car was intended for the Talbot-Lago racing team while similarly bodied cars were marketed to private individuals. Although engineer and founder Tony Lago was dissatisfied with Figoni’s first design, the second body was approved, and it appeared with its new styling on the Figoni & Falaschi stand at the 1937 Paris Auto Salon.

Under René Dreyfus’s direction, the chassis was renumbered as 82933 after the factory installed a new 4.5-liter motor (number 45003) in 1938. The following year the factory again updated the chassis number, this time to 90203, to reflect a new model designation of Type 26-SS. For a manufacturer such as Talbot-Lago, chassis number changes were standard procedure when updating models and styles. Chassis 90203 was eventually sold to Luigi Chinetti’s racing team, and it raced at Le Mans in 1939 before being put in storage for the duration of World War II. The original coachwork designed by Figoni was destroyed after the war, and a new body was installed that had a postwar look more in keeping with the automotive styles of the time.

Czechoslovakian auto manufacturing in the 1930s took its roots from the Western European school of aerodynamics. Aérodynamisme was a sign of the times. In the 1930s aerodynamics engineers in Western Europe pursued their vision of science-based automotive coachwork. They used wind-tunnel testing and engineering strategies to develop smooth and enveloped coachwork that cut through the wind. Innovative round bodies, such as that of the Tatra Type 87, set the precedent for modernized coachwork that was popular throughout the 1930s.

The former Czechoslovakian (now Czech Republic) manufacturer Tatra was a leading proponent of the aerodynamics movement and developed the sleek Type 77 in 1933 and the shapely Type 87 in 1938. Tatra’s head engineer, Hans Ledwinka, designed the Type 77’s enveloped profile, with its rounded edges and a protruding rear fin. The streamlined body was attached to a well-balanced, center-beamed chassis with a rear-positioned engine like that of a Volkswagen or Porsche.

The Tatra Type 87 is considerably shorter than the Type 77; however, it is much shapelier, displaying more rounded forms and finely integrated fenders.

The Mullin Automotive Museum acquired the Tatra Type 87 in 2007.

In a tumultuous time of administrative change, the Type C30 revealed Gabriel Voisin’s dedication to his marque’s engineering principles and expert styling. The Voisin Type C30 was developed and launched by Gnome et Rho?ne administrators who assumed control of the Voisin marque in 1937 and not under Gabriel Voisin’s sole influence; it had neither engine nor coachwork bearing the “Voisin” signature. Yet, in its own way the Voisin Type C30 was just as revolutionary as the marque’s other models.

The Type C30 made its debut at the 1937 Paris Auto Salon when Voisin was no longer the head of his company and the majority of Voisin cars were produced from used and spare parts. The assembled car was intended to maintain many traditional Voisin features, such as a long wheelbase and overall simplicity, but it departed from the material refinement generally demanded by Gabriel Voisin’s exacting vision. As for engines, lack of funding forced Voisin to cease manufacturing his typical sleeve-valve power plants. Instead, he relied on an American supercharged Graham-Paige model—a popular engine known for its quiet operation and therefore more aligned with Voisin’s tastes.

For a marque known for factory bodied cars, Chassis 60007 further bent the rules with coachwork built by an outside coachbuilder, Louis Dubos. This small firm had operated since the 1920s, when it made a name for itself with rigid, soundproof bodies that relied on a supple connection between coachwork and chassis. Stylistically, the Voisin Type C30 Goëlette is the elegantly proportioned product of classical workmanship. On its conservative ensemble, only the grille—a shock of chrome reminiscent of the modern American style and bearing an alternative style hood ornament—surprised the public. The two-door cabriolet in the Mullin Collection is very rare; one of the last Type C30s built in the series, appreciated for its unique coachwork and place in Voisin history.

Few would know that hidden beneath this beautiful Chapron bodied Delahaye coupé, lays the chassis of one of the most glorious Grand Prix race teams of the early twentieth century.

The Mullin Chassis 48771, 48772, and 48773 were exotic V-12 racecars built for endurance and speed. The original aluminum coachwork was utilitarian and devoid of anything that would take away from the aerodynamic form needed to reach high speeds. The cars experienced much success on the track—racing in international grand prix throughout Europe during the 1937–1939 seasons. While Chassis 48771 has remained bodied as a racecar, the other Type 145s went on to lead colorful lives.

After its racing career, this Type 145 was purchased by an A. M. Duprie, who sent it to Henri Chapron to be rebodied as a coupé in 1939. After several frustrating years, a world war, and changes in ownership, Chapron bought the car and finished the coupé as a beautiful two-seater similar to the Mullin Chassis 48772. The car moved around frequently over the next few decades, traveling to the United States and eventually back to France, where Peter Mullin found and acquired it in 2004.

Introduced at the 1935 Paris Auto Salon, the Peugeot Type 402 cabriolet featured Georges Paulin’s revolutionary Eclipse convertible system. In 1932 Georges Paulin patented an articulated roof panel that slid backward and disappeared into the trunk, whose lid opened like an oyster to conceal the roof. Quick, simple and easily operated by a single person—Paulin’s roof was a pioneering design in the realm of cabriolet engineering.

Paulin christened the system the Eclipse and tested it on a number of chassis, including a Peugeot Type 301 bodied by coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout. The system was an instant success. Peugeot eventually signed a royalty contract with Paulin and introduced its Type 402 in 1935 based on his concept—slightly upgraded with the addition of an electric motor to power the Eclipse system. Later the motor was removed; apparently, manual operation was less complex and more reliable.

The first one hundred models of the Type 402 Eclipse were hand built by master coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout according to Paulin’s design. Later more affordable models (including the Mullin Eclipse) were built by the Peugeot assembly line to meet customer demand. The car had a rounded radiator grill that housed two headlamps. This design was then applied to other, more compact Peugeot models—first to the Type 302 in 1936 and then to the smaller Type 202 in 1938. Under its resolutely modern exterior, influenced by the aerodynamic Chrysler Airflow exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933, the Type 402 features a very classic frame. While many self-supporting unibody coachwork designs were produced at the time, the 402’s body was still separate from the chassis, a distinct structure built of side rails and crossbeams.

Peter Mullin purchased this exceptionally rare and original car in March 2007 from Christoph Grohe in Switzerland. Its earlier provenance is unknown.

Having popularized the French curve, Joseph Figoni presented a mature teardrop style that elevated aerodynamic design to an art on the Type 150-C-S. The Talbot-Lago Type 150-C-S‘s triumph at the 1937 French Grand Prix brought international fame to the marque. The public sensation aroused by these cars convinced coachbuilder Joseph Figoni to work with the Talbot-Lago company to produce a touring version that would dominate concours d’e?le?gance. These works of art marked the peak of the Streamline Moderne movement of the 1930s, elegantly merging the organic form of a teardrop with the extraordinary power of Lago’s uncanny machine.

In 1937 Figoni’s goutte d’eau, or teardrop, had never been seen. The look of the Talbot-Lago Teardrop epitomized speed, aerodynamic efficiency and elegance. Its form was perfect for an object in motion, resembling raindrops as they fall to earth. Of the fourteen Type 150-C-Ss Figoni produced, thirteen still exist—a testimony to the love and care lavished upon them by their owners. Many survived World War II because they were bought by Hollywood glitterati and transported to the United States. Proud owners include French racecar driver Marcel Balsa, Australian Olympic bobsledder Freddie McEvoy, American car collector Tommy Stewart Lee, and the Maharani Stella de Khapurthala, who enjoyed changing her car’s color scheme to match her outfits.

The Teardrops were produced in two series. The Jeancart series was the first, named after the original patron of the style; these were coupés with a slight notchback design. The second series, dubbed New York, made its debut at the 1937 National Automotive Show in New York City and featured an uninterrupted fastback profile. Figoni did not give all cars in this series the New York designation, but they are similar in appearance. Although the Teardrops are very much alike, each was handmade and had a variety of subtle differences. The Mullin Teardrop, Chassis 90106, has an aluminum alloy body, a foldout windscreen, a sunroof, and competition-style exhaust headers, among other unique features.

The Talbot-Lago Type 150-C-S was originally owned by Bentley Boy and chairman of Bentley Motors Woolf Barnato. After two decades in England, the car was sold in the 1960s to Otto Zipper, brought to the United States, and displayed at the Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum. In the 1980s the car was sold to Peter Giddings, then to John Calley, and then to Pat Hart, who undertook a multiyear restoration. Peter Mullin purchased the car in 1985, and the restoration was completed.

Renowned coachbuilder Joseph Figoni first sculpted the streamlined lines and arcs known as “the French curve” and “the double curve” on the Delahaye Type 135. For today’s automotive enthusiast, the name Delahaye conjures images of the low, sweeping chassis that were the epitome of the streamlined designs fueling the Art Deco movement.

This Delahaye is one of three surviving vehicles that bear the fluid Figoni body shapes that drew raves during the 1936 Paris Auto Salon. The curved arcs of the fenders established the standard for the “French curves” that are considered a signature characteristic of streamlined automobiles from the 1930s. Indicative of the Art Deco movement’s fascination with the machine and flight, Figoni’s designs were inspired by aviation, particularly by René Couzinet’s Arc-en-Ciel (“Rainbow”) plane. The shape of the pontoon covers on the landing gear of Couzinet’s plane are distinctly mirrored in the Type 135’s voluptuous fenders.

This Type 135M, chassis 49150, is known to some as The Star of India. It was commissioned by explorer and businessman Casimir Jourde, a personal friend of Figoni’s and devotee of streamline styling. Jourde owned several Figoni vehicles that he had shipped to India for use during his long travels. In 1939 chassis 49150 was shipped to Bombay (present-day Mumbai), where it caused quite a stir and was eventually sold to Prince de Berae Mukarran Jah. It was rediscovered in 1982 sitting on wooden blocks in a garden shed in Jodhpur. After a complete restoration, The Star of India has returned to its former grandeur and remains one of the shining centerpieces of the Mullin Automotive Collection.

Casimir Jourde ordered this Delahaye in 1937. Painted red, it was one of eleven cars built for Figoni et Falaschi’s Paris Auto Salon between 1936 and 1939. In 1939 the car was shipped to Bombay (present-day Mumbai), where Jourde had business interests. Prince de Berae Mukarran Jah purchased Jourde’s Delahaye and added it to his collection. Years later the car was sold to an unknown buyer and dissapeared. When it was rediscovered in 1982, it was sitting on wooden blocks in a garden shed in Jodhpur. An English dealer bought it in the mid-1980s, disassembled it, and shipped it in crates to England, where it underwent a complete restoration. The original front-end coachwork had been changed in India, where—according to Claude Figoni, son of Joseph Figoni and curator of the Figoni Archives—the flush-mounted headlights were removed and replaced with externally mounted Marchal lights. Because the English dealer did not realize that alterations had been made, the car was mistakenly restored as found. The interior was also redone with the help of vintage photographs supplied by the Figoni Archives. Peter Mullin purchased the car after it competed in the 1992 Pebble Beach Concours d’Élégance and returned to its original configuration, with recessed headlights and properly faired-in taillights. This automobile is now owned by the Mullin Automotive Museum.

According to Peter Mullin, the Wanderer will never be restored. Its story is preserved in its seats, its headliner, and its fellow cars from the Schlumpf Reserve Collection. The Auto Union Wanderer came to the Mullin Automotive Museum as part of the Schlumpf Reserve Collection— a group of 62 unrestored cars previously owned by textile giant Fritz Schlumpf.

In 1977 the French government seized Schlumpf’s collection of some 500 cars after a crash in the textile business forced him into bankruptcy. The ensuing legal battle lasted for 20 years until the Reserve Collection was released to Schlumpf’s widow Arlette in 1999. Arlette kept them hidden away in a barn in Malmerspach where few were granted entrance to see the treasure trove. Mr. Mullin had known Arlette and was given the promise of the first call when the lot came up for sale. When Mr. Mullin received the call in 2008 he was at the barn in moments. What he found inside was a dream: row upon row of Bugattis, Delahayes, Hispano-Suizas and Peugeots, the list goes on. After some soul searching of his own, Mr. Mullin purchased the collection, only retaining cars of particular historical significance and selling the rest. The Wanderer is one of these cars.

The Wanderer is one of only three cars in the Mullin Collection not of French heritage. A German car, it was Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s first project after he graduated from engineering school in 1930. Porsche was a consultant to several German carmakers, and he worked with the Wanderer automotive company on the design and manufacture of the W25K’s supercharged engine. The W25K was the product of four German automobile companies—Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer—who merged in 1932 to form Auto Union. The four interlocking rings of Auto Union’s badge are seen on modern Audis to this day.

Little is known of the Wanderer’s early history. Fritz Schlumpf purchased it in 1964, and it was confiscated by the French government in 1977. Part of the Schlumpf Reserve Collection, it was released to Fritz Schlumpf’s widow, Arlette, in 1999. She chose not to restore the cars, but left them where and as she found them. After she died in 2008 the collection once again became available to collectors. Car dealers Bruno Vendiesse and Jaap Braam Ruben purchased the collection, which they soon sold to Peter Mullin. He kept approximately half of the Schlumpf Reserve Collection to display in the Mullin Automotive Museum.