Next stop Rimini

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Auctioneers Coys will set up their camps in The Netherlands this weekend, to hammer off 55 cars and some motorbikes in their Grandes Marques sale on Saturday the sixteenth. They bring along several Porsches, Jags, Healeys and Mercedeses, but as you know we prefer the slightly more off-centre stuff. This nice rally prepared Saab is more in our street, as is this lovely looking Dino intended for the track. Two more interesting cars hail from Italy, although they were built elsewhere: this wonderful Peugeot 203 Break was used to ferry guests around by a hotel in Rimini and appears to have a special trimmed cabin to accommodate holiday goers in comfort. We like this Mercedes 300 too, mostly because it comes in a colour scheme, which the Germans would hardly approve off. Imagine that in Rimini on a sunny day and you’d just wait for Claudia Cardinale and her chauffeur to come around the corner.

But star of the show, if you ask us, is a Lancia by Langenthal of Switzerland. A late Aprilia which was delivered to the coachbuilder as a bare B50 ‘autotellaio’ chassis in 1948. The Swiss body builders, named after the village in Bern where they are still based, turned it into a big convertible with two doors and place for five, which oozes late-1940s understatements. Only Pininfarina’s version is more discreet. But Langenthal’s variety is rarer: just two more Aprilias are believed to have been clothed like it and this one remained in its home country up until three years ago. Next stop Rimini, we hope. But don't forget to make a lunch stop right in between the middle when you are on your way.

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy Coys of Kensington)
 

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