This may be as close as it comes to owning a piece of the founder of Rolls-Royce.
An historic 1902 Panhard Levassor 16-horsepower, four-cylinder rear-entrance Tonneau with coach work by Labourdette of Paris is estimated to fetch between £550,000 and £650,000 ($885,580 to $1.05 million) at Bonhams’ annual London to Brighton Run motorcar sale on November 1.
It is a car that once belonged to Lord Llangattock of Hendre in Monmouthshire, the father of C.S. Rolls, who founded the iconic automotive brand in 1906. Motoring experts believe that this car may be the one that Rolls based many of his earliest models. The car was acquired by an undisclosed family in 1935 and has stayed in their possession ever since, making it fresh to the market after almost 80 years, said Bonhams in a statement.
Bonhams group CEO Malcolm Barber, who sourced this car, added, “Once in a while you find a car that really excites you. This car has it all, history, looks, provenance. It still wears its C.S. Rolls brass supplier plates. Whoever buys it automatically becomes part of motoring history.”
