Lot 370

The Guyton Collection

1932 Nash Advanced Eight Convertible Sedan by Seaman

{{lr.item.text}}

$340,500 USD | Sold

United States | St. Louis, Missouri

{{internetCurrentBid}}

{{internetTimeLeft}}


language
Chassis No.
520625
Engine No.
403925
  • “Kenosha’s Duesenberg,” one of the great unsung Classics
  • One of just three known surviving examples
  • Immaculate concours restoration
  • Presented at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance
  • Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) Full Classic

While it is Packard, Lincoln, and Duesenberg that often get all the press, other American manufacturers produced superb luxury automobiles during the 1930s.

Among the finest unsung heroes of the era was Wisconsin automaker Nash’s Advanced Eight, the innovative specifications of which included a silky smooth inline eight-cylinder engine with a nine-main-bearing crank, Bohnalite aluminum pistons, and aluminum connecting rods; dual ignition; Timken worm drive rear axle, Gemmer steering box; Bijur automatic chassis lubrication; thermostatically controlled radiator shutters; and Delco adjustable shock absorbers. Luxuriously trimmed, beautifully designed and built bodies, custom-built to individual order, finished off the model that historian David Brownell famously dubbed “Kenosha’s Duesenberg.”

The top-of-the-line 1093 Advanced Eight offered here is one of only three survivors with this handsome convertible sedan body, built for Nash by the famous Seaman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. According to information in the file, it was originally delivered to Washington, D.C., later moving to Virginia, where it was acquired by Ron Gottschalk of Bettendorf, Iowa, in 1961. Mr. Gottschalk cosmetically restored the car and showed it locally for some years, eventually applying for Full Classic status with the Classic Car Club of America. As a result this car became the very first Nash accepted by the CCCA, and continued to be shown in their events until 2005.

That year the Nash was acquired by Fred Guyton, and afterward underwent a frame-off, ground-up professional restoration, to the highest possible standards of fit and finish. Particular attention was paid to the drivetrain, including sourcing New Old Stock Bohnalite pistons and remanufacturing the worm drive rear axle gears and components. Many of the cosmetic and trim components also had to be newly made, as the parts do not interchange with the smaller series Nashes. The result was truly spectacular, and was shown to much acclaim at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – one of the very few Nashes ever so-honored.

Today the restoration of the Nash is still concours quality and beyond reproach, with very few appearances outside of the Guyton Collection since its Pebble Beach debut. It is therefore eligible for almost all of the major American concours d’elegance, as well as of, of course, AACA and CCCA events.

Almost certainly this is the finest restored Advanced Eight extant – an incredibly rare, beautifully engineered Full Classic, worthy of standing in its new owner’s collection alongside Duesenbergs and Packards . . . just as it would have sat in 1932.