The Fleetwood Bodied Roadsters

By: conceptcarz.com

This car, a 1927 Isotta Fraschini, was commissioned by Rudolf Valentino. Valentino had been a true car aficionado and his car of choice was the Isotta Fraschini built in his native homeland of Italy. At a cost of $25,000, Valentino hired American coachbuilders LeBaron and Fleetwood to design and built this unique roadster on the high performance 8A S chassis. This Tipo 8A Roadster was one of two similar cars bodied by Fleetwood. It was the last example that was commissioned by Valentino and was ordered through a New York distributor. Valentino himself was reportedly involved in the cars' design work. Valentino never had a chance to drive the car as he passed away suddenly at age 31. The car was exhibited at the 1926 New York Auto Salon and then put on display in the front window of Isotta Motors. Priced at $25,000 it was suggested that it should be cut into 100 pieces and sold for $250 each to mourning fans.

After the show it was bought by financier John Locke as a gift for Peggy Hopkins Joyce (her full name was Peggy Upton Archer Hopkins Joyce Morner Easton Meyer), a celebrity who lived a rather scandalous life - an American socialite known for her highly profitable love affairs and marriages. There is debate on if Mr. Locke or even Walter P. Chrysler gifted the car to Joyce. She parted company with her car in the late 1930s, and subsequent ownership of the roadster picks up with George Waterman, who was its owner as early as 1945. Howard Kizer later acquired the car. It was later given a restoration in bright blue and exhibited it at CCCA events in the Midwest during the 1960s. Kizer later passed the car to Richard C. Paine's Seal Cove Auto Museum, where it was displayed for nearly two decades before its sale in 1985 to Matt and Barbara Browning of Ogden, Utah. The current caretakers acquired it in 2001 from the Browning collection, and RM Auto Restoration was later tasked with performing an authentic restoration to its original condition.

The body for this unique 1927 Mercedes Model K was ordered by William Sloan of Rochester, New York, after seeing the Isotta Fraschini Roadster built by Fleetwood for Rudolph Valentino at the 1926 New York Auto Salon. Sloan kept the car in his garage alongside two other supercharged Mercedes. In the late 1940s it was acquired by Paul Brewer Conaway of Chillicothe, Ohio, and it stayed with his family until the late 1980s. After two more collectors, its current owner bought the car in 2018. The 2019 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance was the car's first showing since a recent restoration.

Photo credit: Dan Vaughan
posted on conceptcarz.com

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