1927 Minerva AF Sport Sedan

Sylvain de Jong founded Societe Anonyme Minerva Motors in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1903. Volume car production began in 1904 and in the early days, the most important market for Minerva was the United Kingdom, where Charles S. Rolls (of Rolls-Royce fame) was their best-selling London agent. In 1908, Minerva obtained a license for the almost silent Charles Yale Knight sleeve-valve engine, which was used by the company until car production finished in 1939.

This Minerva Sport Sedan, with its deep vee-shaped windshield and dramatic blind rear quarter, is one of two cars bodied by LeBaron in this style. It features a low top with a high beltline and is fitted with the period-correct Willocq-Bottin Supralux headlamps and aluminum wheel covers. It is believed that this car was first shown at the New York Auto Salon at the Hotel Commodore in 1926. It later appeared in the 1937 Fred Astaire film A Damsel in Distress. The car was discovered partly dismantled in the 1990s and was then fully restored in 2000.

The Société Anonyme Minerva Motors automobile company was established in 1903 by Sylvain de Jong, a manufacturer of bicycles and motorcycles in Antwerp, Belgium. The company obtained a license in 1908 to produce engines in the Charles Yale Knight sleeve-valve design. All Minvera cars would use the sleeve-valve engines from that point until the end of production in 1939.

This particular example is a Minerva Sport Sedan with a deeply V-shaped windshield and blind rear quarter. It is one of just two in this body style. The engine is a 5,954cc sleeve-Valve inline 6-cylinder unit fitted with Zenith 2-barrel carburetors and produces an estimated 100 horsepower. There is a four-speed manual gearbox and four-wheel Dewandre Vacuum-Servo Mechanical drum brakes.

This vehicle may have been the car that was pictured on display at the New York Auto Salon at the Hotel Commodore in 1926. Several years later, in 1937, it was in the film A Damsel in Distress, starring Fred Astaire. By the 1990s, it rested disassembled in the Pacific Northwest, where it was in the care of Mr. Radford, who had planned to restore it. Drew Lewis acquired the car following the passing of Mr. Radford. Mr. Lewis commissioned Steve Babinsky of Lebanon, New Jersey, to perform a complete restoration. Upon completion, the car completed the Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance and then made its concours debut in 2000, earning a class award at Pebble Beach and achieving a Senior Grand National Award with the AACA.

The Minerva is finished in deep green with fenders in black. It wears LeBaron coachwork that features a low top with a high beltline. There are correct Willocq-Bottin Supralux headlamps and aluminum wheel covers. The interior features light cognac leather with matching carpets and headliner, and the rear compartment has two occasional jump seats. Jaeger gauges are mounted within a deep-set polished aluminum dash, and the individual windscreen panels tilt open for ventilation.

In 2009, the car came into the care of its current owner.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2018