1920 Renault Type EU Coupe de Ville

This chauffeur-driven 1920 Type EU Coupe de Ville wears coachwork by Henry Binder. It was delivered new to Auto-Palace Concessionaires on October 1st and acquired by a wealthy Parisian family. Around ten years later, it was purchased during a prop-finding trip to Paris by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios for use in their films. Among its show appearances were in the 1931 film Mata Hari starring Greta Garbo, and a role as the star car of the 1941 Marx Brothers feature The Big Store.

The Renault was acquired, at some point, from an MGM backlot by Lindley Bothwell of La Habra, California. The car was seldomly used while in Bothwell's care and was later sold in October of 1966 to the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Terry Hulman. Hulman reportedly had the Renault restored to its present polychrome brown livery and a period-style upholstery at this time, whereupon the car was shipped to his collection in Terre Haute, Indiana.

When Mr. Hulman passed away in 1977, ownership was transferred to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation and displayed within their public museum for much of the following decade. In October of 2020, the Renault was deaccessioned from the museum's holdings and acquired by its current caretaker. Since that time, the fuel tank and fuel delivery system sorted.

By Daniel Vaughan | Feb 2022