This 1935 Auburn 851 for sale on Hemmings.com has certainly led an eventful life, as the seller tells the story. Originally built in right-hand drive for export to England, its noble owner took it to Paris where the Third Reich seized it and presumably bombed around Europe in it before it somehow went back to its original owner, who then took it back to England and used it to haul around horse manure on his farm. Since then, it’s been restored twice (hopefully removing all traces of that last episode of its history), returned to the United States and converted to left-hand drive. From the seller’s description:

Between 2001 to 2006, I have essentially gone through the car including a complete rebuild of the engine; the undercarriage; I swapped rhd to lhd; rebuilt most mechanical items including the supercharger, clutch, windshield wipers, steering, gas tank, water pump, etc; My neighbor stripped the body paint, cleaned up the body work, and repainted it the same Auburn Cream color. The thick leather upholstery was already in excellent condition. The top is older. The Auburn still needs some time devoted to it, but is a good driver.

In 2005, I had the engine rebuilt by a custom engine rebuilder specializing in racing engines, the car runs great. The crank was balanced, the bottom end poured bearings were fine and left alone; we inserted new sleeves, four-ring pistons, valves, ground the valve seats, new springs, lifters, etc.

I took it on the maiden drive to the ACD West Coast Meet in October 2006 and had the car ACD certified. A total of 2000+ miles, it ran sweet. With the two-speed rear end, I average about 70 miles an hour on the I-5 freeway, except for the passes when I had to get down to about 35 MPH. He didn’t use any oil on the trip. On the return trip, I purred across the Golden Gate, drove through the redwood forests in the evening (with the top down) and the Milky Way shined above us. I had a hard time stopping for the night because it was like no other driving experience–curves, tall trees, dark sky fill with stars.

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1935 Auburn 851 for sale on Hemmings.com
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