Could £3.6million buy the most beautiful car in the world?

It is the Talbot-Lago T150-C SS Goute d’Eau coupe by Figoni et Falaschi. Which is quite a name for what is clearly quite a car – a French Art Deco masterpiece famously said to have not one wrong line or awkward angle about it. The “Teardrop” is perfection on wheels however you look at it.

And it’s for sale. The 1937 Teardrop in the next RM Sotheby’s sale at Villa Erba on May 27^th is not the example we saw at Goodwood two years ago. That one, which used to belong to Bentley Boy Woolf Barnato, was brought over from the US by Peter Mullin whose Mullin Automotive Museum in California specialises in French cars of the ‘20s and ‘30s. 

The sale car – with a guide price of €3.2-4.2 million, or currently about £2.8-3.6m – has lived most of its life in Switzerland. Said to be the second Teardrop built with enclosed front wheel arches, the 1937 example was restored in 2002 by Atelier et Carosserie de Tourraine.

The Talbot Teardrop was acclaimed at its unveiling and much favoured by Hollywood stars who had them shipped to the US just prior to the outbreak of war – one reason that of the 14 cars made, 13 of them still exist.

Who were Figoni et Falaschi? Giuseppe Figoni was the artistic genius and Ovidio Falaschi the businessman. Together they created some of the most elegant (and aerodynamic) bodies for the best chassis of the day from their bodyworks in Boulogne-sur-Seine. Chassis from Talbot-Lago, Delahaye and Bugatti were turned into France’s supercars of the 1920s and ‘30s.

Chances to own one today are, naturally, rather limited, which makes this car’s appearance in the Villa Erba sale in Italy all the more special.