French collector's registration

Authentic racer
Six Bol d'Or participations, four class victories
Exemplary restoration

Louis-Auguste Antony, born in 1885 in Douai, in the North of France, spent his childhood in his parents' cycle shop, and very early on developed an attraction for bicycles and motorised machines. With a driving licence obtained in 1901 and his engineering diploma, he seems to have worked for a few patent manufacturers (Scap and Suère), and drove some racing monsters, including the incredible 1907 Fiat Grand Prix, 1908 Porthos 6-cylinder and Suère records. It is not easy to disentangle the legend from the authentic in this life of a novel which was his... In any case, we find Louis-Auguste Antony after the Great War at the wheel of a spartan Ruby cyclecar with a friction plate transmission: it is with him that he discovers the demon of competition... and new construction techniques. When he took over the family garage at the beginning of the 1920s, he started building his first car, a 4-seater touring torpedo with a 1,500cc engine that looked rather clumsy... Despite the printing of numerous publicity leaflets, it does not seem that this model, nor the announced 8-cylinder version, was very successful. Antony's success was more striking with his 'factory' team called Les souris bleues, and his numerous racers. His 1,500cc cyclecar with a Bugatti look built in 1922/1922 was rather conventional in appearance and design (although it had no front brakes). But the following racing machines, named Bergamotte, La punaise and la Goutte d'eau were much less conventional. This did not prevent them from shining in competition, notably at the Bol d'Or, an internationally renowned event, which saw the most improbable machines lining up, and which, thanks to its numerous classes, allowed the vast majority of participants to hope for victory! Antonys were seen racing there between 1930 and... 1948, with some success. Louis-Antony died in 1958, after having built a large number of steam models. His cars remained hidden together (except for one) for over sixty years in a barn in the north of France.
One of them has been on display in the Lohéac Museum for a long time, but the other five cars remained together until the early 2010s, when the 1,500cc cyclecar was advertised on the Internet. One thing leading to another, three other cars were sold, including Bergamotte, which illustrates these pages. This is perhaps the most interesting of all, as it was the 'boss' car, and the one with the best track record. Built in 1929 around a lowered chassis, it is unique in that it has a chain drive, no differential ("which is useless, otherwise you have to lock the wheels in the bends", according to its designer!), and brakes only on the front wheels (because with rear brakes, "there are major risks of locking up in races")! Depending on the regulations and the races in which it was entered, Bergamotte received one (or two! ) twin cylinder 2-stroke 350cc Harrisard or a big Jap 500cc "alcohol" single cylinder engine, which was probably stolen from her in the 1990s... Besides Toul-Nancy, the Circuit de Lorraine, the Routes Pavées or the Grand Prix de la Montagne, in Germany, where it was timed at 136 km/h, Bergamotte was entered in the Bol d'Or in 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1947 and 1948, most often with Louis-Auguste behind the wheel, and numerous class victories (1930, 1931, 1932 and 1947). Perfectly restored, with traces of its glorious past, this car, today powered by a 500cc Triumph T120 motorbike engine, in the spirit of the era, is just waiting to hit the road, and the track. To keep alive the spirit of this forgotten genius inventor, Louis-Auguste Antony.

This car will be sold by auction by AGUTTES Auction House, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, on June the 20th, 2021.
The digital catalog is available by the following link
https://www.aguttes.com/en/catalog/113642?

Please contact us for any further details.
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