RM AUCTIONS IN ASSOCIATION WITH SOTHEBY’S PRESENTS THE ABBA KOGAN COLLECTION

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RM Auctions cofounder Mike Fairbairn is happy. “We are going to showcase a fabulous line-up of cars”. In addition to the collections from English Formula 1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone and Italian businessman Giuseppe Prevosti RM is featuring the cars of Abraham “Abba” Kogan in it’s inaugural London sale to be held at Battersea Park on October 31st. “Our second European auction after our legendary start in Maranello in May will establish us in the center of European classic car business”, confirms Fairbairn. Kogan’s collection is centered around some of the most fascinating engineering masterpieces of the motorsports world, from the headlining Delage 15-S-8 that was one of the four twin supercharged factory team cars that swept Grand Prix racing in the 1927 season, to a selection of fascinating sports cars, including the Cisitalia 202 SMM that won its class championship six years running, and the OSCA 2000S – the fastest and prettiest OSCA of all and one of just five examples built. The 1936 Delage, a 3 litre D6 was raced not only in its early days with an enviable record of success, but remained on the race track 1951, competing in 1949 in the 24 Hours of LeMans as a 13 year old car. With a continuous history from new, this remarkable Delage offers a provenance otherwise nearly impossible to find. The Kogan collection’s lovely 1950 Delahaye 235 MS offered at the London sale features coachwork by Chapron and was one of the last true Delahayes produced. It recently completed an extensive, professional restoration commissioned by the Kogan Collection. The elegant body has been finished in deep Purple Duotone and is accented by wire wheels and whitewall tyres. The distinctive oval grille and long, sweeping bonnet are met by a split windscreen, in a statement of style extravagance unique to the late coachbuilt period. For most of his life, Abba Kogan has been fascinated by cars, and driven to collect, restore, drive, and enjoy them. He is drawn to machines that exhibit innovation in both engineering and beauty – but always within the context of their time: what is now conventional was once revolutionary. It is the search for such cars that has been the driving force behind the Kogan Collection, the philosophy that connects a Ferrari 288 GTO with a Grand Prix Delage race car – or an OSCA 2000 with a Renault RE30 F1 car. As Kogan puts it himself: “The more I focused on technology in the context of time, the more I found myself drawn to racing cars – where elegance and beauty is found in the details, in the minimalist nature of great engineering.” It is the pursuit of such thoroughbred performance – the pur sang – that fascinates him now. The Kogan collection on sale in London contains 15 cars, ranging from a factory Hispano Suiza race car to Argentine legend Ernesto Blanco’s incredible REO, which won races for more than 23 years.