Cunningham C3 Cabriolet Vignale

Cunningham developed the Cunningham C-3 by mating the newly popular Chrysler Hemi V-8 engine with a racecar chassis and Italian bodywork designed by Vignale of Turin, Italy. With exclusivity and a high price point, ranging between $8,000 and $12,000 new, wealthy Americans such as the Du Pont family and the Rockefeller family took notice and were early customers. By 1954, Briggs Cunningham was featured on the cover of Time magazine with three of his Cunningham racing cars, as the embodiment of “Horsepower, Endurance, Sportsmanship.” This Cunningham C3 Cabriolet was shipped to Vignale on 3 February 1953, returning to New York a month later. Completed in 1953 and finished in red, it spent the summer of 1954 on display at Alfred Momo’s in New York. In August, racer and rare book collector Irving Robbins of Northern California purchased the car, giving up his race-damaged Cunningham C-2 on trade. Mr. Robbins would ship the car to California and it would be shown in 1956 and 1957 at the then-fledgling Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. In 1957 the car was featured in Road & Track and in the Encyclopedia of American Cars. The car would subsequently change hands several times, with ownership from 1966 onward known as it was cherished by a succession of caretakers. Over the years it has resided in three well-respected private collections, one of whom commissioned its restoration. It was later sold to Briggs Cunningham’s daughter, Lucie, who purchased the car to enjoy with her mother. It was under Lucie’s ownership that it was shown at the 2013 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. The car’s Vignale body is beautifully finished in a subtle red two-tone with a tan convertible top. It rides on American Classic tires mounted on chrome wire wheels. The interior of this Cunningham C3 Cabriolet is trimmed in tan leather, and it is luxuriously appointed for an American car of the period, featuring a wood-rimmed steering wheel, radio, heater, and a full suite of instrumentation housed in a leather-wrapped dash.