In 2021, the first time I spoke with Caroline Cassini, the US head of Market by Bonhams, she told me that prewar cars would be hot sellers in the coming months at auction houses worldwide.
At the time, I took her prediction with a grain of salt. My preconceptions about old Packards and Duesenbergs pegged their owners as retired business tycoons and white-haired enthusiasts—not exactly the most vibrant demographic in the world and certainly not where the heat was, collecting-wise.
But Cassini proved prescient. In February, at the Retromobile sale in Paris, a 1921 Hispano-Suiza H6B Torpedo sold for a whopping $461,426, while a 1913 S.P.A 25 HP Torpédo Sport drew $454,834—nearly double its estimate. Then, at Florida’s Amelia Island in March, the highest-priced vehicle sold was a 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS, at $13.4 million; a 1934 Packard Twelve-Series 1108 Dietrich Convertible Victoria took $4.1 million, the third-most-expensive car sold that week.
I should have known. Cassini, 30, brings rich experience to her trade. She earned her college degree in automotive restoration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco after spending a childhood in New Jersey helping show her family’s cars.
They weren’t just cool cars. In 2004, the Cassini-owned 1938 Horch Sport Cabriolet won Best in Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California, the world’s most prestigious car show. In 2013, the family won that title again with a 1934 Dietrich-bodied Packard Twelve Convertible. Caroline Cassini rode shotgun as the car drove across the winner’s podium. The lady doesn’t play around.
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So I was especially interested to hear why the 1948 MG TC she acquired last year had so much appeal to someone after spending a lifetime with such blue-blooded automotives. With the average value for a concours-worthy example of a MG TC hovering around $60,000, according to Hagerty insurance, they are far more accessible than the six- and seven-figure art deco stunners that win at Pebble Beach.
Her dark racing-green roadster with light green accents is a prime example of the British-made model that burst into American consciousness in the mid-1940s as soldiers were returning from World War II. The TC was faster and more rugged than its TA and TB predecessors—fast enough to convince the only American-born Formula One champion, Phil Hill, to modify and start racing one of his own in the late 1940s. With a fold-down windshield, 19-inch wheels strung like bicycle spokes, and right-hand drive, it could reach a top speed of 75 mph. These cars are famously fun to drive but require plenty of know-how to manage the gearbox, wooden brakes, and thirsty appetite for oil.
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MG made 3,000 TCs during 1948 and a total of 10,000 over their run from 1945 to 1949. Of those, 2,000 were shipped to the US. Last year, one of them made it into Cassini’s garage because, it turns out, MGs run in the family. Here is her story.
You have been around vintage cars for your whole life. You owned a Mercedes 190 SL in navy blue before you moved to San Francisco for school. What about the prewar looks and style specifically appeal to you?
I think any make and model that made an impression in its generation is always going to be valuable and collectible. Of course, you can see the Duesenberg sales that have happened over the last couple of months. Those are extremely strong. But I also think you could see it with ... well, maybe my friends are not necessarily the best example because we are all car people.
Not normal?
Ha ha, no! But I think people like to be a little bit different and understand where some of these designs come from. It’s the same thing with a Type 57 Bugatti or a Cord coffin-nose or a Duesenberg. Many of those makes and models are still pretty iconic to this day. I don’t believe that prewar cars will ever completely go away because something like this TC has a lot of inspiration from a 4.5-liter Bentley.
It’s like the younger sibling to that.Exactly. And I always loved Mercedes 190s because, of course, you can draw a line very easily back to the Mercedes 300 SLs, which were incredible cars.
So how did you come to own this pretty green TC?
I’d been looking for something prewar ever since moving here to Los Angeles, where I felt like I could finally have something—and enjoy it and drive it. But I couldn’t really find anything that was in my budget. And then this came across the block in Audrain [Newport Concours & Motor Week in Rhode Island] in October, at the Bonhams auction. I just loved it. TCs are relatively inexpensive for what they are. But you never see them this well done, because to put what someone put into this to make it look and drive the way it is, it’s more than probably what the car is worth.
That was someone who restored it more out of love than as an investment.Absolutely. So we saw it in the preview. My fiancé Jakob [Greisen, head of Bonhams US Motoring Department] had his eye on it as well.
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He has his own MG, right?
He’s had his MG since he was 13. But to own a pair wasn’t something that we were planning. It is just a very prewar design—done postwar, of course—but definitely something that is manageable, fun, small, easy-ish to drive at times once it’s working. So anyway, we saw it in Audrain. And I was with one of my friends, Whitney Maxwell—her name is on the side of the car now because she was my driver on the Copperstate Rally we just did.
So I was up on the stand, clerking. But the price went a little bit past the price we had agreed we wanted to pay for it. So I thought, “Oh well, it’s done.” But then Jakob came up to the podium and said, “Your dad bought it.” I was, like: “No way.”
He had no idea you had planned to buy it?
None at all. We hadn’t talked about it. So then we got together after the sale [the car sold for $53,760 including premiums] and I said, “Dad, you know, I had my eye on it.” So we made a deal.
Like father, like daughter! I know that you have spent so much time at shows with your dad, and you have bonded over cars. Absolutely. I was an only child, so I didn't have any brothers to go to the shows with my dad. But I always adored them, and I was lucky enough that my dad kept all the cars at our home.
So you could really crawl in the seats, play at the steering wheel. That’s very nice. Does he have an MG of his own?
He doesn’t. And he never did. But my mom actually had an MGB before I was born—before even my dad and her met. And it was green! Somehow, MGs run in the family. And we all have had fun with ours individually and together.
Speaking of fun, tell me about that rally you just did with the TC and Whitney, your co-driver.
It’s 1,000 miles through Arizona. We started out in Scottsdale, went up to Flagstaff, and then through the Grand Canyon area, and then back down to Scottsdale. Four days of driving, and we were the only all-women team. It was a great journey.
How did the car do? Any break downs?
It did so well, and then on the last lunch stop, the generator fan belt sheared off. It had been overheating, and we thought maybe the gauge was wrong, but then we stopped at the last lunch stop—60 miles left—and we opened the hood and realized what happened.
Oh no—and so close to the end!
We thought, maybe just the belt had broken, which we could have fixed. We could have just put a new belt on. But then we realized that whole thing was sheared off. I mean, we shimmied it back on, but it wasn’t worth overheating, because if you overheat that could cause a lot of other problems.
That gets expensive.
Yeah. But right now it runs well.
It’s very cool—and also too bad—that you were the only all-women team in the race. How has it been working in this world of collectable cars, which is even more male-dominated than just the world of cars in general? I feel really lucky to be working in this world, and I feel that I’ve been fully welcomed now. But of course, and you know it, too, there are always going to be people who look down on you or don’t necessarily want to work with a woman because they think a man’s going to know more. I think as long as you don’t let that affect your day-to-day habits, it goes away. That has been my experience.
But you're always going to have those certain people … Who make false assumptions.
Exactly. Especially when you’re speaking to someone on the phone, and maybe they don’t know who you are, it’s very different. I remember when I first started to work in this world at Fantasy Junction, there would be a lot of men who didn’t want to talk to me. It can get very frustrating. It’s where I just try to not let it bog me down and move on and prove them wrong instead. Of course, it’s very tough; it’s easier said than done. But I have some really great women mentors, and really great men mentors, who I hold near and true.
What are you next plans for the car? Another rally?
I’m excited to be able to do more rallies. And the TC also turned into Jakob and my engagement present in a way. My dad didn’t give it to us, but in a way it became that, because we had recently gotten engaged at Pebble Beach and then in October, when we bought it, it felt commemorative. I think this will end up being our wedding car.
