One of the most significant private classic car collections in America is about to change hands. RM Sotheby's has confirmed that the Sam and Emily Mann Collection will be offered at its Monterey Auction, which runs August 13 through 15, 2026 at the Portola Hotel and Monterey Conference Center.
Headlining the 22-lot group are three blue-chip Classic Era machines: Clark Gable's 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Convertible Coupe by Rollston and Bohman & Schwartz, a one-off 1932 Chrysler CH Imperial Speedster, and a 1937 Delage D8-120 S Aerodynamic Coupe by Pourtout. It is a sale that should command serious attention from anyone watching the Monterey market this year.
Sam Mann built his fortune as an industrial designer and manufacturer, holding more than 80 patents in fields ranging from ear-piercing tools to sailing and skiing gear, and began buying cars in the early 1980s. The collection he and Emily assembled leans heavily on pre-war design, engineering, and provenance, with each car chosen individually and then restored either in-house or by leading specialists.
Clark Gable's 1935 Duesenberg Model JN
This is one of just four Rollston-bodied JN convertible coupes, and its first owner was none other than Hollywood star Clark Gable. The JN already broke from earlier Model J practice, sitting lower on its chassis with 17-inch wheels, a raked windscreen, and a disappearing top. Gable wasn't satisfied with standard, though, so the car was routed from Rollston in New York to Bohman & Schwartz in Pasadena.
Working with designer W. Everett Miller, Gable signed off on a raft of changes: a hood line stretched over the scuttle in the manner of Dietrich's Individual Custom Packards, fresh cowl ventilators, an even sharper windscreen rake, body-color radiator shell and wheel covers, rear fender skirts, and dual rear-mounted spares. The finished Duesenberg became inseparable from Gable and Carole Lombard, touring the California coast, running up to Vancouver, and even appearing in the 1938 film Merrily We Live wearing a temporary darker finish.
After Lombard died in a 1942 plane crash, Gable had the car sold outside California. It then passed through a long list of owners before Sam and Emily Mann acquired it in 2005 and commissioned Stone Barn of Vienna, New Jersey, to return it to its Gable-era specification. The restored car appeared at Pebble Beach in 2007 and took Best of Show at both Meadowbrook and Amelia Island in 2008. It still wears its original bell-housing, J-560, and the matching original crankshaft will go with it. Estimate: $5.75 million to $8 million.
It is not the only Duesenberg making waves this season, either, as a show-stopping Duesenberg headlines Broad Arrow Auction's Monterey sale too.
1932 Chrysler CH Imperial Speedster
Built as a one-off design and engineering study for Walter P. Chrysler himself, this aluminum-bodied Speedster traces its look to a 1929 Chrysler rendering published in Fortune. Drawn by Herbert Weissinger and constructed in the factory Custom Body Shop, it featured a long CL-style hood, a hidden full-size spare on a sliding trolley, a disappearing top with a radio antenna woven into its lining, and a host of bespoke hardware. Under the skin sat a straight-eight with an experimental high-compression aluminum head good for roughly 160 horsepower, plus a clever array of gadgets including a vacuum clutch, free-wheeling unit, and an automatic stall-restart system.
Chrysler drove it for about three years, and after his death in 1940 the car eventually fell on hard times, even being pushed out into the Provincetown dunes over unpaid storage bills. The Manns bought it in 1989 and restored it in their own workshop, then promptly took First in Class and Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1991. Estimate: $2.5 million to $3 million.
1937 Delage D8-120 S Aerodynamic Coupe by Pourtout
The prototype for the D8-120 S chassis, this streamlined coupe was built as the personal car of Louis Delage. The body was commissioned in March 1937 from Marcel Pourtout's Rueil-Malmaison workshop, with aerodynamic shaping by Georges Paulin developed through wind-tunnel testing. Built largely in aluminum with frameless side glass and a curved windscreen, it was finished too late for the 1937 Paris Salon, so Delage and Pourtout simply parked it outside the Grand Palais, where it stole the show anyway.
A 1953 accident led to Saoutchik altering the nose and tail, but the Manns' restoration with Contour Metalshaping and Stone Barn returned it to authentic Pourtout form using period photos and input from Claude Pourtout. The result won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 2005 and later the Louis Vuitton Classic Best of the Best Award. Estimate: $5 million to $6 million.
More Headliners From The Mann Collection
There is far more depth here than just the big three. A 1937 Delahaye 145 Cabriolet by Franay, one of five competition V12 Type 145 chassis and believed to be the Prix du Million winner driven by Rene Dreyfus, carries an estimate of $4.5 million to $6 million. A 1913 Mercer Model 35-J Raceabout, described by Sam Mann as "painfully original" and retaining its antique paint and matching numbers, is pegged at $2.75 million to $3.5 million.
Rounding out the catalog are gems like a 1934 Avions Voisin C23/24 Roadster by Saliot ($2.5M-$3M), a 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost London-to-Edinburgh Skiff with rare Cuban mahogany coachwork ($1.5M-$2M), a 1938 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante by Gangloff ($1.5M-$1.8M), a 1929 Du Pont Model G Speedster by Merrimac ($800K-$1.2M), and a 1947 Delahaye 135 M Cabriolet "Vedette" by Chapron ($700K-$1M), the first coachbuilt French car Mann ever bought.
With 22 lots crossing the block, the Mann Collection adds even more firepower to what is shaping up to be a stacked Monterey for RM Sotheby's, which is also bringing an ultra-rare Ferrari 599XX Evo to its Monterey auction block. If recent history is any guide, expect the cars to draw big crowds well beyond the auction tent, much like the machinery the Petersen Museum showcased fresh from Monterey Car Week.