1953 RGS Atalanta
Bonhams, Amelia Island, USA 20 May
One of a reported 11 cars built by Dick Shattock at Brookside Garage: Major Richard Gaylord Shattock, a tank driver in World War Two, is the ‘RGS’ of the car’s name. Atalanta was a pre-war English marque that made cars in Middlesex from 1937 until 1939. Shattock resurrected the name after the war, and offered chassis kits (with independent coil-spring suspension), glassfibre bodies and complete cars. This rather nice example is fitted with an alloy body and a 3.4-litre Jaguar XK120 engine with four-speed manual gearbox. The coachwork is said to have been built by former Vickers Aircraft engineer John Griffiths.
First UK road-registered by Shattock in 1955 as UKL 852 for a David Smallwood, the car was fully equipped when new as a tourer with weather equipment, including a full windscreen. It is suggested in the sale catalogue that the car was raced, although no period photographs have as yet surfaced. The RGS was exported to the USA in the 1970s, and was acquired by the current vendor in 1988.
It’s notoriously difficult to value cars such as this, with only a handful built and no recent sales. Yet this is a car that can be used in a number of classic events, engine parts are plentiful, and it doesn’t hurt that the RGS Atalanta is extremely handsome, with a classic look and very purposeful demeanour.
Offered at the Bonhams Amelia Island auction, its pre-sale estimate was $300,000 to $500,000, so the final $285,500 paid seems a pretty reasonable result for all parties.
Dave Kinney is an auction analyst, an expert on the US market scene, and publishes the Hagerty Price Guide.