It was on the 4th November 1905 when two gentlemen called Francois Rolland and Emile Pilain started their own company in the French place of Tours which they named Rolland-Pilain. The successful Rolland had already made his fortune as a wine merchant. Pilain was mechanically minded and together they decided to build cars. Because designing cars was an expensive business they started by selling and doing up existing cars. Once the business had built up some capital they were able to start developing their own cars. The car we have here is a Rolland-Pilain B25 Six-seater Coup de Ville that has been in the Netherlands since 1973. The car comes with the original Christie’s auction catalogue offering the car as a restoration project. Since then the car has been restored and registered in the Netherlands. The detailed restoration was carried out maintaining a high degree of originality. The bodywork now looks splendid. The panelwork is straight and correctly aligned. The wooden passenger cabin frame is pristine and was the product of detailed reproduction manufacturing. The car has period correct green and black paintwork. The car has wooden wheels shod in good rubber. The paintwork does show slight signs of use but fortunately nothing problematic. The car also has a canvas hood the driver can pull over his head to keep dry when it rains. The interior trim and dashboard were reupholstered using original photos. It was great they had a complete car to work on and therefore needed to do little research in order to get the end result close to the original car. The passengers cabin offers room to six people and using the original upholstery had been fully reupholstered. The instruments and controls are completely original and are in perfect working oder. It has all the appearance of a time machine, mind; one that has already been totally restored and overhauled and one in which everything works. The mechanical aspect consists of a 4-cylinder 25 horsepower engine attached to a manual 4-speed gearbox. It was typically the kind of car for the well-to-do with the emphasis on passenger comfort. Due to the car’s full mechanical rebuild the engine now runs perfectly and the transmission works with precision. Matters relating to the brakes and suspension work as you may expect in a car of this age. Driving these type of cars is requires good old fashioned hard work, but when things go right the feeling is great. This car comes with the aforementioned auction catalogue and is ready for many more miles of Pre-war classic car pleasure.