While the sleek “boattail” speedster models justifiably draw a great deal of attention, they are by far not the rarest of the eight-cylinder 1935 to ’36 Auburn models.

That illustrious honor goes to the two-passenger coupe.

The coupe shared its bodywork with the open cabriolet model, but featured a full trunk rather than a rumble seat, and was mounted with a fixed roof—essentially a simple wooden framework bolted to the top of the body, fitted with rear quarter windows and covered in fabric.

A package shelf behind the seat replaced the cabriolet’s top well, and that was that.

Alas, this interchangeability resulted in many of the coupes being “decapitated” and converted to cabriolets later in life, making intact survivors extraordinarily scarce.

Today fewer than 10 eight-cylinder coupes exist in their original form.

The example offered here is one of those rarities.

Its ownership history includes Mills B.

Lane Jr., an Atlanta banker and joyfully eccentric man-about-town, who in ...