Diana Dors car expected to fetch £4m at auction

The car once owned by a young Diana Dors – Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe – is expected to fetch up to £4m when it is auctioned in California later this month. The 1949 Delahaye Type 175 S Roadster, with its swooping lines, vivid turquoise paintwork and glinting chrome, was described as "extravagant and outrageous, a rolling sculpture'' by Alain Squindo, of RM auctions, which is selling the car.

It is a one-off, the chassis built by the French car manufacturer Delahaye and the body created by the Parisian coach-building company Saoutchik. Squindo said: "There was a tradition in France and other parts of Europe in which coach-building companies would take a chassis and engine and do the bodywork.

"They were often outlandish designs, and many were built just for shows and for impressing people. This car was made when this coach-built era was almost at an end, but this is one of the most spectacular and outrageous examples." The car was bought for Dors by Sir John Gaul, a resident of Monte Carlo, friend of Prince Rainier and an admirer of spectacular cars. Dors was in her late teens at the time and it is not clear why he bought the car for her.

"She didn't even have a licence, but it was curvaceous, sexy and flamboyant, just like her. There will be plenty of collectors from around the world who want it," Squindo said. By the 1970s the car had made its way to Colorado, where it was completely restored over the last 10 years. Dors died in 1984. The car still has only a few miles on the clock, but lovers of speed will not be too impressed: its top speed is little over 70mph. RM is selling the car on 14 August.