Sunday, February 8, 2009

Bugatti Type 57S

BBC News Article
A classic Bugatti car, which gathered dust in a Tyneside garage for half a century, has been sold for 3.4m euros (£3m) at an auction in Paris.

Bonhams had listed lot 17403 as a "motoring icon" with an engine that has not been fired up for 50 years.

Relatives of reclusive Newcastle doctor Harold Carr found the 1937 Type 57S Atalante in a garage after he died.

It was originally owned by Earl Howe - first president of the British Racing Drivers' Club. Just 17 were built.

The only Bugatti model I've heard about was the Veyron from a few years ago. I thought that car was crazy expensive at ~€1M. This one is a bit more at €3.4M which is about $4.35M, and from the video, it does not look like it has been touched since they found it. You can easily spend millions more on restoration; maybe we'll see it auctioned again for even more money once it's been restored.

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Oops, they were originally looking for £6M which is almost $9M. Blame it on the global economic downturn.


The Type 57S has a 3.3L engine rated at 135hp@5000RPM. From the article, top speed is 130mph. Is that fast for a car from the 1930's?

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