Tag Archives: bugatti

May 2018 Auction Highlights

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We’ll start with one from April: Worldwide Auctioneers in Houston, Texas. The one car we featured, the Ford Prodigy Prototype, sold for $2,200. The top sale was this 1965 Shelby GT350 that brought $363,000. Click here for full results.

Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers

Osenat held a sale on May 1st and there was a collection of Bugattis that crossed the block. This Bugatti, a 1925 Type 35B, sold for $625,084 – the most of any car at the sale.

Photo – Osenat

We featured two of the other Bugattis and they both sold. The Type 46 Coupe De Ville sold for $459,937 and the Type 57 Galibier Sedan brought $516,615. The Porsche 914/6 Prototype and a previously-featured Talbot Sedan failed to sell. More results can be found here.

Off to Monaco where there were three sales this year. The first was from Bonhams and the ex-Aryton Senna McLaren Formula 1 car was the top seller going for $5,009,296. The other ex-Senna F1 car, the Toleman TG184 brought $1,921,374. The two Ferraris we featured, the 625 TF and the F1/87, both failed to sell. We’ll award most-interesting to this 1955 Jaguar XK140 SE with a special one-off body by Michelotti.

Photo – Bonhams

It was essentially a barn find project. They had an estimate of around $50,000 on this car and it blew that out of the water, selling for charity at $425,447. Well sold! Click here for more results from this sale.

Next up in Monaco, RM Sotheby’s. The top sale was this 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB for about $2,526,125.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Our biggest dollar feature car was the Benetton B192 that brought $960,929 (the sales numbers from this sale are all estimates as I’m doing currency conversion a week late. Sorry. I went on vacation). The other F1 car from this sale, the Jordan 199, brought $284,447. The Ferrari Sergio would’ve been the biggest dollar car here, but it failed to sell. As did the Gilco. Another Ferrari, our previously-featured 328 Conciso, sold here for $128,811. Click here for more results.

Keeping with the Ferrari theme, Silverstone Auctions held an all-Ferrari sale the day before their May Sale. We featured a 550 Barchetta and it’s been listed as “Result to Follow” for a week now, so we’re calling it “maybe sold maybe not but we’ve got to ‘go to press,’ as it were.” Otherwise, the top seller was this 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona for $721,929. Check out complete results here.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Bugatti Type 57 Galibier

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1939 Bugatti Type 57 Galibier Sedan

Offered by Osenat | Strasboug, France | May 1, 2018

Photo – Osenat

The Type 57 was the last hurrah for the original Bugatti company. Designed by Ettore’s son Jean, they first went on sale in 1934 and were built up through the outbreak of WWII. There were many variants, including the much sought-after 57S and 57SC.

This is a standard Type 57, meaning it uses a 3.3-liter straight-eight engine borrowed from the Type 59 Grand Prix cars. Power is a healthy 135 horsepower. The aluminium body is the factory-offered Galibier four-door sedan – the only factory four-door for the Type 57.

This particular chassis was built near the end of the production run and was the second-to-last sedan assembled (this was June of 1939). Originally black, it was delivered new to Nantes, France. It has a known chain of owners and events since then.

Bugatti built 710 examples of the Type 57 (including all sub models). This restored “base model” sedan should bring between $430,000-$675,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $516,615.

Bugatti Petit Royale

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1930 Bugatti Type 46 Coupe de Ville

Offered by Osenat | Strasbourg, France | May 1, 2018

Photo – Osenat

This car might look like one of the ultra-rare, ultra-pricey, ultra-huge Bugatti Type 41 Royales – but it isn’t. But it is supposed to look like one. There are only six Royales around but there were about 400 Type 46s built. And this one was constructed to look just like it’s much larger brother.

The Type 46 was built between 1929 and 1936 (which includes the supercharged Type 46S variant). The engine is a 5.4-liter straight-eight good for 140 horsepower in naturally-aspirated form. This particular car was discovered in France in the 1970s and all that was salvageable was the engine and some parts. Replica isn’t quite the right word, but the owners decided to take what they’d found and build to-scale version of their favorite Royale.

Built to exacting 0.87 scale, the new body is fantastic. The project was completed in 1986 but records have been identified that trace the history of at least the engine back to new. You’re never going to get the opportunity to acquire a true Royale, so you might as well buy a car that looks just like it from the same manufacturer. It is expected that $430,000-$550,000 will be needed to take this home. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $459,937.

March 2018 Auction Results, Pt. III

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Yet more sales from March, beginning with H&H Classics at the Imperial War Museum. Interestingly, there was a collection of Nash-related motorcars sold at this sale. These included the one-off Nash Pickup that sold for $30,216 and the LaFayette that brought $63,614. The overall top sale was this 1966 Aston Martin DB6 that went for $326,023.

Photo – H&H Classics

The White half-track we featured failed to sell and you can find more results here.

Osenat’s March sale saw this 1928 Bugatti Type 44 Cabriolet by Vanvooren bring some big money: $446,583.

Photo – Osenat

The La Buire Coupe we featured brought $64,754 and the Venturi Coupe $52,101. Click here for more results.

Leclere MDV held a sale the same weekend as Osenat and both of our feature cars failed to sell (the Léon Bollée and the Aston Martin Cygnet). The top sale was $518,607 paid for this 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300 S Coupe. Full results can be found here.

Photo – Leclere MDV

Next we have Mecum during the first full weekend in April. They were in Houston and the Continental Mk II we featured failed to sell. The top sale was this 2006 Ford GT for $286,000. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Mecum

Finally, RM Sotheby’s in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This is the first sale from RM Sotheby’s that would’ve been under the Auctions America banner last year (we miss you Auctions America!). The top sale was a 1962 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster for $1,540,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Acura NSX we featured brought $71,500 and the Buick Roadmaster Sport Phaeton sold for $56,100. The Laforza was a relative bargain at $4,125. And a previously-featured Michigan Touring car failed to sell at this auction. Click here for more results. from this sale.

February 2018 Auction Highlights

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February means Retromobile, which has become one of the most important sale weekends of the year with the quality of cars on offer rivaling the annual Monterey weekend. First up from Paris is RM Sotheby’s. The only sub-$100,000 car we featured was the AGS Panhard that brought $39,452. The top sale was this 2017 Bugatti Chiron for $4,072,358. If people are willing to pay that much, maybe Bugatti should charge more to start with?

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The OSCA we featured approached the million dollar mark, bringing $970,994. The Bizzarrini brought $260,667, the big Mercedes $197,262, and the one-off Magnate Barchetta $109,198. Click here for complete results.

The next sale here was Bonhams. We featured quite a few cars with another Bugatti, the Type 57 Torpedo sharing top sale honors with this big 1904 Fiat Type 24/32 Rear-Entrance Tonneau at $873,567 each.

Photo – Bonhams

We featured six Minervas from this sale and they all sold. From most to least expensive we have: the 1907 Open-Drive Limousine for $744,906, the 1910 Type S for $205,736, the 1912 Model CC for $156,075, the 1938 Limousine for $99,320, the Model Z for $87,969, and the Type AK (the only one not to blow away its reserve) for $78,037.

Two cars didn’t sell: the Imperia and Tojeiro. The other sedans we featured sold, with the Turcat-Mery bringing the least: $29,796. At the other end of the spectrum was the Hispano-Suiza which sold for $411,472. The De Dion sold for $227,019 and the Renault Limousine $194,385.

The other three cars we featured sold and their results are: FN Tourer for $35,471, Zedel for $53,917, and Pipe Cabriolet for $39,728. Complete results can be found here.

Artcurial held the third Retromobile sale in Paris and we featured even more cars from this sale than we did from Bonhams, so let’s get to it. Remarkably, yet another Bugatti was the top sale at this auction – Bugatti ruled the weekend. In this case, it was this 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante for $3,556,420.

Photo – Artcurial

Some of the big-dollar feature cars we had from this sale included the two Hispano-Suizas, with the J12 Sedan bringing $788,508 and the K6 Sedan $350,448. The other Vanvooren-bodied car we featured was the 1912 Panhard which sold for $365,050 (the wild Voisin brought the same amount).

The Sbarro GT1 supercar sold for $116,816 and the rare Monica Sedan $131,418. The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500, the Gordini, the Rene Bonnet Aerodjet, and the Simca Barquette all failed to sell. The other two race cars both sold: Chenard et Walcker Tank ($94,913) and Riffard Tank ($70,090).

Now on to all of the weird ones. These were all from the same collection:

Click here for everything else.

A quick 12 hour flight from Paris is Los Angeles, where Mecum held their sale in February. The top seller was this 2006 Ford GT for $327,500.

Photo – Mecum

Less than half of the feature cars we had from this sale sold, with the Dodge Spectator and the Corvair Wagon both having been withdrawn from the sale (the third wagon, the Bel Air, sold for $13,200 and looks like it will be appearing at Motostalgia’s Amelia Island sale in a few weeks). The Olds 442 also failed to sell. But the Facel Vega was a star, bringing $214,500 – one of the largest amounts of the sale. Click here for the rest of the results.

And finally, the first of back-to-back sales from Silverstone Auctions. This was the “Race Retro” half and the top sale was $254,566 paid for this 1990 Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 Group A race car.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

The Fairthorpe Electron we featured brought $31,428. Click here for more results.

Bugatti 57 Torpedo

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1935 Bugatti Type 57 Torpedo Tourist Trophy

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 8, 2018

Photo – Bonhams

The Type 57 was sort of the ultimate Bugatti. Produced between 1934 and 1940, it would be the final model the company produced before shutting down due to the war and really, considering their brief attempted comeback after the war, the last true Bugatti production car.

There were some hotted-up versions of the Type 57 that came after this, including the Type 57T, 57C, 57S, and 57SC, but this is the original, the plain-old Type 57. It is powered by a 3.3-liter straight-eight engine making 135 horsepower, which was the same engine that Bugatti used in their Type 59 Grand Prix cars – so the racing heritage was present even if most Type 57s were not destined for the track.

This car, however, did see track use – and has for most of its life. When new, it competed in the Ulster Tourist Trophy race in the U.K. The next owner DNF’d the car at the 1936 24 Hours of Spa. By 1939 the car was in Australia, where it would spend the next 75+ years. The car had been modified over time but the consignor, who bought the car in the 1970s, spent until 2010 restoring the car to its 1935 specification.

Only 630 examples of the Type 57 were built and this one has pretty decent race history (with Earl Howe and Pierre Levegh at the wheel no less). It should bring between $950,000-$1,600,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $873,567.

Bugatti Type 29/30

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1922 Bugatti Type 29/30

Offered by Gooding & Company | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 20, 2018

Photo – Gooding & Company

We’ve featured some tiny Bugattis before, but this is one tiny car. The difference between this Type 29 and the tiny Brescias, is that the Brescia has four-cylinders and this has eight. Ettore Bugatti developed and eight-cylinder engine for racing (the Type 29) that he would eventually install in a series of road cars, beginning with the Type 30 and culminating with the Type 49.

That engine is a 2.0-liter straight-eight that, in this car, makes about 60 horsepower. So why is this a “Type 29/30?” Okay, so Bugatti built 16 cars in 1922 and 1923 that use the “Type 29” engine and are sometimes called the “pre-production Type 30” because they are somewhat different from the Type 30 and Type 30A road cars that would go on sale later. Of those 16, 11 were built on the short Type 22 chassis. Two had a very long wheelbase, and three (including this one), sat atop a modified Type 23 chassis.

This particular car was the first eight-cylinder Bugatti delivered to the public, and in this case, that was in Paris. That also makes it the oldest-surviving eight-cylinder Bugatti in the world. The car wasn’t necessarily restored in the 1960s so much as taken apart and re-assembled, replacing bits and pieces as needed, but keeping it as original as possible. It should bring between $800,000-$1,000,000 at auction. Click here for more info and here for more from Gooding & Company.

Update: Not sold.

November 2017 Auction Highlights

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November started off with one of our favorite sales of the year, Bonhams’ London-to-Brighton. We featured nearly half the cars in the sale and some for big money, including $376,362 for the Westfield and $295,610 for the Germain, but neither of those were enough to be this year’s top seller, which was this $428,230 1903 Panhard et Levassor Model B 10HP Four-Cylinder Rear-Entrance Tonneau.

Photo – Bonhams

The Eldredge and the Santler failed to sell, but the Salvesen Steam Cart brought $207,516. Some of the lighter cars that sold were the Toledo Steam car for $34,673, the La Libellule Tricar for $42,211, and the Royal Enfield Quadricycle for $66,332. Another Quadricycle, the Daley, sold for $39,196.

A previously featured Humber finally found a new home for $81,250. The rest of our feature cars all sold with the Vivinus bringing $76,845, the Ader $117,221, and the Schaudel $192,834. Click here for the other sales.

This 1925 Bugatti Type 35 was the top sale at Artcurial’s sale in Paris. It went for $1,669,913.

Photo – Artcurial

The similar-looking G.A.R. cyclecar we featured sold for $20,750, a comparative bargain. Click here for the rest of the results.

Next up, Silverstone Auctions’ NEC Classic Motor Show Sale. The top seller was this 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia for $181,032. The TVR Tina failed to meet its reserve. Click here for more results.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Onward to Aguttes’ sale in Lyon. No feature cars here, but the top seller was this 1970 Alpine A110 1600 S that sold for $102,478. Click here for other sales.

Photo – Aguttes

Finally, Mecum in Las Vegas. The top sale here was $600,000 for this 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Yenko.

Photo – Mecum

We featured three beautiful American station wagons from this sale and their results are as follows: ’48 Buick –  not sold, high bid of $26,000; ’53 Chrysler – sold, $48,000; ’69 Dodge Coronet – not sold, high bid of $13,000. Click here for the rest of the results.

October 2017 Auction Highlights

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Welcome to October, though we’re starting in September with Mecum’s Louisville sale. We didn’t get to feature anything from this one, but this 1968 Shelby GT500 was the top sale, bringing $90,500. Click here to see what else sold.

Photo – Mecum

Onward to Bonhams’ sale at the Simeone Foundation in Philadelphia. This is always a good one, and their top sale here was $1,001,000 paid for this 1913 Rolls-Royce 40/50HP Silver Ghost London-to-Edinburgh Sports Tourer by Reuters.

Photo – Bonhams

We featured a number of cars from this sale and some of those failed to sell, including this Stearns-Knight, the Mobile Steam car, and a previously-featured Humber. The Stoddard-Dayton Raceabout sold for $106,700 and the 1917 Mack C-Cab truck was a steal at $8,800 (because that’s probably about what the paint on it cost). Click here for everything else.

RM Sotheby’s was also in Pennsylvania in October, in Hershey to be exact. Sadly the most interesting car of the entire auction, the Gasmobile, was withdrawn (as was the Derby). The top sale was this 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow for $2,310,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Some big dollar feature cars included the Belgian-bodied Duesenberg for $1,485,000, the other Duesenberg for $549,000, the White Yellowstone Bus for $165,000, and the Stearns-Knight Touring for $132,000.

Other feature cars that sold included a pair of Stanleys, with the older one bringing $55,000 and the newer one $36,300. The Moon Roadster sold for $66,000. The Apperson Touring sold for $24,750 and the Sears Motor Buggy $35,200. Click here for complete results.

How about some results from Coys? This 1926 Bugatti Type 37 was the top seller at their Blenheim Palace sale back in July. It brought about $968,950. We didn’t feature anything from this sale but you can see more from it here.

Photo – Coys

Finally, Motostalgia’s McPherson Collection sale in Texas. We featured a Zimmer Quicksilver that ended up selling for $15,400. The top sale was this 1958 Facel Vega FVS Series 4 for $190,000. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Motostalgia

July 2017 Auction Highlights

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July was a lull in the auction world between a packed June and an always-huge August. We start this with H&H Classics at the Imperial War Museum. The top seller at this sale was this 1929 Bugatti Type 44 Saloon by Vanvooren that brought $258,555.

Photo – H&H Classics

The Adams Roadster we featured sold, bringing $22,900 (you can see all of the results here). And we’ll stay in the U.K. for the first half of Silverstone Auctions’ two-parter, the Classic Race Car Sale. The Tojeiro-JAP failed to meet it’s reserve, but the top sale was this $295,492 1990 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Works Rally Car. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Next up, Mecum’s Harrisburg sale. A previously-featured Stutz failed to sell at this auction. The top sale was this 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird for $415,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Hertz Rent-a-Racer Shelby we featured sold for $120,000. Complete results can be found here.

Let’s jump back to June to cover Russo & Steele’s Newport Beach auction. The top sale there was $292,600 for this 2006 Ford GT.

Photo – Russo & Steele

The Fiat 1200 TV we featured failed to sell. Check here for more results.

Here we go… the first of the Pebble Beach sales: Bonhams in Carmel. The top sale, as predicted, was the single-owner McLaren F1 we featured that ended up bringing an astonishing $15,620,000. The 1904 Premier we featured blasted past its estimate, selling for $341,000. A couple of no-sales included the Maserati Mistral, Ferrari 312 F1 car, the Lotus Indy car and a previously-featured 1904 Humber.

We’ll give Most Interesting to this 1957 BMW 503 Cabriolet by Bertone that we really wanted to feature but ran out of time. It sold for $583,000.

Photo – Bonhams

A rare model of Horch we featured a long time ago while it was for sale at a dealership sold at this auction for $102,300. Click here for more from Bonhams.