1922 Bugatti Type 29/30
Offered by Gooding & Company | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 20, 2018
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.