Bugatti Type 29/30

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.

Bugatti Type 30 Re-Body

1930 Bugatti Type 30 Dual-Cowl Torpedo

Offered by RM Auctions | Lake Como, Italy | May 25, 2013

1924 Bugatti Type 30

The Bugatti Type 30 was Bugatti’s touring car model that first went on sale in 1922. It used the same chassis as the earlier Brescia. It was built through 1926 and spawned a series of Bugatti models that would run through 1934. The engines and components would change, but the Type 30 was the initial model in what is considered to be the “30 line.”

The engine in this car is a 2.0-liter straight-eight generating between 65 and 70 horsepower, realistically. The eight-cylinder engine was more powerful than that four-cylinder in the Brescia but also had similar lightness and even more appeal.

The story on this car is that it was taken to the U.K. after WWII in the hopes of turning it into a race car. All that ended up happening was that the body was removed (and subsequently disappeared). Someone else acquired it and decided to restore it in the early-1980s. He had a new body built – a Dual-Cowl Torpedo in the style of Lavocat et Marsaud. This car also has it’s original chassis plate and engine (although it has undergone serious work).

About 600 Type 30s were built and there are some with original and more desirable coachwork. This one is nice and has been repainted in Bugatti blue within the last five years. This failed to sell at a different auction in 2008 with an approximate estimate of $225,000-$265,000. RM hasn’t published an estimate yet, but I expect something close to that, if not a little less. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $407,680.