bugatti

Record-Breaking Bugatti

A 1934 vintage Bugatti Type 59 Sport has sold at auction for a record-breaking £9.1 million. Thought to be the most expensive Bugatti ever to

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Spotted this week…

We always have our eyes peeled to spot classic on our travels. This week we spotted these delightful vehicles. Firstly there’s this very intriguing Austin,

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Bugatti Chiron Profilée – Breaking Auction Records

There always seems to be a story floating around the automotive industry of another record being broken for the most expensive car, the rarest car, and so on. However, every now and again, a truly staggering amount of money is paid for an exceptionally rare car…and that’s exactly what happened recently.

The Car

The Bugatti Chiron Profilée is a one-of-one hypercar.

Bugatti had planned to make a very limited number of special edition Chirons called the Profilée. This was going to be a slightly tamer version of the Pur Sport making it better suited to road driving as opposed to racing it around a track.

In the end though, the Chiron Profilée was never to be. As Bugatti had set a limit of only producing 500 Chirons, they proved to be popular enough to reach this threshold before the Profilée could be brought into existence.

That is with the exception of one Bugatti Chiron Profilée that was made as a prototype of sorts. This Profilée is the only one ever to exist. Despite being based on the Pur Sport, the Profilée has a long list of features that are unique to this one particular vehicle including its suspension and steering tune.

The top speed is 236mph which is actually slower than the standard Chiron which can reach speeds of up to 261mph. That being said, the Profilée can go from 0 – 186mph in 12 seconds so it is by no means a slouch!

The Price

RM Sotheby’s hosted the auction in Paris where this one-of-a-kind car was up for sale.

The bidding at the invite-only auction was said to be an “extended contest between a number of collectors in the room, on the telephones, and via the internet” but, eventually, the winning bid was placed and the new owner of this entirely unique car had paid €9,792,500 (approximately £8.7 million).

To put that into perspective, the Bugatti Chiron Profilée now holds the record for the most expensive new vehicle ever bought (zero owners on the registration document).

The pre-sale estimate for the Profilée was €4.2 million to €5.5 million so the bidding war certainly appears to have been pretty intense.

The End Of An Era?

Although Bugatti has not officially confirmed their plans for the future, they have appeared to hint that the Profilée could be the last of the W16 series.

If this is confirmed at a later date, the Chiron Profilée seems a fitting swan song for this thunderous engine.

Either way, a new record has been set, the one-of-one Bugatti Chiron Profilée is the most expensive new car ever sold at auction. That’s a record that will take a very special car to beat!

La Voiture Noire – The Long Lost Bugatti

The mid to late 1930s were a heyday of Automotive design. Bespoke, futuristic interpretations of personal transport heavily influenced by art-nouveau and the art deco school of design. Elegant answers to a simple question of moving people from one place to another. One of those at the forefront of this was a small French manufacturer by the name of Bugatti.

Bugatti had risen to prominence with its massively successful, lightweight Grand Prix cars along with super luxurious elegant limousines in the 1920s and early 1930s. The founder Ettore Bugatti came from a long line of artisans and craftsmen who plied their various styles and trades to all manner of things, but for Ettore it was cars. By the 1930s, Ettore had begun to step back from his role as the man in charge of Molsheim. His son, Jean would rise through the ranks as a talented designer, engineer and driver in his own right away from his father’s shadow. Culminating in what many believe to be the most beautiful series of Bugattis ever made. The 57SC Atlantics.

Using influences from both Art Deco and Art Nouveau, the Atlantics were a new style for a new type of owner. For this new car and new owners, only 4 57SC Atlantics would be built. Each of them was heavily personalised to their owner’s tastes and styles, their story begins with a special one-off. The 1935 Aerolithe Concept. A magnesium bodied show car which was set to usher in a new era of Bugatti’s by using advanced materials and techniques to blend the worlds of Grand Prix and Grand Tour.

The 4 Atlantics would use this technique to begin their construction, however, they were soon swapped for aluminium bodies made in the same style as the Aerolithe. With the identifiable riveted dorsal fin of the concept car displayed prominently on the Atlantics. Out of those 4 cars, three are accounted for and have gone on to be concours and show winners in their own rights around the world.

The fourth was given the name ”La Voiture Noire” or, The Black Car. It had originally been used by Bugatti as the show car to demonstrate to potential customers and the world the new age of Bugatti under Jean’s leadership and also happened to be Jean Bugatti’s personal car whilst doing so. La Voiture Noire’s early history is well documented.

The cars official Bugatti name is chassis 57453 and was gifted to Bugatti factory driver Robert Benoist for winning the 1937 24 hours of Le Mans and then was later given to fellow driver William Grover-Williams before his return to England just before the outbreak of World War 2. From the outset of the war until 1941, La Voiture Noire was kept as a test car for Bugatti after the death of its master Jean in 1939 whilst testing a racing prototype. But after 1938, no official records have ever been kept of the car. This is where the ghost story begins…

Rumours have circulated for the better part of 80 years about the journey La Voiture Noir would take into its own mystery. The last records speculate the chassis number was changed to 57454 and the whole car was to be dismantled for parts to be used on other projects and what was left was to be boxed up and stored. Other stories say the complete car had apparently made its way south to Bourdeaux, possibly in an attempt to conceal the car away from the factory and the furious pass of the German Army as it began planning its march into Europe on the eve of war. Some have also said it could have been sent as far away as the Middle East to be protected under the eyes of trusted Bugatti owners. But, no evidence or any form of lead has ever been found for the resting place of the car. Rumours of deserted railway cars, french barns, bricked up buildings, fake basements and even burying the car alive have circulated over the years throughout the enthusiasts. Ghost stories and treasure tales handed down from one generation of petrolhead to another. But alas, no news.

Until recently. A mysterious post on social media revealed a very strange looking body sitting in the back of a Connecticut, USA body shop claiming to be the missing Bugatti. However, leading Bugatti experts fervently rebuke that this is in any way La Voiture Noire. It is estimated that if Chassis 57453 (or 57454 if the history is correct) were to be rediscovered somehow, it could expect to fetch anywhere north of $100 million at auction because of its importance.

But, to most diehard enthusiasts, its story remains priceless.

Record-Breaking Bugatti

A 1934 vintage Bugatti Type 59 Sport has sold at auction for a record-breaking £9.1 million. Thought to be the most expensive Bugatti ever to be sold at auction.

French racing driver René Dreyfus won the 1934 Belgium Grand Prix in the car, before selling it to King Leopold III of Belgium in 1938.

The car’s had many owners throughout its lifetime, but amazingly has been kept in it’s original condition.

A 1934 vintage Bugatti Type 59 Sport has sold at auction for a record-breaking £9.1 million. Thought to be the most…

Posted by Bridge Classic Cars on Monday, 28 September 2020

We spotted this Teal Car in a local car park recently. Teal Cars are incredibly high-end replica’s, inspired by the original Bugatti. It’s easy to see why Teal Cars are so popular – not everyone has a cool £10m to spend on a classic car!

Spotted this week…

We always have our eyes peeled to spot classic on our travels. This week we spotted these delightful vehicles.

Firstly there’s this very intriguing Austin, we’d love to know more about her history, she looks like she’s had a wonderful life full of lovely road trips!

Our beady eyes also spotted this 1989 Jaguar sitting pretty in our carpark.

This unusual Teal car was also spotted this week. Inspired by Bugatti, these replicas don’t set you back £500,000 like a real 1920’s Bugatti would. Even if not quite the original, seeing one of these lurking in a local car park is still a treat for the eyes!