This could well be the last 'hidden' pre-war Bugatti of note...
A hidden legend – kept off the roads for the past fifty years – is heading to auction for the first time ever: a 1937 Bugatti Type 57S. The Bugatti is one of only 42 produced, and is one of the world’s most valuable and desirable pre-war motor cars.
Formerly owned, in turn, by shipping magnate Sir Robert Ropner and Rodney Clarke– future principal of the pioneering British Connaught Grand Prix team – the car has remained since 1969 in the North Staffordshire workshop of its late owner, respected engineer and Bugatti aficionado Bill Turnbull, where it has been effectively hidden away. It has also been mechanically restored to Turnbull’s exacting standards: the restoration formed Turnbull’s life’s work. At the time of his death, his work was almost complete. Now, according to Bonhams, the car is “only in need of some final re-assembly”.
At the request of Turnbull’s executors, the Bugatti is being offered at no reserve with an estimate of £5-7 million. It forms part of Bonhams’ ‘Legends of the Road’ sale, which will feature a curated selection of motoring masterpieces, to be held 19 February in London.
When it comes to the 57S models, a 57S with Atalante coupe bodywork set the record last year, selling in London for £7.85 million (£1 mil above its auction estimate). This car at Bonhams is not an Atalante, however, but an open grand tourer with custom-built British four-seater sports body fashioned by the coachbuilders Corsica Coachworks. It was Ropner who specified this bodywork, to envelope the car’s powerful 3.3-litre engine, which made the 57S the fastest road car of its day.
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The car was given the period nickname of Dulcie due to its British registration number 'DUL 351'.
With the success of the marque on the racetrack during the 1930s, Bugatti sports cars were regarded as’ Grand Prix cars for the road’ and were often the off-duty transport for leading racing drivers.
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This ‘Dulcie’ Bugatti's chassis has been identified as one of only three special lightweight frames produced for the 1936 season of Grand Prix winning and multiple world record-breaking Bugatti works Type 57G Tank streamlined sports-racing cars, the factory racing derivative of the 57S.
Sholto Gilbertson, Director of Bonhams Motor Cars UK, said: "This really is an extraordinary example of one of the most valuable and desirable pre-war motor cars. Other 57S Bugattis are in museums or known collections, and to offer the car to the open market for the first time since 1969 is going to be tremendous.”
"This could well be the last 'hidden' pre-war Bugatti of note and we are delighted to present this rediscovered true legend of the road... at New Bond Street."
