Artcurial’s much anticipated Retromobile 2018 sale in Paris featured a 1938 Bugatti Type 57 Coupe Atalante as its headline lot.
The car sold for a very respectable $2.9m.
This Bugatti Type 57C Atalante is one of only 17 made
Bugatti only produced 17 Atalante variants of the Type 57 Coupe. It differs from its predecessor, the Atlantic, in that its windscreen is a single piece of glass and it lacks a tail fin.
The man behind the design was Jean Bugatti, son of company founder Ettore.
Jean was tragically killed in 1939 whilst test driving one of his creations.
The current model was acquired from the factory by a Swiss buyer. It remained in the country until the early 1960s, when it was sold to a Californian buyer.
A 2006 Ferrari FXX was one of the most recent models offered in the sale.
Its reputation as one of the marque’s most coveted designs from the 2000s was bolstered when it sold for a solid $2.6m.
Only 38 were made, the majority of which have been driven into the ground. This is in large part due to the way the car was marketed.
Buyers were asked to become “test drivers” to assist in the car’s development and were encouraged to blitz the FXX around Ferrari’s factory track.
The original owner of this model showed superhuman restraint, choosing to carefully maintain it.
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