It was raced at Le Mans in 1932 by Louis Chiron and Count Guy Bouriat-Quintart, and now this Bugatti Type 55 is being offered for the first time at auction.
Chassis number 55221 started life as a works Le Mans entrant and has spent the last 56 years with the same British family.
When new its chassis price-tag was 110,000FF ($7500) – but rarity and history have combined to push that up a touch and it’s expected to fetch in excess of €4million when it leads Bonhams’ 2020 Grand Palais Sale in Paris next February.
Just 38 Type 55 Super Sports models were built between 1932 and ’35, and Chassis 55221 is one of only 29 that are known to have survived.
It ran with a temporary four-seat body at Le Sarthe to comply with the race’s regulations, but it didn’t get far, retiring after just three hours with a split fuel tank.
Still, this was a serious high-performance machine, with a supercharged 2.3-litre twin-cam, eight-cylinder engine derived from and only slightly detuned in comparison to that in the Type 51 that was a multiple Grand Prix winner.
That meant 0-60mph in 13 secs en route to a 115mph top speed – in 1932.
After its Le Mans outing, Count Bouriat sold the car to wealthy French magazine publisher Jacques Dupuy, who commissioned Parisian coachbuilder Giuseppe Figoni to fashion a two-seat body with a pair of highline doors, to combine sweeping style with ease of access and protection from the elements.
