This rare Bugatti T57 could make £1m at Bonhams’ Revival sale

By Marc McLaren

| 13 Aug 2019

Classic & Sports Car – This rare Bugatti T57 could make £1m at Bonhams’ Revival sale

A stunning 1935 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante Faux Cabriolet will ensure the best cars at this year’s Goodwood Revival won’t only be the ones on the track, when it goes under the hammer at Bonhams’ sale.

The ultra-rare Bugatti is one of only a handful of surviving ‘Atalante’ fixed-head coupés and is one of six cars offered for sale from the collection of the late Barry Burnett

It’ll go to auction on 14 September resplendent in striking black and cream coachwork – and, as you might expect for such an exclusive machine, with a suitably eye-watering estimate of £1-1.5m.

The Atalante spent its early life in France, then moved to the United States in 1957 and back to Europe in the 1980s. Unusually for a car of this age, it retains its original chassis, engine, gearbox and body, all with matching numbers.

Not that it hasn't been touched over the course of its 84-year life: its previous owner, Peter Rae, had the car completely restored prior to selling it to Burnett.

We say ‘selling it’, but Burnett actually acquired it from Rae as a straight swap for a Delage, adding its registration ‘DYF 4’ which once appeared on the Type 57S Atlantic of Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Burnett was a noted collector who owned some 60 cars in total. The most famous of them was a Corsica-bodied 1931 Daimler Double Six, which went on to win the 2006 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance some years after he sold it.

A chunk of his collection – 28 cars – were auctioned by Bonhams in 2009 and now a decade later six more are being offered at the Goodwood Revival.

Among the other five cars up for grabs will be a 1938 Lagonda V12 ‘Le Mans Replica’ Tourer, a 1963 Facel Vega Facel II and a 1936 Lagonda LG45 Tourer.

The Lagonda V12 is a pre-production prototype and factory press car which set a Brooklands record in 1938 and which comes with a £200-300,000 estimate. The Facel, meanwhile, is one of a mere 26 right-hand drive examples and will probably set you back between £120,000 and £160,000.

Can’t make it to the Revival sale? Another of Burnett’s cars, a 1934 Duesenberg Model J Torpedo Phaeton, will be offered at Bonhams’ Quail Lodge Auction in California on Thursday (15 August) with a hefty estimate of $600-800k (£490-660k).

“We are delighted to have been entrusted to offer another bespoke selection from the Burnett stable at this year’s Goodwood Revival Sale,” says Sholto Gilbertson, Bonhams Motor Cars Department Director UK.

“It reflects Barry’s expert eye for quality and his passion for classic and vintage motor cars.”

Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival sale takes place on 14 September. You can view a full lot list here.

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