If you want to own a Pebble Beach–winning automobile but don’t want to actually do any of the restoration or competition work yourself, boy have we got the car for you. This spectacular 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante won its class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last year, and next month during Monterey Car Week it’ll be offered up for auction by Gooding & Company.
Bugatti made only 42 Type 57S models between the fall 1936 and spring 1938, and just 17 of those chassis got Atalante coachwork that was designed by Jean Bugatti and built in Molsheim, instead of being shipped to other coachbuilders outside Bugatti. The Atalante name is derived from the heroine Atalanta of Arcadian Greek mythology, a huntress who was aligned with Artemis. This particular Atalante, chassis number 57573, is one of the last ones built, having been completed in September 1937. After completion, it was put on display at the Salon de l’Automobile in Paris and the Earls Court Motor Show in London, immediately after which it was sold to C. Ian Craig, a prolific Bugatti collector who was the heir to a wealthy Irish family.
Craig repainted the Atalante in a black-and-white scheme he used on his other race cars, which included a Type 51, Type 54 and Type 59. Along with his wife Marcelle Moody — an incredible name — Craig made regular trips between the UK and St. Moritz, Switzerland in the Atalante, and he even entered it in the 1939 Lewes Speed Trials. He then sold the car to David L. Griffith-Hughes, another British Bugatti enthusiast, who repainted the car in two shades of gray and upgraded it to 57SC specification by fitting it with the Roots supercharger that was originally installed in Lord Rothschild’s Bugatti Atlantic, upping the inline-8’s output to 200 horsepower.
A few owners later, the Atalante made its way to the U.S. under the ownership of Charles Glore of Chicago, who sent the car back to Bugatti for a total restoration. In 1963 it was bought by car collector Vojta Mashek, who then sold it two years later to Dr. Peter Williamson, the president of the American Bugatti Club. The Atalante was restored again in the late 1990s, and then sold to a UK-based collector in 2006 who repainted it black and white to honor the first owner.
Then, in 2013 the Atalante was bought by a private California-based collection (with a great Instagram account) that sent the car to Sargent Metal Works in Vermont for “an exceptional, no-expense-spared restoration” that “addressed all cosmetic and mechanical aspects” to bring the car back to its original 1937 show car spec — but with the upgraded supercharger still intact. The restored car made its debut at least year’s Pebble Beach Concours, where it beat out two other Type 57S for the First in Class spot.
Still in freshly restored condition with numbers-matching chassis, coachwork and engine, this is likely one of the best examples of a Type 57 in the entire world. It is absolutely gorgeous, with the dark blue paintwork being nicely accented by spates of chrome trim and a lovely brown interior. The Type 57s are characterized by their lowered “surbaissé” chassis, which had the rear axle going through the frame rather than under it, offering more dramatic proportions, a lower hood and a shorter wheelbase.
Gooding’s auction marks the first time this Atalante has been offered for public sale, and the company has it listed with an estimate of $9,000,000 to $11,000,000. At Car Week two years ago Gooding sold a different, slightly less spectacular Type 57SC Atalante for $10,000,000, so don’t be surprised if this one goes for even more.
