1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe that was discovered in a British garage has sold for about $4.4 million at auction.
The car was the star attraction of the Bonhams Retromobile auction in Paris on Feb. 7.
The selling price was 3,417,500 euros, including buyer's fees, Bonhams said. It did not release information on who bought the car.
Only 17 copies of the Type 57S Atalante were built by Bugatti. The car at the auction was originally bought by Earl Howe, the president of the British Racing Drivers Club.
The car passed through a couple of different owners, then was bought by Dr. Harold Carr of Newcastle, England, in 1955.
The car was reportedly parked by Carr in his garage in the early 1960s and not run again until it was discovered in 2007, after Carr's death.
The Bonham's auction catalog description of the 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe
Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon was born in Mayfair, London, in May 1884 into a privileged background and, following family tradition, adopted a career with the Royal Navy after leaving school, serving as a Battalion Commander of the 2nd Brigade Royal Naval Division in the Great War, seeing action at Gallipoli and in Salonica, France and Belgium. Upon cessation of hostilities the Rt. Hon. Viscount Curzon entered politics, winning the Battersea South seat in London for the Conservative Party in 1918, while still retaining his Naval connections, taking up the rank of Captain and becoming Commanding Officer of the Sussex Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1921. He succeeded to the peerage in 1929 upon the death of his father, becoming the 5th Earl Howe. This elevation to the peerage ended his Parliamentary career and it was about this time that he began his long and distinguished involvement in motor racing.
Howe’s place in the history of motor sport was assured by his victory at Le Mans in 1931, driving an Alfa-Romeo and partnered on that occasion by Sir Henry Birkin, completing 1,875 miles at an average speed of 78.128mph. He was to drive at Le Mans on six occasions between 1929 and 1935 and in his final year put in the fastest lap of the race at a speed of 86.751mph, although sadly retiring after a hard fought 1,087 miles.
Howe mixed with the ‘Bentley Boys’, Benjafield, Barnato, Kidston and Birkin ranking amongst his close friends in motor racing circles. With Howe’s support and encouragement Dudley Benjafield was to establish the British Racing Drivers’ Club in 1928 and Howe was to be elected its first President at the 1929 Annual General Meeting. He was a regular at Le Mans and Brooklands, raced at Donington Park, winning the Donington Park Trophy Race in 1933, carrying off the winner’s laurels in the 1938 Grosvenor Grand Prix in South Africa and recording many podium finishes in a racing career ending in 1939. Amongst pre- war motor sport heroes, Earl Howe’s name ranked alongside those of Campbell and Segrave – super heroes of their day who mixed in the upper echelons of London’s high speed and fashionable society.
Howe, as Viscount Curzon, had driven a Type 43 Bugatti with some success in the 1928 Ulster Tourist Trophy Race, achieving fastest lap in Class D then sadly retiring with petrol supply problems, and enjoyed mixed success on occasion partnering Campbell in a similar car at Brooklands and other venues in 1929 and 1930. In 1931 he was to secure delivery of one of the first Type 51 Grand Prix cars that he was to campaign as an amateur in the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix. Howe’s warm relationship with Le Patron is evidenced by the fact that he took delivery of one of just a handful of the fearsome 4.9-litre supercharged Bugatti Type 54 Grand Prix cars for the 1932 season. Regrettably, the Type 54 failed to distinguish itself against the might of Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati. Finally, in 1935, Howe was to take delivery of a Works Team Bugatti Type 59, one of four Grand Prix cars to be sold to British amateur drivers including Martin, Eccles and Lewis when Le Patron scaled down factory racing involvement. This pedigree of race cars, which Howe experienced at first hand, undoubtedly influenced and spawned the Type 57S – surely a Grand Prix car in touring car guise.
It is not surprising therefore that Howe, when choosing his personal road car, would seek out the highest standards in road holding and engineering refinement, maximum performance combined with comforts that one of his social standing would expect, and an elegance reflecting the very pinnacle of styling finesse in the mid-1930s.
Bugatti’s Type 57S ticked every one of those boxes – perhaps the ultimate pre-war sports car. Its production run was but brief as manufacturing costs were too high, however, Howe recognised the outstanding nature of the beast. Bugatti’s Type 57 had already established its credentials but although the 57S shared many of its features, its differences set it in a league apart. Mechanical excellence was achieved by fitting a modified crank case with dual oil pumps and dry sump lubrication. High compression pistons gave the new engine a significant performance edge and the clutch was reinforced to cope with the extra output. Ignition was by a Scintilla Vertex magneto driven from the left-hand camshaft. The fundamental difference between the 57S and the standard 57 cars however lay in the frame design. The new low-slung frame featured a shorter wheelbase, the rear axle passing through the frame, while de Ram shock absorbers provided damping cleverly engineered to increase with speed. The new low-slung chassis and distinctive vee-shaped radiator design of the 57S was a gift to the stylist and the Jean Bugatti-influenced Atalante Coupé styling blended impeccably with the sculpted radiator design.
It was not surprising that Bugatti should field a team of specially designed 57S racing cars, winning in 1936 Le Grand Prix de l’A.C.F., le Grand Prix de la Marne and le Grand Prix du Comminges and setting new One Hour, Six Hour and 24-Hour records at Monthléry. Notably Jean- Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist drove one of these cars to victory at Le Mans in 1937 at an all time record average speed of 85.125mph and covering 2,043 miles in 24 hours. With these credentials, little wonder therefore that Howe’s car of choice in November 1936 was the 57S.
On 2nd November 1936 Bugatti factory ledgers recorded an order (allocated no. 903) from their British agent, Col. Sorel, for a Type 57S Atalante Coupé for their valued client and Bugatti Owners’ Club President, Earl Howe of Penn House, Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Perhaps optimistically that order quoted a delivery date of 25th January 1937. Chassis no. 57502 and engine no. 26S were allocated to this order. Whatever the cause of the delay might have been, the factory-built Atalante coachwork was not completed until 5th May 1937. It was liveried in Howe’s racing colours of blue and black, furnished with pig skin upholstery and equipped with twin spotlights and a split front bumper. Bearing factory trade plate 1127 W5 the car was photographed in the Alsatian countryside ( as illustrated here and Bugatti – le pur-sang des automobiles, H G Conway, 1963, page 261) and was finally road tested by Pierre Marco on 7th June 1937 prior to delivery to Sorel on 9th June 1937. Old style buff log books from the 1940s and 1950s record first registration variously as 15th June 1937 and 15th July 1937. It seems likely that 15th June 1937 would be the correct date of first registration as no doubt Howe was eager to road test his new car, having ordered it some seven months previously. At an early stage Howe equipped 57502 with distinctive rear view mirrors, a luggage rack on the tail and replacing the split front bumper with a single bumper and adding a similar rear bumper. Howe’s new car was selected by Sorel for illustration in their next sales brochure, the same photograph also featuring in the July 1937 issue of Bugantics.
Howe’s new car was registered DYK 5 and proudly displayed by him at the Eastbourne Concours d’élégance on 20th July 1937. DYK 5 shared the motor house at Howe’s Amersham home with a fine stable of other European sports and racing cars and became a familiar sight in the paddock at British motor sport venues. It is believed that the car was stored at Penn House for the duration of the war, following which Howe used this car, in his capacity as President of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, to formally open the first British post-war motor sport event, the Cockfosters Rally. Following an accident in 1945, Howe replaced this car with his friend Lord Cholmondley’s Type 57C Atalante.
Pure automobile history and art.
