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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsCool Car Find: 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante
This wonderfully preserved Bugatti Type 57C is a rare and unique piece of automotive history.
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1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante – carsforsale.com | Shop Bugatti Type 57C on Carsforsale.com
There are few names in cars as prestigious as Bugatti. From today’s fastest production car, the Chiron Supersport 300+, to some of the most sought-after classic cars in the world, the Bugatti name denotes speed, refinement, and expense. Bugatti is where engineering and design transcend the purely automotive to produce works of art. This is especially true when we consider pre-WWII Bugatti cars, which were, at turns, racing phenoms, Art Deco masterpieces, and the most elite of status symbols.
Today’s Cool Car Find is an exceedingly rare 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante in impeccable and near-original condition. Like many pre-war Bugatti, this is a multi-million-dollar collector’s car of the highest order. So, what makes it so special?
Pre-War Bugatti
To understand why Bugatti carries this level of prestige, it is important to know a bit about the company’s early history. Born into a family of artists, Ettore Bugatti was a precocious automotive designer, creating the Bugatti Type 1 at just 17 years old. After designing numerous successful cars for other manufacturers, Bugatti founded Automobiles E. Bugatti in 1909 in Molsheim (then Germany, today part of France).
The first car under the official Bugatti mark was the Type 10. Both the Type 10 and the later Type 13 saw impressive racing successes in those early days. The Type 18, aka the Black Bess, was the world’s first street legal race car, capable of achieving 100 mph (in 1912!). The Type 35, debuting in 1924, would be Bugatti’s most successful racing car. In fact, the Type 35’s 2,000-plus victories over the next ten years of competition cements it as the winningest racecar of all time.
Bugatti Type 57
Bugatti’s most iconic car, however, is the Type 57. Designed by Ettore’s son Jean, the Type 57 was revolutionary, both technologically and visually, the perfect blending of racing and touring car characteristics. Multiple versions of the Type 57 were produced from 1934 through 1940, including coupes, convertibles, and even an early aero car known as The Tank.
All Type 57s were powered by a 3257cc (3.3L) DOHC (dual overhead cam) straight-eight making 95 horsepower. A select few of the 710 built were 57C cars, the C for “compresseur” indicating the Roots-style supercharger given to racing cars for added power up to 160 horsepower. They Type 57 was also a major racing success, winning the 1936 French Grand Prix, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1937 and again in 1939.
This Type 57C
Our Cool Car Find is a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante, chassis #57767. This car is particularly rare given its specific configuration. Just 33 Atalante were built, this distinct body was designed in-house by Bugatti’s Joseph Walter at the direction of Jean Bugatti. Of those 33 Atalante, 16 were produced with lightweight aluminum bodies (some sources quote 17). A scant five of Atalante were 57Cs with factory-installed superchargers. Those cars that were both aluminum bodied and supercharged numbers at just three.
The provenance of this car is impressive, aside from a brief gap from 1949 through 1952, all other owners are accounted for, from the initial order from a Mister Albert Cahan in 1938 to its most recent long-term owner, who kept the car for 60 years. The car remains in excellent condition with nearly all original parts, the minor exceptions being a replaced engine block in the 1950s and replaced rubber seals in the late 1940s.
1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante – carsforsale.com | Shop Bugatti Type 57C on Carsforsale.com
With its classic Art Deco styling, superb condition, and exceptional rarity, it is little wonder this vintage 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante has an asking price of $2.9 million dollars.
