Earlier this week, a Bugatti originally built in 1936 sold for more than $30 million to an anonymous buyer.
USA Today calls it "the most expensive used car ever," while the Wall Street Journal called it the "most valuable car ever known to have changed hands."


The auction was handled by Gooding & Company, a Santa Monica, California-based auction firm. In a statement, David Gooding, the company's president and founder, called the vehicle "one of the world's most significant and valuable automobiles."


The exact amount remains undisclosed, but reports from the show floor suggest it could be as high as $40m, smashing the $12.2m paid for a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa at the same show last year. That is, in technical terms, a hell of a lot of cash. But this is a hell of a lot of car.


The Bugatti 57SC Atlantic was previously owned by the a trust of the late Dr. Peter Williamson, a neurosurgeon and car collector. The vehicle was the first of just three Atlantics built, according to Gooding & Company.
Whoever the buyer was, they join designer Ralph Lauren as the only two owners of these extremely rare rides.



The Wall Street Journal has some background on the vehicle:


First bought by Lord Philippe de Rothschild in 1936, the Atlantic was fitted with a supercharger in 1939, boosting the power of its 3.3-litre inline eight to a heady 150kW. In its prime, the Atlantic would run to a dizzying 200km/h. The 57SC Atlantic was based on the Aerolithe Electron Coupe, a show car built for the 1935 Paris Auto Salon. The car's low-slung, pontoon-fender design was the work of Jean Bugatti, son of founder Ettore Bugatti. The show car was fashioned out of magnesium panels that were difficult to weld, and so Bugatti employed the car's distinctive riveted seams. And while the three production Atlantics were built of weld-able aluminum, the seams were retained as a design cue.

 

Just simply stunning. I still remember as a boy about 6 or 7 years old, seeing Ralph Lauren's black Atlantic at a Bugatti exhibit in Cleveland.

Everyone should see this car in person. it is just breathtaking

 

I'm happy I don't dream of such cars, that would be expensive dreams.

 

Very nice information!