LOT 574

Bugatti Type 57-Style Bodyshell Coachwork by in the style of Corsica Chassis no. n/a

Sold for £26,450 inc. premium

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Lot 574

Bugatti Type 57-Style Bodyshell

The Beaulieu Sale: Collectors' Motor Cars & Automobilia|2 September 2023, 14:30 BST|Beaulieu, National Motor Museum

Bugatti Type 57-Style Bodyshell
Coachwork by in the style of Corsica
Chassis no. n/a

• Aluminium replica body
• In the style of a Bugatti T57 Corsica
• Tan interior believed to be from a 1936 T57

By the early 1930s Ettore Bugatti had established an unrivalled reputation for building cars with outstanding performance on road or track; the world's greatest racing drivers enjoying countless successes aboard the Molsheim factory's products and often choosing them for their everyday transport. Because of its lengthy run of success, Ettore Bugatti remained stubbornly committed to his single-cam engine, only adopting the more advanced double-overhead-camshaft method of valve actuation, after much prompting by his eldest son Jean, on the Type 50 of 1930. From then on Jean Bugatti took greater responsibility for design, his first car being the exquisite Type 55 roadster, a model ranking among the finest sports cars of the 1930s. He followed that with a design of equal stature, the Type 57. A larger car than the Type 55, the Type 57 was powered by a 3.3-litre, double-overhead-camshaft straight eight of modern design housed in Bugatti's familiar Vintage-style chassis. Showing the strong influence of Jean Bugatti, it at last gave the marque a civilised Grande Routière to match those of rivals Delage and Delahaye.

The Type 57 in all its forms attracted discerning owners who were only satisfied with the best, among them speed king Sir Malcolm Campbell. Himself the owner of a Type 57, he wrote: "If I was asked to give my opinion as to the best all-round super-sports car which is available on the market today, I should, without any hesitation whatever, say it was the 3.3 Bugatti... it cannot fail to attract the connoisseur or those who know how to handle the thoroughbred. It is a car in a class by itself." Indeed, Bugatti historian Hugh Conway even went so far as to described the Type 57 as "the most celebrated non-racing car that Bugatti ever produced".

Offered here is a replica aluminium body in the style of a Bugatti T57 Corsica. Very well presented, it is finished in deep blue with a tan-trimmed seats. There are no documents with this lot.

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