Beschreibung:

Cylinders: 8; 3,257cc Gears: 4 + reverse Power: 135bhp Produced: 1934-1940 Production: 630 (57/57C) ‘The car sped along at 80mph with the comfort and quietness one associates with the Type 57... We were quite willing to believe that Jean Bugatti has achieved the 435 kilometres to Paris in just under 1½ hours in the Type 57 - an average of 77mph...’ - Motor Sport, May 1939. 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, fixed-head straight eight of modern design housed in Bugatti’s familiar vintage-style chassis. Launched at the Paris Salon in 1934, the Type 57 showed the strong influence of Jean Bugatti and at last gave the marque a civilised grande routière to match those of rivals Delage and Delahaye. The Type 57 attracted coachwork of the finest quality executed in a startling variety of styles but was no mere rich man’s plaything, as evidenced by two outright wins at Le Mans; proof, if it were needed, that ancestral virtues had not been abandoned when creating a car fit to rank alongside Rolls-Royce or Bentley. Its success is revealed by the production figures: some 680-or-so examples of all Type 57 models were produced between 1934 and 1940, and the post-war Type 101 was based on its chassis. However, although many Type 57s were fitted with bespoke bodies, the most popular coachwork was built to Jean Bugatti’s designs by the marque’s preferred carrossier, Gangloff of Colmar, just a few miles from the Bugatti works at Molsheim. Factory offerings on the T57 chassis included the Galibier four-door saloon, Stelvio cabriolet, four-seater Ventoux and two-seater Atalante coupés. In Greek mythology, the athletic huntress Atalanta would only marry a man that could out-run her; it is thus a most appropriate appellation for this fast, exotic and very stylish Bugatti. The fine Bugatti Type 57 Atalante coupé offered here – chassis number ‘57427’ – was manufactured in July 1936 and delivered to Bugatti Paris (Rovère) on the 23rd of that same month. By the late 1950s, the car was in the possession of the renowned Bugatti enthusiast Jean de Dobbeleer in Belgium, who exported it to the USA. In Hugh Conway’s 1962 Bugatti Register the Atalante is listed in the ownership of Thomas Kodama of Maryland, USA having been imported via Gene Cesari who was then de Dobbeleer’s American agent. This is confirmed in de Dobbeleer’s own records, which also noted that the car had been fitted with Lockheed hydraulic brakes and 17” instead of its original 18” wheels. The previous owner was Jean Legatte. Conway’s 1973 update to his 1962 Register confirms that the car was still with Kodama, as does the American Bugatti Club’s first Register, published in 1979. It has since appeared in every ABC Register. The car was sold circa 1979 to Myron J Schuster of New York City, the owner recorded in the 2nd (1988) edition of the ABC Register, who ordered a total mechanical restoration from the world famous Bugatti specialist ‘Bunny’ Philips, including a total engine and drive-train overhaul in 1989. During 1995 ownership passed from Schuster to Dragone Classic Motorcars in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a company renowned for its excellent work on pre-war coachwork. The body underwent a total, professional, frame-off restoration at Dragone’s and after completion the Atalante won an award for its new owner, David d’Addario of Easton Connecticut, at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours in 1999. The car found its way to a prominent col