What's Wrong With This Picture?
Yes, I’m a cynical bastard. I didn’t get where I am today– happily marooned on an island of incredulity– by taking what I’m told at face value. Now I know for a fact that there are shenanigans aplenty within the rarified world of high end automobile restoration, collecting and competing. Counterfeits, insurance scams, forgeries, kited checks, lies, deceit, deception, conspiracies by so-called experts– it’s like the fine art world only someone gets a prize at the end. So when I read of a “barn find” of 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, allegedly garaged by a surgeon since 1960, my BS detector went off. Now I’m not saying it is anything other than what the Reuters and The Daily Mail says it is: a rare and wonderful car owned by eccentric aviator/doctor stored in a Newcastle “lock up.” But the whole story seems somehow… pat. And there’s this: “The car was originally owned by the first president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club Earl Howe. ‘I have known of this Bugatti for a number of years and, like a select group of others, hadn’t dared divulge its whereabouts to anyone,’ James Knight, head of Bonhams’ motoring department, said in a statement. ‘It is absolutely one of the last great barn discoveries.'” So how can it be a “discovery” (a.k.a. barn find) if Knight already knew where it was? And square that with this: “Media reports said it could fetch up to six million pounds ($8.7 million) when it is auctioned at Bonhams‘ [emphasis added] Retromobile sale in Paris on February 7, which would make it the most expensive car to go under the hammer.”
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Of course they had engine and chassis numbers. They just didn't have VINs.
There has been a lot of discussion about the value of this car. My day job is valuing and appraising very expensive works of art. One general (note the use of the word general) truth, is that the more owners that a work of art (read Bugatti) has had, the more it has been bastardized. A car that has been sitting in the garage for near on fifty years has less chance of being 'improved' or restored. If the car is an unaltered, unrestored item and relatively close to its original condition, with relatively few replacement parts then it is totally possible that this would sell for the highest price. Having said this, I do not get the dust pattern, where is the dust on the shelves?
If ya'll look at the camber of the front wheel, it would seem to strongly indicate that the car is up on blocks and not resting on its wheels. Thus, the tire is not inflated and could be closer to original. Just sayin'...
57s--and most other Bugattis--all had that substantial positive camber, so it's not because it's up on blocks.