Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic: Coup de Grace
Although it’s over 70 years old, the Atlantic’s dramatic, art moderne shape, clouded history and race-inspired, supercharged straight-8 engine make it a timeless classic.
The Atlantic debuted in 1935 at both the Paris and London auto shows as the Competition Coupe Aerolithe (meteor), riding a prototype Bugatti Type 57S chassis with gondola-shaped frame rails that tapered in the rear. (Photo courtesy of Bugatti Factory Photo)
Ken Purdy called the Type 57SC, “the pinnacle of Bugatti design.” The ex-Lord Rothschild Atlantic graced the cover of Purdy’s classic, Kings of the Road. Owned since 1971 by Dr. Peter Williamson, it was purchased that year for $59,000. Today, it’s worth $10 million. (Photo courtesy of Ken Gross Archives)
Exquisitely and accurately restored by Jim Stranberg, Scott Sargent and a team of acknowledged experts, Dr. Peter Williamson’s Type 57SC Bugatti Atlantic won “Best of Show” at Pebble Beach in 2003. (Photo courtesy of Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance)
Wondering what an Atlantic would look like as a cabriolet? This Gangloff-bodied Type 57S cabrio, shown in a period photograph was originally built for Phillipe Levy, showed at Pebble Beach in 1997 and is owned today by Ralph Lauren. (Photo courtesy of Bugatti Factory Photo)
As a marque, Bugatti never lacked imagination. Jean Bugatti’s designs were elegant and sometimes outrageous. This Paris Motor Show concept roadster had the Atlantic’s tapered frame and rounded tail. A section of each front fender turned with the wheels. Brake cooling was a problem but Bugatti boasted, “I build my cars to go, not to stop.” After the show, this car was rebodied with conventional fenders. (Photo courtesy of Bugatti Factory Photo)
Ralph Lauren’s exquisite Type 57SC Bugatti Atlantic, the ex-R.B. Pope car and the last one built, won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1990. Given a ground-up restoration by Paul Russell & Company of Essex Massachusetts, this elegant coupe exhibits a slightly higher roof line and large, free-standing headlights positioned higher than on the Williamson Atlantic. (Photo by Martyn Goddard, courtesy of Paul Russell & Company)
A briefly trained apprentice engineer Ettore Bugatti with a dreamy soul of an artist designed what was to become the most unique beauty in lines and designs.
From 1911-1939, Bugatti built uncompromised automobiles of great beauty and sporting pretension. Often technically (even perversely) complex, Bugatti cars were expensive, temperamental and often hauntingly beautiful. Bugatti experimented with aerodynamics, favored expensive de Ram shock absorbers, eschewed supercharging for years and insisted on using cable-operated brakes long after hydraulics proved superior. Although other manufacturers were experimenting with aerodynamics, Bugatti’s outrageously curvaceous Aerolithe proved to be a design sensation. In production, it became known as the Aero, and Jean Bugatti set out to make the body from Electron, an alloy of magnesium and aluminum. When welding proved difficult, Jean Bugatti and assistant Joseph Walter united the sections with rivets, which explains the spinelike center rib dividing the svelte body, a theme repeated in its teardrop-shaped fenders. Production Atlantic bodies were aluminum. The rivets were no longer needed, but they looked exotic, so the illusion of a riveted spine was retained. Close-coupled, cramped, poorly ventilated and quite impractical, the sexy lightweight coupe was nevertheless an enthusiast’s delight and one of only a handful of sports cars of the era that could top 130 mph.
This is some of the information that Ken Gross provides on his favorite car. To read the stories on the only 4 made Bugatti 57SC Atlantic go to the following link:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Columns/articleId=120967#6
It’s a great article to read on a piece of Coup de Grace.
