Top price was a low-estimate €900,000 (£552,000) for a 1932 Bugatti Grand Prix Type 51, with supercharged eight- cylinder engine: the culmination of the Bugatti Grand Prix range launched in 1924. This car was originally piloted by Achille Varzi, then owned by Lindsay Eccles, and rebuilt after an accident at the 1934 Dieppe Grand Prix using
components from one of Eccles’ other Grand Prix Bugattis.
In the early 1940s Eccles sold the car to George Milligen, who raced it occasionally in Vintage Sports Car Club events before selling it in 1978 to the consignor, who embarked on (what Christie’s called ‘painstaking’) a seven-year restoration.
Grand Prix Type makes ‘grand prix’
Christie’s (20.93/11.96% buyer’s premium) staged their first Automobile sale in Paris on February 12 at the Rétromobile vintage car show, which attracts 100,000 visitors every year.
