Back at the turn of the new year, we brought you news of a Bugatti Type 57S Atalante that had been found in a barn in the North East, after the death of its owner, a Dr Harold Carr.
We speculated on its price, for which estimates varied hugely, with some reports suggesting that a price up near £7 million was likely. We plumped for £3,000,000 and, probably more by luck than judgement, we were bang on the nail!
Bugatti Type 57S Atalante - Sold for £3,000,000
But there always has to be a degree of realism, however much money is involved. At £3M, the Bugatti is a good buy for someone, but the costs won’t end there. The Bugatti is in a pretty distressed state, and is going to cost hundreds of thousand of pounds to get in to concourse condition. But it should be money well spent.
Buyers at this auction obviously were realistic, but there are always cases where auction fever gets the better of buyers, and it is arguable that Chris Evans got a bit carried away when he bought his Ferrari last year. But maybe not. A car like this is worth what someone will pay for it, and I’m pretty sure that Chris was comfortable with the price, and didn’t buy it to speculate, but because he loved the car.
But these high prices do set a precedent, as with the Park Lane McLaren that sold last year, but people often don’t compare like with like. But unlike the price bubble on classic cars in the nineties, this inexorable price rise does seem sustainable. Classic cars are, by definition, finite in their numbers, and with new money coming in to the market from places like India and Russia, there seems little doubt that a high-end classic car is a sound investment.
Anyone got a spare £3,000,000 I can invest?!
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