June 17, 2022 Bring A Trailer Auction USA
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The David Sewell report. Restoration photographs. Photographs of the original car, and of Ray Jones and the parts in the factory. Various drawings included in the sale, not all of the T59. |
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Rembrandt Bugatti
African elephant and young camel - Sculpture in bronze
May 13, 2022 Bonhams Auction: 'LES GRANDES MARQUES a MONACO' Monte Carlo
1927 Bugatti T35 B: Offered from 47 years of private ownership. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 1929 Bugatti Type 37
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May 25, 2022 Christie's Live Auction 21065 - DESIGN France
May 7 - 8, 2022 Vintage Revival Monthléry France
Vintage Revival including parts market. According to the photo (when was that?) quite some Bugatti parts for your project!
![]() Until April 20, 2022 Bugatti Divo on public display Molsheim, France A Bugatti Divo is on display at the center square of Molsheim, and will remain there until April 20.
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March 27, 2022 Aguttes online Auction France
March 6, 2022 Silverstone Auctions RAF Museum London Season Opener 2022 UK
March 16-20, 2022 Retromobile 2022 Paris, France
Postponed several times, but now finally (hopefully) the Retromobile will take place! With usually a lot of Bugatti's, parts, miniatures, books and more.
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March 18, 2022 Artcurial Auction, Rétromobile 2022 Paris, France
January 9, 2022 I am proud to announce that my 2021 Christmas card won the competition at PreWarCar, a competition I was not even aware of....
For those of you who have not received my e-mail with the card (above): It is a very nice black and white photo, from February 1916. The photograph by Jacques-Henri Lartigue of a beautiful winter wonderland is taken in Paris, in the Bois de Boulogne. It shows a man on skis behind a Bugatti-designed Peugeot Bébé. The text “Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2022!” was added by me.
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January 8, 2022
At the beginning of the video, a line-up of cars is presented, with 4 shrouded cars on one side. See above and to the right. At 27 seconds into the short clip, a sort of timeline formed by cars from the Bugatti and Rimac brands appears. On the left you'll spot classic Bugatti models, namely a Type 35 race car, the Royale, and the Type 57SC Atlantic. In the center are situated modern cars from Bugatti and Rimac, namely the Veyron and Chiron from Bugatti and the Concept_One and Nevera from Rimac. To the right are four shrouded cars that Rimac describes as Bugatti Rimac collaborations due in the coming years. One appears to match the silhouette of the Bugatti Type 35, suggesting there might be a continuation model planned, possibly with electric power. There also appears to be a track model of some sort, as evidenced by the Le Mans prototype-style rear wing on one of the cars. It's possible that this model is the production Bolide track car, which Bugatti has promised for 2024. A third model appears to be a new Bugatti hypercar, as evidenced by a signature horseshoe-shaped grille at the front. It's possible this is Bugatti Rimac's planned successor for the Chiron which is due to end production around 2024. There's also a fourth model, though the video changes to a new scene before the full silhouette can be revealed. Interestingly, none of the cars appears to be a crossover, suggesting that Bugatti Rimac will stick to sports cars. When might we get a proper look at one of Bugatti Rimac's collaborations? At the 3:12 mark in the video, Rimac says something might be shown as early as this year. Don't expect the next generation of Bugattis to simply be clones of Rimac models, like Pininfarina's Battista hypercar which uses the same hardware as Rimac's Nevera. Despite partnering with a leading electric-vehicle company like Rimac, Bugatti won't abandon the internal-combustion engine just yet. Both hybrid and pure electric Bugattis are planned within this decade. Rimac, of course, will stick with EVs. |
January 2, 2022 Oldtimer Galerie Toffen - The Swiss Auctioneers, December 29, 2021
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December 25, 2021
Henk Mooi sent me the link to the absolutely nicest Bugatti in the snow footage I ever saw! Click the link above or Here. It was made by Kidston productions, special Christmas edition! And don't forget to put on the sound!
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December 8, 2021 Bonhams Auction, The Bond Street Sale, December 4, 2021
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November 9, 2021 Herbette Auction October 31, 2021
Artcurial Auction, November 7, 2021
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October 30, 2021 Artcurial Auction, Automobiles sur les Champs, October 24, 2021
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October 12, 2021 Bonhams auction, The Zoute Sale, Belgium, October 10, 2021
The car was actually sold to a lucky guy in the Netherlands! |
September 24, 2021 How far can you go as an automobile manufacturer to get some additional cash? And maybe a bit of publicity? We know that car manufacturers go a long way in putting their name on the strangest products, nothing to do with automobiles, of course. But what is the connection? If there is any? Bugatti is one of those, and markets a whole lot of stuff, none of them made by themselves; clothing (probably one of few things you might actually be able to afford), furniture, impressive yachts, perfumes (do they actually, or was that just in the Artioli Era?), HiFi speakers and various other stuff I don't really care to remember. The Bugatti Billiard (pool table actually, why not Snooker?) shown above has now actually been delivered for some luxurious man cave (probably nothing close to an actual cave, I wonder if the "man" part is correct). High Tech, self-levelling, carbon-fibre and etcetera, for a price like that of a house. Now, the latest thing introduced carrying the name of our beloved marque is the thing shown below. Apparently it is designed to give you a smooth skin on your chin, and is even heated for more comfort... A brand known for shaving equipment, Gillette, is producing it, and you can get it in the same colour as your Chiron. Or maybe you can buy your Chiron to match the colour of your razor? Don't ask me where you will be able to buy it or order it on-line, but those desperate enough, will surely be able to find it! |
![]() A pretty Bugatti can cost a few million euros. That doesn't bother Thomas Scholz, on the contrary: He buys one sports car after the other - and realizes too late that he is being cheated in the process. The case gives insights into the sometimes crazy world of the super-rich. By Fritz Zimmermann, First published in the German newspaper "Die Zeit", August 24, 2020 Since ancient times, philosophers have discussed what it means for the identity of a ship to change each of its individual parts. In the end, is it still the same boat? And what happens when you build a second boat with the rejected parts: Which of the two boats is Theseus' ship? What's the original? And what about the copy? Rain drips from the sky when Thomas Scholz opens the front door to his property with a remote control. The door has no handle, the windows are also without handles, because of the risk of break-ins, the whole building is highly secured. What is behind the front door is too valuable, a few steps down the stairs, in a hall-sized showroom: The Type 35 Bugatti, for example, its value: around two million euros. Or the Bugatti Type 13, around one million euros. These are names that only say something to people who are very interested in old cars. Or have a lot of money. Thomas Scholz, in his early 60s, says of himself that he is "wealthy". He earned his living in the logistics industry. He doesn't want to read more about himself in the newspaper, not even his real name. Scholz is a man who is used to winning. Anonymity is a condition for him to tell the story he calls a "negative life experience". The showroom is located in a slight depression on his property, light falls through the curved glass front, a futuristic building that Scholz had built specifically for his cars. There are a total of 15 cars valued at »easily 20 million«, as Thomas Scholz says. There is also a Colani grand piano and photographic works by famous artists. And then there are the two cars in the center of the hall: the Bugatti Atlantic and the Bugatti Gangloff. He paid a good million euros for both vehicles together. They were his first vintage cars, vehicles from the 1930s. At least that's what he thought when he bought them 14 years ago. He now knows: The Bugattis were copied, they are copies. Scholz is convinced: He was betrayed. "Ripped off," as he calls it. That won't let him rest. The case of Thomas Scholz is a rare moment in which one briefly gets a glimpse into the otherwise closed world of the super-rich. Where vehicles worth millions are sold as if they were toy cars. In which old sports cars are seen as prestigious investments, they are looked upon in the same way as expensive works of art. And now a dodgy affair bursts like an uninvited guest into a dinner. It revolves around the longstanding head of the historical department at Bugatti. The man conveyed the replica classic cars to Scholz. It all started with the fastest car in the world. The Bugatti Veyron, 407 km/h top speed, 1001 hp, from 0 to 100 in 2.5 seconds. A car like from a quartet of cars (known game in Germany especially, the "trump cards"). The new price: 1.1 million euros. The Veyron was the first car Bugatti launched after Volkswagen took over the glorious brand in 1998. The company made only 300 of these. In the spring of 2006, on a sunny spring day, Thomas Scholz bought one of these vehicles. He remembers exactly how he went to Molsheim in Alsace with his wife. In 1910, Ettore Bugatti founded his automobile factory in Molsheim, and today Bugatti's headquarters are located there in a restored castle. Like all buyers, Scholz also had to pay 300,000 euros upfront for his new Veyron. Only then was he invited to the Alsatian castle for a test drive. During the journey, they were stopped by the police, fro driving much too quickly, of course. The Bugatti board member who accompanied him spoke to the police and the journey continued without penalty. Back at the factory, he chose the color and seats of his future car: his first Bugatti. Until then everything went according to plan. Scholz, who looks rather inconspicuous, sits at the table in his huge showroom and continues talking about the big day back then. The board member said goodbye after the trip and introduced them to the head of the traditional department, who should continue to look after them for the day: Julius K. He is the author of several standard works on the Marque and he is, for many, the greatest Bugatti expert today. This Julius K. showed them around the plant, they had a meal together, K. showed the couple pictures and miniatures of old cars. “I was amazed by the design,” says Scholz. Then K. said that one could even bring these old Bugattis back to life - and buy them too. You just had to have the right partner to avoid being cheated. He could establish such a contact for them. When they drive home after almost six hours, Scholz is delighted. "I thought: Wow, these are great cars." You don't get too close to Thomas Scholz if you realize that at that point in time he didn't have the faintest idea of old Bugatti cars. In poker, players who have a lot of money but little idea what they are doing are called dead money. Scholz is easy prey. Three weeks later, says Scholz, there was a second meeting at the Bugatti headquarters. In addition to Scholz and Julius K., a third man had come: Hero A., the owner of a vintage car workshop near Osnabrück. He is the contact that K. had promised. At the turn of the millennium, Hero A. ran Sunburst AG, a dot-com company that promised millions in profits by marketing the brand rights for the Love Parade and Sesame Street, and shortly afterwards went into bankruptcy in a spectacular way. It is unclear exactly how A. got into the classic car business. However, with the presence of Bugatti expert K., Scholz assumes that he can trust Hero A. They agree to buy two vintage cars that Hero A. is going to build for Thomas Scholz. Purchase price: one million euros. The draft contract has been submitted to ZEIT. Thomas Scholz, it says, commissioned A.'s company to build two Bugattis. And further: »They are replicas of the existing Bugattis of Ralf Lauren. “The Bugattis” will get an H-approval (oldtimer status) ”. "As many original Bugatti parts as possible" will be used for this. In this manner, the cars would meet the criteria of Pebble Beach. Once a year the biggest beauty contest for vintage cars takes place on the west coast of the USA, Julius K. is one of the judges there. The contract further states that K. will be available for advice and will act as an "arbitrator" in disputes. Scholz signs without hesitation. What can possibly go wrong under the supervision of Julius K.?
Norbert Schroeder laughs happily over the phone when he hears the story of Thomas Scholz' alleged Bugatti classic car. Because there is a question behind it that he has had to answer almost every day for years, and yet again and again: What exactly is it, an original classic car?
In the case of Thomas Scholz's two Bugatti oldtimers, says Schroeder, the situation is clear. The "replicas" of the Bugatti from Ralph Lauren described in the sales contract with "as many" original parts as possible are just that: replicas. They would never get an H-license plate for oldtimers from him in the TÜV, as it was promised in the contract. The orientation on the criteria of Pebble Beach is irrelevant, because it is only about the appearance of a car (This seems to be incorrect in the original article, Pebble Beach only accepts original cars, in principle), Ed.. A specialist would have recognized immediately that the contract could not be adhered to. "From today's perspective, I would not sign the contract because it is pure fraud," says Thomas Scholz. From today's perspective. Scholz describes the time after the purchase as a frenzy. He flies to autoshows in the UK and to the contest in Pebble Beach. Julius K. takes care of the admission tickets. In emails, K. offers him other vintage cars, Bugatti miniatures, books and an old Bugatti wristwatch. ZEIT has some of the e-mails. A 1:8 scale model costs 6500 euros. The watch is 159 euros. He buys the book Bugatti La Gloire for 550 euros. Julius K. wrote a dedication to him in one of his books: "You may be the only one who came to Bugatti through me." Scholz says he bought accessories for a total of around 20,000 euros, he often paid in cash, so he almost never has any receipts. "We were hungry," says Scholz. “And K. wanted to sell.” Even before the agreed cars are ready, Scholz orders three more Bugattis from Hero A.'s workshop. He seems obsessed with cars. For Scholz, however, it soon becomes clear that Bugatti can also cause problems. The two Ralph Lauren Bugattis are still not ready two years after the order was placed. The test drive is delayed several times. When the time finally came, in summer 2009, he traveled to the Black Forest to drive his cars for the first time at a Bugatti meeting. The test drive becomes a disaster. From the beginning, he recalls, the car vibrated unusually strong, and after a few kilometers a wheel came loose when braking and overtook him. Hero A. will later write to him in an email that "at no point in time" was there any danger. A few months later, Scholz had his supposed classic cars delivered anyway and placed them in his showroom. They have been there to this day, for more than ten years.
The classic car market has changed. “It's no longer just enthusiasts who are interested in cars. There are also speculators,” says Norbert Schroeder from TÜV Süd. Prices have been rising for years, and payments are often made in cash or from foreign accounts. And so the industry also becomes interesting for a third group: the fraudsters.
It is the first major investigation in Germany to pursue fraud involving vintage cars. "We are still at the very beginning in this field," said the investigating public prosecutor Jan Balthasar to the ZEIT. One of the anomalies during the investigation: Many of the owners are reluctant to be listed as victims in the proceedings. As with works of art, the value of a classic car is measured by how valuable people think it is. If the illusion is destroyed by an appraisal, the vehicle is only worth as much as the price of its individual parts. There are dozens of oldtimers, perhaps more, that are still admired at rallies, but which are little more than a pile of not-so-expensive sheet metal. Thomas Scholz says he is quite strict in this. Such people should be stopped. That's why he accepted the depreciation of his classic cars. He sued in court against Julius K. and Hero A., among others, and demanded repayment of 1.3 million euros. He never received the last three vehicles he had ordered. But the court found that Julius K.'s involvement in a "joint fraud" was not apparent.
Hero A., however, was sentenced by the judges to repay around 750,000 euros to Thomas Scholz. But Hero A.'s workshop went bankrupt. In the bankruptcy documents, Scholz found an invoice written by Julius K., the Bugatti Pope. For the "acquisition of customer Mr. Thomas Scholz", it says, K. received a fee of 20,000 euros from the company. ZEIT has the invoice. Further documents show that K. also received monthly payments from the workshop. The "arbitrator," as he was called in the contract, was bought. Scholz also turns to the Volkswagen ombudsman. Bugatti's parent company then started internal investigations, at the end of which the employment relationship with the head of the historical department Julius K. was terminated. The ZEIT would have liked to talk to Volkswagen and Bugatti about the background to Thomas Scholz's case and the involvement of their colleague Julius K. But the company declined a request for an interview from ZEIT on the subject, as did several former Bugatti top managers who were familiar with the case. Julius K. and Hero A. also do not want to comment on ZEIT's request. The industry is silent. One last phone call last week. Thomas Scholz talks about his Bugattis again. He now owns eleven. He's going to sell his collection, says Scholz suddenly. "I don't want to have anything to do with a scene like this," he says. His lifetime is too good for that. He has offered all of his Bugattis to a dealer, he only wanted to keep one. The rest is for sale. Only: what are they worth?
![]() The Bugatti Atlantic is one of the most expensive passenger cars in the world, when it's real....
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September 14, 2021 On September 8, after a very short and sudden illness, our friend, Bugatti enthusiast and "Master of the engine rebuild" Bart Rosman died, aged 83. I got to know Bart over 2 decades ago, when I was a young Bugatti enthusiast with no Bugatti, and was admitted to the world of the Bugatti Club Nederland. Bart was one who accepted everybody with a true Bugatti interest, regardless if you owned a Bugatti or not. It was the enthusiasm that mattered. Bart was also an esteemed member of the Bugatti Aircraft Association, just because he was interested in the technology, and was present in various BAA meetings. The only time when he was less friendly, was when the subject came to replica Bugattis, of which many exist these days. He was fiercely opposed to these "look alikes"!
Bart did all of his maintenance and preparation himself; I once visited him while he was busy assembling his T35C's (roller bearing) crankshaft, a very precise operation indeed! On the top photo from a Dutch rally in 2016, Bart and his life-companion Tubien Wisse, who died in 2018. After Tubien died, we unfortunately saw him less often. Bart, we will miss your friendly and enthusiastic presence! I hope heaven will have a special place for the Bugattiste, preferably a race track!
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September 7, 2021 Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn auction, September 3/4, 2021
Witnesses report that the car did not reach it's reserve during the auction, but was sold after the auction |
August 22, 2021 RM Sotheby's Monterey auction Monterey, August 13/14, 2021
Gooding & Co Pebble Beach auctions, August 14/15, 2021
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March 3, 2022 Bonhams', Amelia Island Auction USA
March 4, 2022 Gooding & Company, Amelia Island Auction USA
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March 5, 2022 RM Auctions, Amelia Island Auction Florida, USA
Wrum wrum, by Mantras gr