Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante, Black & Red

The Atalante was the closed two-seater built on Bugatti's Type 57S, the lowered sports chassis of the late 1930s. The S stood for surbaissé: to bring the car down, the rear axle was passed through the frame rather than slung beneath it, and the 3,257 cc twin-cam straight-eight was given dry-sump lubrication, a system derived from the Type 59 Grand Prix car, so it would fit under a lower bonnet. Little more than forty 57S chassis were made, and only seventeen carried Atalante coachwork. The C of 57SC denotes the Roots-type supercharger; only a couple of cars left the works with one, but most owners later had it fitted, raising output from around 170 to 200 bhp.

This example wears gloss black with a red sweep cut across the doors and rear wings, over a burgundy leather cabin and cream carpets. The doors open on trimmed cards with wood cappings; inside, a walnut dashboard carries a full set of white-faced dials behind a wood-rimmed wheel. The bonnet side lifts to show the straight-eight, its polished cam covers and the machine-turned bulkhead. Black wire wheels with chrome centre-lock nuts, French plates reading 7828-Z75 and an oval F plate on the tail complete the period detail. It is a large-scale model, with the presence to match.