The Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic and the mystery of the Black

Bugatti was the brand to own in the 1930s. Founded in 1909 by Franco-Italian industrialist Ettore Bugatti, it built its success on the audacity of its designers and the sporty performance of its racing cars. The company has long been considered a pioneer in the automotive field and produces luxury prestige sports cars marked by Ettore's dear adage: "Nothing is too beautiful, nothing is too expensive."

Ettore Bugatti next to a Bugatti Type 41 Royale Esders roadster in 1932

In 1930, Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore Bugatti, began to modernize the luxury brand's product strategy. Rather than producing several models, he decided to create a basic model from which different variants would be derived. Thus, Jean Bugatti designed the Type 57, a car conceived as both a production model and a racing car: in short, the ultimate Grand Tourer. Several engine and body variants were developed, such as the Galibier (four-door sedan), the Stelvio (convertible), the Ventoux (two-door), and the Atalante (coupe). Between 1934 and 1940, the year the model's production ended, some 800 examples of the various versions of the Type 57 left the brand's workshops.

One of the brand's most iconic models, the Aérolithe prototype (meaning meteorite), a unique example according to Bugatti's official version and one of two according to historians' versions given their simultaneous presentations at the Paris and London Motor Shows in October, it is also called Coupé Special or Coupé Aéro, is in itself a technological feat, which on its chassis number 57 104, its designer Jean Bugatti used elektron, a magnesium and aluminum alloy from the aeronautics industry. Elektron is made up of 90% magnesium and 10% aluminum. Light and strong, it is nevertheless difficult to use, because it cannot be welded. This is why Jean Bugatti riveted the body panels with 1,200 rivets using the famous crest.

It was a stylistic and aerodynamic study with a very avant-garde design and materials for the time, inspired by science fiction and the Art Deco artistic movement very fashionable at the time. On the engine side, a 3.3 inline eight-cylinder engine brought its power to around 200 hp, allowing the splendid coupé to reach a top speed of more than 200 km/h (Consumption, l/100 km: urban 35.2 / extra urban: 15.2 / combined: 22.5; CO2 emissions combined cycle, g/km: 516). Remember that we are here in the 1930s. The Aérolithe was presented in 1935 at the Paris Motor Show and the London Motor Show, with resounding worldwide media success.

From this prototype, Bugatti produced four production models between 1936 and 1938: the Type 57 SC Atlantic. However, these models were built with ordinary aluminum. Each of these models was painted a different color and is distinguished by a few details, sometimes subtle, that allow enthusiasts to distinguish them at first glance.

Despite its technical prowess and the image it created, the Aérolithe prototype and the Atlantic Coupés failed to find customers at the time. They were used as show cars.

Among these examples, only one will be truly desired by Jean Bugatti, it is the second Type 57 SC Atlantic to be produced, chassis 57 453 in black livery, hence its name of the ''Voiture Noire''. It was equipped with a lower front bumper and doors, the absence of chrome nets on the large side air vents of the hood, the addition of a small air vent on the windows (still fixed), and the presence of an imposing chrome "wing skid" at the rear. It was featured in photographs in brochures and at international shows, notably in Lyon and Nice and it will even be used to establish several world records at Montlhéry, always with Benoist.

Thus, this car, which was supposed to be intended for Jean Bugatti, would have a completely different fate. Indeed, with the onset of the Second World War, this car, which had been making such a grand appearance, simply disappeared forever without a trace. No one knows whether the black coupé was destroyed during the German invasion of Alsace or whether it was hidden in a barn somewhere in Siberia. One thing is certain: at the time when history lost track of it, Jean's Bugatti was supposed to be shipped to a safer region by train from Molsheim to Bordeaux. Since then, no one has heard anything about it. Some say it disappeared during transport, others say it never boarded that train.

In any case, what remains one of the great mysteries in automotive history obviously awakens old fantasies of seeing it one day reappear. Its estimated value is over $100 million, enough to make you fantasize even more.

The only remaining vestige of the missing Bugatti Atlantic 57SC: the original chassis plate

To further deepen this mystery, at the end of the article, we provide you with additional information through two other theories, put forward by historians of the brand, on what would have become of this car.

The three remaining copies of the Atlantic model found the following buyers:

In 1936, Bugatti built the first Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic for British banker Victor Rothschild. This model lacked a supercharger and sported a blue-grey livery. Victor Rothschild's Atlantic is known today by its chassis number: 57374.

Victor Rotschild brought it back to the factory in 1939 for a few modifications, including the addition of a compressor (it then became the 57 SC), two air vents in front of the bulkhead, and pivoting windows in the front section. It must be said that the Atlantic was very poorly ventilated and, due to a lack of air and its evacuation, the passenger compartment became an oven when it was hot! After the war, the car was sold to an American citizen, Robert Oliver, and a visit to the coachbuilder Motto gave it curious wheel arch covers with a convex base, and some chrome "ornaments", including a double bumper and very flashy wheel flanges. Its pastel blue color turned bright red, which was not in the best taste. It was later found, after a visit to Briggs Cunningham, owned by Peter Williamson, then president of the American Bugatti Club. When its current owner, Peter Mullin, acquired it, he underwent a complete restoration, scrupulously respecting the characteristics of the car as it left Molsheim in September 1936. With the exception of the unsightly steering arrow fitted at the time, to comply with English regulations, which Peter Mullin did not consider it necessary to keep!

The third example produced by Bugatti, number 57,473, was delivered to Frenchman Jacques Holzschuh in October of the same year. The second owner of the coupé, a collector, was trapped on a railway crossing with his Atlantic: he died in the accident and the car was completely destroyed. Several decades later, it was fully restored, although the engine was lost in the accident.

The last Atlantic model built is currently owned by fashion designer Ralph Lauren. With chassis number 57591, this example, built in May 1938, was originally delivered to British driver R.B. Pope. It is currently owned by the Ralph Lauren Automobile Collection. Originally blue, it was repainted in... black.

The "Voiture Noire" was the second to be recorded, but it was built at the same time as the one intended for Victor Rothschild. It is believed to have left the Molsheim workshops in October 1936, which is unlikely, as its production date was probably slightly earlier; one cannot always rely on the chronology of chassis numbers. This example is widely used for a series of photographic sessions.

To add to the mystery of the "Voiture Noire," which some call the "Mystery of the Pacific," we add the two theories put forward about its history.

- The first, that of Paul Badré: argues in favor of a direct lineage between the chassis 57453 "factory" and the model listed 57473, owned by Jacques Holzshuh in December 1937, and the second argues in favor of two different vehicles, issued by Pierre-Yves Laugier and Christian Huet, with some nuances that we will leave aside. Paul Badré: for him, the Atlantic 57453, after having served as a model for the photos in the catalog, is sold, let us quote: "to a buyer about whom we know almost nothing, except that his name is noted in the factory register regarding a Type 44. We even hesitate over the exact spelling of his name which should be written Holzshuh which is typically Alsatian and means "clog maker". Apart from all the esteem and sympathy he deserves for having dared to play the Siegfried of the dragon with riveted crests, he is clearly the most episodic and most effaced character in the history of the Atlantic. For Badré, the car returned to the factory after a few months, and its fate then merges with that evoked by P.Y. Laugier and Christian Huet, with the notable exception that the car did not disappear body and soul, and that it was sold in 1938, through the local agent Ernest Friderich, to a mechanic and amateur driver from Nice, named Pierre Boncompagni. And there, the saga of 57453 joins that of 57473, which would therefore be a single and unique car.

For Paul Badré, there is no doubt: the second Atlantic and the third, ex-Holzshuh, are one and the same, proof in his eyes that there will only be three Atlantic models.

- The second theory, that of Christian Huet: according to him, the car remained at the factory and was used by William Grover, who took a superb photo in Nancy of Mrs. Grover, her "Scottish Terriers" and the Atlantic "5800 NV 3" in front of the gates of Place Stanislas. Robert Benoist drove it to a showroom in Nice. "The beautiful black Bugatti," he wrote, "disappeared during the Second World War." For him, there was no doubt: the ex-Holzshuh 57473 continued its career as Atlantic No. 3, and had nothing to do with this 57453, of which we lost track forever. Pierre-Yves Laugier: his theory essentially agrees with that of Christian Huet. Leaving the workshop in September or October 1936, the black Atlantic was photographed on the roads of Alsace and in the grounds of Château Saint Jean, to appear in the 1937 catalog. 57453 is also the coupé immortalized by William Grover, Place Stanislas in Nancy, and by the magazine "Sport Canin", on the cover of which it also appears with Mrs. Yvonne Grover and her "Scottish terriers". Molsheim's service car (it's something other than a common Mercedes company car, isn't it?), the Atlantic was regularly used by Jean Bugatti and Robert Benoist. In 1939, the car received a faux honeycomb grille, and was registered "152 NV 4". Why, incidentally, we might ask, since the car apparently did not change department or owner? Accompanying the Bugatti family in its exodus to Bordeaux, along with a few other models including, perhaps, the Boss's Type 41 "Royale", Atlantic No. 2 was stored in a hangar, from where it disappeared in 1941. This did not prevent a chassis plate "57453" from appearing, in 1951, on the awning of the chassis of the Bugatti Type 101 coach, bodied by Gangloff, exhibited at the 1951 Paris Motor Show, and today preserved at the Mulhouse Automobile Museum.... Chassis identical to that of the Type 57, we will remember. As we can see, chassis No. 2 or chassis No. 2 THEN No. 3, the Atlantic "57453" has not revealed all its secrets!