Evaluation: Older restoration | Sold new to Victor Rothschild, later to R. MacLeod-Carey, whose meticulous 32-page notebook about the car comes with it. Eventually auctioned in 1985 by Sotheby’s in London to Dean Edmonds, who canceled his Friday classes at Boston University, took the Concorde to London on Thursday, bought it on Saturday (for £440,000, about $570,000 at the time), and returned via Concorde. He was back in class on Monday. Restored in 1993, class winner at Pebble Beach that year. Good older paint, fair brightwork, good upholstery and gauges. The engine and chassis are obviously used but extremely well maintained. A gorgeous Jean Bugatti design with an impeccable history.
Bottom Line: The Type 55 was, essentially, a Grand Prix car in street clothes, and what gorgeous street clothes they were. This example’s history makes it even better, and the bidders in the Bonhams’s Amelia marquee recognized how extraordinary it is with this generous yet completely realistic result.
