1937 Bugatti Type 57S Sells for $4.4 million at Paris Auction

The 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante that was recently discovered forgotten in a garage in the UK has sold for about $4.4 million.

Hailed as one of the last great garage discoveries, the Bugatti was found locked in the garage of a reclusive Newcastle doctor after his death, along with an Aston Martin and a Jaguar E-Type. The Type 57S Atalante went under the hammer at the Paris Bonhams Retromobile auction on February 7, and the final selling price was 3,417,500 euros.

One of just seventeen examples, the car was originally owned by Earl Howe, the first president of the British Racing Drivers Club. Registered DKY 5, the Bugatti was a familiar sight in the local sports-car scene, and passed through a few owners until Dr. Harold Carr ended up purchasing it in 1955. It was in his garage that the car sat after it was mothballed in the early 1960s until it was unearthed in 2007.

The Type 57S was a sportier incarnation of the Type 57, with a high-performance engine and a shortened, low-slung frame and de Ram shock absorbers. Type 57S racers won the A.C.F., la Marne and Comminges Grand Prix races in 1936 and at Le Mans in 1937.

The identity of the Type 57S' new owner has not been disclosed.