1937 BUGATTI TYPE 57C VANVOOREN DROPHEAD COUPE

1937 Bugatti Type 57C Vanvooren Drophead Coupe



Chassis number: 57529

Registration Number: 648RDT75 French



It appears the chassis was used first by Ettore Bugatti himself, he actually registered it himself, and the car was used as a factory demonstrator around Molsheim by Bugatti LeMans 24h racing driver Robert Benoist.

The car number 57529 was first registered at Prefecture du Bas Rhin by * Bugatti Ettore Molsheim on 28th of July 1937 as 8583-NV3.

History, sent in by the owner:

Bugatti 57529 was built in march 1937. Its first user, as 'voiture de demonstration* was Robert Benoist, the famous Bugatti racing driver (24 du Mans winner in 1937, first World champion driver in 1927) and director of the Bugatti Showroom in Paris.

Ettore Bugatti personally registered the car in Strasbourg on 28th july 1937, and used it as tied accomodation car (perhaps with a factory coachbody). Then Bugatti commissioned the Vanvooren body cabriolet in January 1938, for a French customer, M. Plegat.

In 1954, the well known Bugatti mechanic Henri Novo (from Paris) bought the car. In 1959, he sold it to Belgian broker and Bugatti enthusiast Jean de Dobbeleer, who shipped the Bugatti to his correspondent in the United States, Bugatti broker Gene Cesar. He gave it to a dentist, James Stickley from lowa, in exchange for a Type 35 racer. In 1972, Mr. John R. Bond, of Escondido (California), the owner of «Cars & tracks» magazine, bought the car, and restored it, at a cost of 250,000 dollars (or 250.000 euros in 2008).

Mr. John Bond sold the car in 1988, through a Sotheby's auction in Switzerland. A classic car collector, Mr. Helmut Karbe, from Hamburg (Germany) bought the car and asked the Danish Bugatti specialist living in France, Eric Koux, to install a compressor (engine, No. 248 from n° 57358 Bugatti, another type 57 cabriolet which was written off in the fifties). In 2007, Mr. Patrick Meney, a well known french writer and tv producer, for a long time Bugatti enthusiast, bought the car.

When the original engine seized in 1962 as a result of a fracture of the Celeron gear, the engine was replaced with engine 540 a factory spare engine but which was also stamped 57335). Later this engine was replaced by engine 248 ex 57358 but the former engine stayed with the car until it was sold by Achim Weise.



The Sotheby's auction, in Switzerland, 1988

Rallve Barycentre en Bugatti, 2008

Retromobile, Paris, February 6-15, 2009

#14 I|° Rallye Paris-Granville, May 1-3, 2009

Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or, Dijon-Prenois, June 19-20, 2010

#20 Deauville Bugatti Legend, July 17-18, 2010,

II° Alfa Bugatti Meeting & C.B.F. , Bourgogne, June 25, 2011

#20 XXII° Rally de l'Association des Clubs de Marque en Haute Alsace, August 23-26, 2012

XII° Journées Bugatti d'lle de France - CBF, April 6-7, 2013

III* Vintage Revival Montihéry, May 9-10, 2015,

Richard Mille display, Chantilly (F), September 6, 2015

VI° Coupes de Printemps, Montihéry (F), April 2, 2016

XV° Journées d'ille de France - CBF, April 5-6, 2016

#41 CBF Rallye du Cinguantenaire, Périgord (F), May 11-14, 2017, Patrick Meney

C B F les 50 ans du Club Bugatti, Autodrome Heritage Festival, Montihéry (F), June 24-25, 2017

XVI° Journées d'lle de France, En Route pour l'Auvergne - CBF, April 7-8, 2018

#1 C B F Les Vosges de Fritz Schlumpf, Gérardmer (F), June 7-10, 2018, Patrick Meney

XVII° Journées d'lle de France, Voyages extraordinaires à Amiens - CBF, April 6-7, 2019

C B F Bugatti à Montihéry (F), June 8, 2019

110 ans Bugatti, Grand Tour Bugatti, Paris (F). September 5, 2019

Furher infomration has recently been provided to us by an Historian of the Marque: