Well said!

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Vive la Marque !!

To Contributor Minime :

I've been reading your post again and I'm struck by how careful you are to distinguish between your own opinion and the generally accepted 'wisdom' ; which got me thinking about the grey Atlantic. Very odd I agree, moving on

I don't think it's greed, this guy is too rich to take a gamble that this project will result in major profits. Indeed none of the usual explanations work, he is not a naive collector who got himself an apparent bargain which he's trying to research into a profitable resale. It is this absence of cynicism that I find so mystifying, but perhaps I've stumbled onto something :

I think this man might be a True Believer. A man who is completely mistaken, but a Believer all the same. He desires a legacy as the man who not only resurrected 57473 but saved it I think. Perhaps something similar to Mr Boudeman's Golden Submarine - a replica built around a spare engine and called a restoration by the owner. Many feathers ruffled as a result, but no-one calls it a fake. Anymore. I wonder if something similar is happening here?

It's all so tempting isn't it? A fabulous car with a fabulous history, but alas, this fabulous car cannot own this fabulous history. I know this and so do you. Yet against all evidence and advise to the contrary this man remain resolute in his undertaking and I doubt I'm the only one who has a grudging admiration for this modern-day Don Quixote.

Just one problem ; not enough of this car survived the train to call this a restoration, resurrection perhaps, but not a restoration. The stunningly beautiful grey Atlantic is, in my personal opinion, a very good replica and not 57473. But like I said, the man is a believer and for this folly he deserves to be counted among the Bugatti faithful. Ettore Bugatti, all who worked at Molsheim, the brothers Schlumpf, all members of the BOC and all the members of this forum - now tell me a multi-millionaire fantasist tilting at windmills does not belong here.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Hello Mr. Buchner,

Thank you very much to share your thoughts about the Atlantic 57473.
I have seen this car this February in Paris at the Rétromobile and I must admit that it is a real piece of art.
I'm working in automotive business as development engineer and I'm restoring and maintaining the small car collection my father has set together during the last 40 years.
I know about the work someone can accomplish alone, in a well equipped home workshop and what specialized companies can do.
I know the feeling when you find at a market that missing part you were looking for and also the disappointment when it's totally overpriced.
I know about the pride that you can feel if people admire your work when it's well done, a feeling you can't buy for money.
I also know that if money isn't counting, many things that seemed impossible become suddenly only a question of when and not how much.
But....
I believe that no money on earth can bring back the original Atlantic as it was just totally destroyed.
Sure the rebuilt 57473 is a correct copy of the original in all aspects and from all points of view and I believe that it was never the intention of the actual owner to fool the community however why does this car has the chassis number of a car that everyone knows as destroyed?
Why did they, if I can believe what was written in some places, desperately tried to transplant some old sections of the wrapped sheet metal to the copied car at a later restoration?
Isn't that a desperate attempt to increase the low percentage of authenticity or originality?
From a workmanship point of view it's even a crime to cut perfectly built sections of a body to replace them by repaired "scrap" that was not considered usable at a first restoration. I can imagine what the coachbuilder must have felt while cutting sections out of an intact body.
The truth about 57473 as it exists now as a rebuilt of the original was not that obvious to the public as for a long time people tried to convince the community of a rebuilt or even a repair.
Why haven't the pictures of the wreck, as for sure they exist, never been published so people could decide by themselves if the new 57473 is a restoration, or a copy?

I would prefer to see the actual "new" 57473 standing beside a pile of bent and damaged parts from the "past" on a stand at the next Rétromobile.
This would show also to non experts or historians what excellent craftsmanship and a big bank account can accomplish.
Also I hope that they haven't cannibalized too many others considered not valuable enough original 57's for this project as one can see for some of the cars listed in the register.
The history of 57473 in my opinion ended when it failed to stop before the train arrived at that rail crossing.
The history of the new 57473 started after that accident and is based on a mystic car and the attempt to keep it alive. Both cars have a chassis number in common and the design, oh and some shock absorber parts..
With all my admiration for this car, if I had the choice between the new 57473 and an original 57 with any coachwork pillar less Galibier, whatever, I would go for the original but I wouldn't criticize another decision of someone else.

Greetings:

Minime

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Well said.Dont worry about cannibalized original cars.The important bit is the chassis,and that is new.

Thanks Uwe!!

This photo left me speechless. I am very much looking forward to the reaction from the other contributors.

Just for the record : I believe this photo belongs to Eric Koux and it was then published in The Buganti Trust's Newsletter (with Eric's permission) and it is from the Newsletter that it was sent to me, I couldn't get the damn thing to post on the forum so I sent it Herman and Uwe. Thanks again Uwe.

Let the talking begin....

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

The photo came from a newspaper,so any copyright left after 60 years....I thought every one had seen it? How can anyone possible give an opinion about this fine car without knowing what it looked like after its sad END.

New chassis , so it can not be an original .Even if all other mechanical parts are original Bugatti . But there was an original and this original no longer exists . So nothing wrong with bulding a replica . One replica , and not 500 . The problem with the argentina replicas is the mass production .
In the moment something is going on . In France the registration got awake , and the last remark from the Duch custom " border seizure " .

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Hi,

Believing that it needs just an original chassis frame with some papers to build an original car is not quite right.

This might be legally the case for some countries but as one knows in the UK it’s the engine build date that brought us all of those replica Ford GT 40 kit cars (also built in South Africa) on the road. All of them licensed in the 60’s.

Those cars have everything new except for the engine and some manufacturers really try hard to build monocoque chassis as the original and not the tubular bed stead.

No, for an original car it needs more than 2 original rails and a piece of paper and I believe that I’m not the only one to think that way.

Border seizure for what reason?

This might be understandable if the car is delivered with falsified papers for example of a vehicle that exists already or if someone can proof that a falsification was done.

There are anyway so many ways around this as you can also order the whole car in spare parts and assemble it in your garage at home for example.

By the way, what’s wrong with Argentinean mass production, if one can call it so?
At least it warrants a steady quality and it keeps the price at a reasonable level compared to some wannabe original replicas (sometimes even with an original part of a frame) and the end result is the same:

A car that never left the factory gate in Molsheim but that looks and drives like the real thing at a fraction of the price of a real one.
But I guess that we are still far away from mass production here as even at a price of 150 000 Euro the circle of customers is still limited.
Or is there someone upset about low cost competition?

The actual problem I see is that if you talk to "normal" people about Bugatti, they only know that brand for their race cars like T35 T37 or T51 and maybe for the Atlantics because you can buy them in most of the gas station supermarkets as badly made model car for 12.50 Euro and not for their great range of other types.
This is most probably due to their mystic series of race success but maybe also partly to the fact that today there are virtually more of those replicas around than originals ever were built but can you blame the passionate for this situation?

Greetings:

Minime

Border seizure for what reason?
I got the info , it has to do with sales tax and import tax . It is differend from a new car compare to a car from 1930 .
Or is there someone upset about low cost competition?
For sure some people are upset about it . England is the only country in the EU with a replica car industry , so they must be upset .

oh goody,maybe they should check all of the imports for the past twenty years from south america.Just what is the penalty for false declarations?

I am told by one of their friends that in England both Hamish Moffat and Dan Margulies were investigated and heavily fined by the Inland Revenue Service (or whatever it's called) for understating the value of one or more Bugatti imported from the USA several years after the event.