in the 5o`s and 6o`s there were only a handfull of real bugatti-collectors , who owned more than 1 or 2 cars.
harrah and shakespeare in the US, schlumpf in france or c.w.p.hampton in the UK.
but what happened to hotel owner G.marquet of brussels, who is said to have been a bugatti fanatic and
seemed to have owned over 2o bugattis including the first pur sang, the T10, later sold to harrah. I`ve only heard that he `s got financial troubles and had to sell his collection

can anybody sheed some facts on him??

mike

A few snippets of information from my data base :

MARQUET, George.
The Brussels, Belgium, owner, in the sixties, of the type 10 “bathtub” which he had acquired from Belgian dealer de Dobeleer. The car had either been lost or stolen during WW2 after it had been transferred from Molsheim to Bordeaux. Marquet refused access to Hugh Conway to inspect the car. Around the same time he also owned a type 35 (4778 with engine no. 82), a type 37 (37248 or 37218*) and a type 40 with engine no. 740. The type 10 was sold to William Harrah in the USA in a deal brokered by a sports-car dealer named Dubois. In 1973 he was also listed as the owner of car 4794 ; a type 35T with engine 135T.

Talking of early Bugatti collectors, but more particularly in this case Classic Car collectors, I have always been interested in D. Cameron Peck. He bought the ghastly Double Berline Royale via Briggs Cunningham in 1951, but also at the time he had a fabulous collection of classics including Mercedes SSK's and numerous Duesenbergs including the Gary Cooper SSJ. By the end of the decade he had disposed of all of them. I always wondered what happened.

Many great classic car-collectors owned many other great cars like the mentioned peter hampton, who
owned next to his bugattis ( T13, T15,black bess, T 18, T3o, T55, T54.....) a Hispano Suiza V12 soutchik , a mercedes SSK and many more.

mike

Peter Hampton was my next door neighbour in Spronketts Lane Bolney.He was a brave man who was wounded during the allied invasion of Normandy.He suffered with his arm ever after.The new owners of the house [Spronketts]still have a Bugatti blueprint of the Bugatti prototype steam train in all its glory,a gift from Molsheim to Peter.Framed and entitled "last train from Molsheim" it should really be on display at the trust.But despite my urging they seem not to have bothered to chase it up.

HAMPTON, C.W.P. (Peter).
The UK head of an international firm of land agents. He lived at the Old Barn House, Effingham Common, Surrey in the thirties and was subsequently a long term resident of “Spronketts”, Bolney, Sussex and the owner of a selection of desirable Bugatti models including a type 13 (670 with engine 322 and reg. no. NJ 13), a type 15 (366 with engine 16) which had belonged to Ettore’s wife Barbara before being sold to Col. Dawson in the UK, and numerous others. It is reported that he owned 25 Bugattis. He competed at Prescott in five of his cars between May, 1939 and August 1952 with best times as follows : type 13 (62.25), type 15 (80.70), type 18 (63.07), type 30 (74.28) and type 57SC (58.36). The latter was chassis no. 57602 which was fitted with a two seater coupé body built by Corsica, London to a Vanden Plas design. He also owned a 1934 type 57 tourer (57235) fitted with a 4 seater body by Corsica. The car had engine no. 137, and UK reg. no. DLD 471. Hampton sold it to M.H.H.Scott, who, in the early fifties, advertised it for sale for £650. It is now painted blue and owned by W.J.Cooke. The fastest car in his collection was the type 54 (54201 fitted with engine no.1) which he kept until the time of his death. He also owned other makes of cars including a 1921 Delage DE which he advertised for sale in May, 1950. He was a contributor to “Bugantics” and to Hugh Conway’s definitive book “Bugatti – Le pur-sang des automobiles” and was acknowledged by him in the Foreword to the original edition published in 1963, the year the Bugatti firm was sold. One of his last appearances was at the wheel of his early type 13 (UK reg. no. NJ 13). Other cars owned include a Bébé Peugeot (see B.12/4/3, B.14/6/38 & B.17/1/10), a type 44 with the chassis no. 44533 and UK reg. no. UW 4171 circa 1942 and a type 40 (40483) fitted with a type 55 FHC body.

Don't forget, that Michel Dovaz has had 22 Bugattis. He bought the first (a Type 49) in 1948. Some of the 22 are stolen and the others he sold. The last 9 in 1990 when the publications of Hesselmann forced him to do so and the fisc - awaked by the same publications - had send him a huge tax assesment. He owned the only in the factory of Ettore Bugatti built Bugatti T57 Atalante SC (#57542SC)

Yesterday I saw this book on ebay on Tom Perkins, I have never head of him:

http://cgi.ebay.nl/MINES-Bigger-Extraor ... 286.c0.m14

Synopsis: Tom Perkins, the venture capitalist behind such companies as Google, Genentech, Amazon, and AOL, doesn't do things halfway. When he collected vintage cars, for instance, he had the world's largest collection of Bugatti automobiles. And when he decided to pursue.... etc etc

When Google-ing his name (no intensive search but just a quick one) I find the same story time and time again about how he sold his EB110 to fund his yacht: tough choice ! (If I owned a EB110 I would have sold it yesterday, but then who am I)

so does he qualify ? Does anybody know about the extents of his "largest collection"

regards, Bart

_________________
"Barttore has left the forum"

he had the world's largest collection of Bugatti automobiles

Not true... He had some great Bugattis (Atlantic (now RL) and 57SC Corsica) but as far as I know not manny more Bugattis..... EB110 does not count.... not a rel Bugatti.... And that he needed to sell the car to fund his yacht is is rediculous... He changed interest from cars to boats and sold most of his cars.... He has also owned the only running You You including real Bugatti engine.

Hi MV,

Am still recovering from our long holiday in Europe and trying to sort out some of the pictures we took.

There's a nice one somewhere on flickr of your mother looking very elegant in the back of Jan's type 43.

With regard to Tom Perkins, I believe he also owned a type 55 roadster (possibly 55229) and a 57C Atalante as well as the cars you mention above.

hello

tom perkins was not an early collector, for starting his collection in the 7o`s. he tried up to collect
the world`s most famous supercharged cars, which he described in his long out of print book:"supercharged supercars", including all his bugattis, two alfa romeos, duesenberg etc...
yes, he also owned a T55 and a T57c atalante,once said to have been jean`s personal car. he sold his cars in the 8p`s, but kept as far as I remember the T57sc corsica and the atalante, which he sold as his last car to ralph lauren.

regards
mike

the bugattis owned by tom perkins :
T55: Jean roadsder # 55229
T57C :Atalante #57557
T57SC: corsica, ex malcolm cambell # 57531
T57SC: atlantic, ex pope # 57591

regards
mike

Hi Mike

According to Laugier the Corsica T57S, 57531, was the Bugatti he kept the longest, eventually selling to Arturo Keller. Having said that, I was unaware Tom Perkins owned an Atalante (57557) and he may very well have sold this car to Ralph Lauren as well as the Pope Atlantic.

The way I understand it Tom Perkins gained fame for the quality of his car collection and not so much the number of cars. As stated earlier in this thread in addition to his Bugattis he concentrated on supercharged cars of the 1930's (his book has also been mentioned here), including the ex-Peter Hampton Hispano Suiza J12 Roadster (Now with Arturo Keller), the Gurney Nutting Duesenberg SJ (present owner unknown - North?) and a Squire. His 500K Spezial Roadster won Pebble Beach in the eighties.

I really do admire Tom Perkins ; he put together this wonderful collection of the some of the finest automobiles and then he disbanded the collection when he realised he was not using them enough. Does anyone remember in which issue of Supercar Classics his collection featured?

His collection was never the biggest, but it most certainly was one of the finest.

Kind Regards
Johan

Dear Johan and all:

"55229" was an unfortunate car and not one that enhanced Tom Perkins' collection. The car was born on the floor of Lee Gohlike's restoration shop with some real bits and many replica parts, including chassis frame. Real at that time was the gear box ("C.V.") no. 11 ex-55219 and the engine which was a combination of the crankcases of "BPK 1" (35 ex-55235) and the camboxes of Engine no. 20, ex-51127. Somehow, the unfortunate car ended up with noted collector Oscar Davis, no doubt, as a result of poor homework on the part of a well-known Bugatti wheeler-dealer...

Given this regrettable set of circumstances, I volunteered to act as an intermediary with my buddy Ray Jones to see if, with an exchange of some parts and some dollars, a good car could emerge at the other end.

A quick trip to his Stuart, Florida airplane hangar confirmed the original chassis frame, complete bulkhead assembly and rear axle ("P.A.") no. 11 to chassis 55219, as well as a myriad of other original T55 bits. A deal was done...you can only imagine; I built and loaded a crate while the money-changers did their deal; I like Ray, but the best way to deal with him was to leave with your parts or watch the truck leave with the crate! Shortly thereafter, "55229" came to bits...

Concurrent with the dismantling, 51127, the "Giovanni Coss car" was purchased by Davis from the estate of Anthony Mayman and the engine then-fitted, no. 11 ex-55219 joined the re-construction of "55229" into the genuine 55219. (51127 received the ex-55235 crankcases...numbers, regrettably removed and restamped "55209/8" before a proposed Hucke deal fell through to reunite "BPK 1" with its engine, years earlier...and its original no. 20 camboxes.)

Today, Davis still owns the re-born 55219 which consists of its original frame, rear axle, gearbox, engine and bulkhead assembly (which matched up perfectly with the holes on the chassis frame.) While the car may lack the much debated element of "continuous history", it has a higher percentage of its original components than a majority of its Type 55 brethren.

Sandy

Sandy[/quote]
What a wonderful story Sandy,Lets hear more like it.The car of course DOES have a continuous history, It is just a little confusing! I also know Ray... So where is the front axle? I have just had a long call from Pierre Macoin,Does anybody know the story about Roland Bugatti's SUBMARINE ? I may put it into my forthcoming book