A picture of this car has recently been added to the photo-gallery.

I was unsure about the name of the original owner at first, but here are his details :


EONNET, Robert.

A French “gentleman driver”. He was born in Paris on 30th April, 1912 the son of Alice Dervaux and Maurice Eonnet. He was employed in his father’s lucrative business in the Paris “Bourse” and is said to have excelled as a golfer, tennis player, bobsledder and deep-sea diver.

He owned several Bugattis including a type 51 which he raced in the one-and-only city centre Grand Prix de Vichy on 15th July, 1934. He finished eighth in the second heat and failed to make the final - apparently an uncompetitive driver in a no-longer-competitive car. His performance at Dieppe seven days later produced an identical outcome. By this time Alfa Romeo and Maserati were making far quicker Grand Prix cars. However Eonnet later made FTD at the Saint Lô hill-climb but incurred the wrath of his father who had bought him the type 51 on the condition that it wasn’t raced.

In 1936 he partnered Norbert Mahé in the Morocco Rally at the wheel of a Talbot.

The follwing year, aged twenty-four, he took delivery of a two-tone type 57S Atalante (chassis no. 57511).

Thanks for the update.

57511 being, of course, one of three Atalantas (the others : T57S, 57573 & T57C, 57624) owned by the late Dr. Peter Williamson. Laugier notes an interesting anomaly with this car ; in the original delivery documents (or factory documents, I forget which) the colour of this car is noted simply as blue, whereas photos taken before delivery clearly shows a two-tone finish. Usually this was indicated, but not for this car. One of the few cars originally equipped with chrome wires, even rarer, it now has a set of painted wire-wheels. This car is soon to be auctioned together with the rest of the Williamson Collection, but not the Atlantic or the T50, I believe. Does anyone know why?

As I am sure Mr. Buchner knows well, this is an Atalante rather than an Atalanta.

I have now realised that the entry listed in the factory records against this chassis no. is Bayard-Eonnet.

Could Bayard possibly have been an agent, or sub-agent ?

From Laugier the following : " According to a letter from the factory on November 26, 1936, Mr Serge Eonnet of 12 Rue Adolphe Yvon in Paris, ordered this car on November 4. When the car left the factory workshop on February 19, 1937, it was painted blue* with a pigskin interior and beige cloth. The body carried the No.8

This eighth Atalante (with an "e", thanks) was delivered on February 25, 1937 to the Bayard** Garage at 22 bis Rue Bayard, which was managed by Mr. Jaques de Valance, Mr Richer-Delavaux and Mr. De Lavoreille.

Robert Eonnet was the first owner of this car, which was licensed in his name in February 1937 in Paris, with Number 2432 RK 8."

* Laugier makes no mention of the two-tone paint, but Bernard Simon does on p162 of his book. On the WIKI, next to the chassis number 57511 there is a small photo, not repeated in the inscription, which shows the original delivery photograph. Perhaps someone can scan this photo in?

** From Bernard Simon the following : "In the factory lists Bayard-Eonnet is noted as customer. This was because Bayard was not an official dealer but for this order was probably treated as such by Bugatti Paris. A firm order for the S Atalante had been placed by the Garage Bayard, 22 bis, Rue Bayard in Paris on the 4th of November 1936. On the 26th of November a down-payment of 5000 Francs was made for the Atalante."

From Hugh Conway's Magnum the following confirmation :
57511; engine 17S; delivery date 02/1937; Carross. Atalante; Client Bayard-Eonnet.

This should clear things up to a nicety.
Johan he-got-books Buchner

All this information so quickly and for free.

As one final aside, a picture was printed in Bugantics showing a 57 derivative with bumpers swept right forward at the ends.

The caption to the picture said that the owner was sure that's how they were originally.

The factory pictures of 57511 show these very unusal bumpers.

Gooding & Company Catalogue Description of #57511 :

This car was ordered on November 4, 1936, by Robert Eonnet, a sportsman, bobsledder and member of the French ski team. Eonnet was most definitely a sporting gentleman of taste and means. He had owned and successfully raced a Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix. Factory records indicate that 57511 was delivered on February 25, 1937; it was two-tone Blue with pigskin and beige cloth interior. Eonnet kept his new Bugatti only about a year. Subsequent owners are not known until 1951 when it was registered in Lyon then in Paris in April 1951 where it was registered on April 17 to Count Jacques Teste de Merian Roquevaire. A year and a half later, it was acquired by Yves de la Motte Montgoubert and he in turn sold it in the winter of 1952. The next owner, Jean Martin, sold it to Bugatti dealer Jean de Dobbeleer in Brussels in 1957 and from him it was sold to Charles S. Hascall in 1958. Dr. Williamson understood the car to have been upgraded to Type 57SC specifications at the factory by either Martin or de Dobeleer, and prior to Haskall’s aquisition. Hascall was a US Navy doctor stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, and the 57SC was shipped to him there, conjuring up the rather incongruous picture of this classic high-speed Bugatti, painted menacing, sinister black, traversing the congested streets and narrow highways of postwar Japan. Surely no Japanese onlookers were indifferent to its presence and owning it there at that time must have been a unique experience. Hascall recounted later that he wanted to have it repainted blue but the Japanese body shop presented him with so many choices of blue tints that he threw up his hands and had it painted red. Back in the United States when Hascall was transferred to California, it was serviced, repaired and had an engine rebuild by Bunny Phillips. At about the same time it was repainted using a Rolls-Royce color scheme of “smoke and sage” green. Hascall sold it through Bunny Phillips to the Williamsons on June 29, 1974. This 1938 Type 57SC Atalante coupe is a limited-production, high-performance Bugatti with sporting coachwork. The body number #8 is stamped all over the car. It is so original that the side window glass was installed in Molsheim in 1937! The tan leather interior is gently worn, the paint is sound with only minor cracks at stress points. Painted “smoke and sage” this car presents itself beautifully. One of the world’s finest, best preserved, and most distinctive Bugattis, this car exhibits precisely the qualities that one hopes to find in an automobile – inspired styling combined with superior engineering, quality craftsmanship and effortless drivability. In a time when much is made of cars as art, this is a masterpiece.

_________________
Make your dream devour your life, so that life doesn't devour your dream.
[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

#57511 during its sojurn in Japan


#57511 and Jean de Dobbeleer's daughter at home in Brussels

_________________
Make your dream devour your life, so that life doesn't devour your dream.
[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

Nothing to add, but some links:

http://www.bugattibuilder.com/photo/thumbnails.php?album=700

http://www.bugattibuilder.com/wiki/index.php?title=57511

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

Thanks Herman, this is the photo I was talking about.



It's a little big innit? Look at the bumbers, just as GCL-Wales mentioned.

Johan