MONTEREY, CA.- RM Auctions is set continue its reputation for offering automobiles of exceptional quality when its annual Monterey, California sale gets underway August 19 – 20, featuring one of the most spectacular rosters of motor cars ever presented in auction history.
Among notable entries set to cross the auction podium during the two-day sale is the exquisite 1935 Bugatti Type 57 Grand Raid Roadster, chassis number 57260, one of only ten Bugatti Grand Raid roadsters built and one of just two examples bodied by Carrosserie Worblaufen in Switzerland.
Specially commissioned by flamboyant Swiss collector, Mr. Jules Aellen, 57260 was completed just in time for Aellen and his wife to show the car at the second Concours d’Elegance at Montreux on Lake Geneva in Spring 1935, where it won the Grand Prix d’Honneur. Following Aellen’s ownership the roadster remained in Switzerland – in and around Geneva – well into the 1950s. From there it went to France before an American collector finally acquired the car in 2000 and commissioned its complete restoration over an 18-month period. With no expense spared, the Worblaufen archives were referenced to ensure absolute correctness, as was the existing Montfort sister car. In 2005, 57260 was invited to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it secured 2nd in Class. It returns to the Monterey Peninsula in California, USA, August 19 – 20 for RM’s Monterey sale, where it is estimated to achieve between $1,000,000 - $1,200,000.
