If Paris is the destination of fashion in the collective imagination, it is also the spiritual birthplace of the construction of bespoke bodywork, the culminating point for RM Sotheby's on February 1st.
In 2023, a superior selection of supercars, past and present, as well as notable examples of modern motorsport, will be offered under the famous French city lights. For the occasion on the tenth anniversary a Paris, RM Sotheby's moves into a completely new environment at the Salles du Carrousel in the Louvre Palace. A destination destination for clients from all over Europe and located in the “Golden Triangle” of Paris, a stone's throw from Place Vendôme, this new location is sure to make RM Sotheby's Paris 2023 auction an opportunity not to be missed. With grand hotels and fine dining that define cosmopolitan, Paris presents the perfect backdrop for offering your collector car for sale. Planning is already underway for RM Sotheby's first European auction of the 2023 season.
Bugatti Type 55
€1,800,000 – €2,200,000 EUR
Like many of the major automakers of the early XNUMXth century, Bugatti used its racing success to raise the profile of its road cars. In the case of the Type 55, introduced by Bugatti in 1932, the links to motorsport were quite explicit: it was a direct descendant of the Type 51 racing car, and was similarly powered by a supercharged 2,3-litre twin-cam in-line engine. -eight. The 38 Bugatti Type 55s produced typically wore sporty, often open-top bodies that further emphasized the model's racing roots. According to marques expert David Sewell's report, Swiss Bugatti agent Bucar of Zurich ordered chassis 55219 in the winter of 1932 on behalf of their client, Mr. Edmond Reiffers, a notary in Luxembourg City. Once completed later that spring, a factory employee delivered the chassis without a body to a temporary location on the border just 160 miles from the factory. Mr Reiffers intended to commission a body of his choice for the car, but not before one of his three sons, Ernest, entered the chassis with only the bonnet, headlamps and seat at several local events organized by the Automobile Club of Luxembourg . Finally, in October of the same year, Pritchard & Demollin of Angleur, Belgium built a four-seat convertible body for the Type 55. In 1938, the car was sold to industrialist Rudi Cloos, a fellow Luxembourg resident. However, the Bugatti changed hands twice more over the next two years within the Grand Duchy before being hidden during the war. When peace finally came in 1945, the vehicle was unearthed and registered to Pierre Schickes, an electrician. Unfortunately, the Bugatti would suffer front end damage under his ownership. Subsequent photographs after the crash show that the car received modified front wings that hang down to the front crossmember; the rest of the bodywork remained intact. In 1955, ownership changed hands again to a Belgian named Gillard, but in 1957 the well-known Bugatti dealer, Jean de Dobbeleer of Brussels, bought the Type 55.
Bugatti Chiron Profile
€4,200,000 – €5,500,000 EUR
The Bugatti Chiron was first shown to the world in March 2016 as a worthy successor to the groundbreaking Veyron, setting new standards in terms of performance and usability, once again setting a new benchmark for super sports cars. Both the Veyron and Chiron share the phenomenal 16-liter W-8,0 engine, albeit almost entirely reengineered for the newer car, which in the Chiron application features four larger two-stage turbochargers to boost horsepower to 1.600 CV.
2003 Ferrari Enzo 3,800,000 – 4,200,000 EUR (cover image)
From his early days at the wheel of the Grand Prix titans of the Alfa Romeo stable to the last revolutionary supercar launched shortly before his death, Enzo Ferrari was resolutely committed to creating cars to beat the world over. Seated at the pinnacle of motorsport or between the pages of the center pages of magazines, the cars wearing the Prancing Horse represented the cutting edge of technology and style. Fitting, then, that the car built in his honor, the Ferrari Enzo, exemplified everything that had seen the Maranello marque grow from a boutique manufacturer of sports racing to one of the most coveted and desirable badges in motoring history. Like the grand Halo models that have come before it, the Enzo was created to push the limits of road car performance, using technology derived from the top level of motorsport and the otherworldly styling of longtime partner Pininfarina. Constructed of lightweight carbon fiber and aluminum, the Enzo's advanced chassis was clad in a composite body styled by bodybuilder Ken Okuyama and shaped by wind tunnel testing. Influenced by the company's flagship Grand Prix cars, the jaunty nose has taken on a tone carried over to the rest of the bodywork, with subtle ground-effect aerodynamics and a small active spoiler in place of its predecessor, the F50's outrageous rear wing.
TUESDAY 31 JANUARY 2023 10:00 – 20:00 PUBLIC PREVIEW Entrance is open to the public. WEDNESDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2023 10:00 – 15:00 PRIVATE PREVIEW Entrance reserved for registered bidders and senders only. 16:00 AUCTION
