My first time going to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance was back in 2003. There were some incredible classic cars on the 18th fairway, with Ford celebrating its 100th anniversary and Bugatti as the featured marque. In the multitude of millions of dollars worth of cars, though, there was one car that stood out from all the others – Peter Williamson's 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. Despite my complete lack of knowledge of pre-war cars at the time, even I could recognize that the car had a presence about it that no other vehicle at the show could boast. My intuition was right, and the Bugatti eventually went on to win the coveted Best of Show award that year.

The Bugatti made the news again earlier this year when Gooding & Company announced it had sold the car to an unnamed buyer in the range of a record $30-$40 million. Soon after, it was announced that the car would be on display at the recently-opened Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, CA. Since I'm always looking for an excuse for the museum to let me look at their incredible collection of cars, I called them up and convinced them to let me have a look.

After an hour of inspecting and photographing every inch of the car, I'm declaring the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic worthy of its title as the world's most expensive car. Hit the jump for my top ten reasons why.

There's no single reason why this particular Bugatti commanded the price tag it did, but instead it was a multitude of factors. There are perhaps dozens of other cars that can match or perhaps even exceed some of the reasons listed below, but none can compare to this Type 57 SC's overall worth and significance.

You can read more at Autoblog visits the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic at the Mullin Museum. Be sure that you don't miss the photo gallery.

This car is a true masterpiece.

 

Truly a stunning piece of automotive perfection; been one of my favorite's since i first learned of it!

Simple love the color on this one as well! (not like there are many others to choose from anyway)

 

An extremely beautiful and elegant car... I think only 3 or 4 of them are still in existance, i love the colour of the car and i also love the black one owned by Ralph Lauren

 

It just takes my breathe away.

 

Was the buyer ever named? Whoever it may be, they're worthy of an award for understanding the significance this car and ponying up the cash to procure something that will never be duplicated again.

 

Ok I know it is hard to be critical of a car costing $30 million, but I will try. I just can’t get my head around the front end sheet metal. The fenders, and grill look unresolved, it’s as if they ran out of ideas on how to finish it off. The yawning gap between the fenders just looks odd, there you go, I said it....sorry...

Still a great car…

 

^^^^

I see what you mean. I'll have to kill you for saying that though.

 

uber work of art

 

Doesn't get much sexier than this. Congrats to the buyer but despite its value, it's a shame to leave it sit in a museum.

 

It will only be on display in the Mullin Museum for a short period of time.

I read there were three buyers who came together to purchase the car from the Williamson family and that one of them was Peter Mullin. No guarantees of that being true, but I'd call it likely.

I visited the museum the first day of public display of the Atlantic. It was incredibly beautiful.

>8^)
ER