PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. — This small black race car of four score years is not, truth be told, particularly fast. Compared with modern sports cars -- exotically engineered speed cyborgs, half-alloy, half-electronics -- the 1927 Bugatti Type 35B I'm riding in is a laughably simple machine.
It's all bare-riveted aluminum and steel, wood, wire, leather couplings -- as if its makers were working with an abbreviated table of elements. Once the dominant grand prix car in the world, the Type 35B today would have trouble keeping up with a late-model minivan.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 64 words Type of Material: Correction
Vintage car auction: A caption accompanying Friday's Rumble Seat column in Business about an auction of rare cars in Pebble Beach said the 1939 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante pictured once belonged to Macy's heir John W. Straus. It once belonged to Dr. Peter Williamson. Also, the column misspelled the first name of Lindley Locke, the former owner of a Talbot-Lago T150 CSS, as Lindsay.
And then David Gooding, chief executive of auction house Gooding & Co. , sees a clear stretch of road and nails the throttle. The skinny rear tires bark, the car jerks us back in our tiny seat (which we are sharing, by the way) and the aroma of hot oil and gasoline rises from the supercharged engine -- BBRRRAAAPPP! BAP-BAP-BAP!! -- as we reach speeds nearing 50 mph.
He cranks on the huge wooden wheel to bend the car into a corner, and when he does, the unmistakable gestalt of a race car comes through: the raw eagerness and agility, the sense of direct connection to the road, the danger, the fun.
"Feels fast, doesn't it?" Gooding shouts over the wind.
The car is part of the collection of Dr. Peter and Susan Williamson. He was a distinguished neurologist at Dartmouth College -- and was one of the nation's leading Bugatti experts and connoisseurs. Before he died of cancer in June at age 71, he made arrangements with Gooding to auction off the majority of his collection during the annual automotive festival that occurs around Sunday's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance vintage car show.
On a weekend when dozens of extraordinary cars will change hands for tens of millions of dollars at five major auctions, the Williamson auction is the marquee event.
"This is the best private Bugatti collection in the world," said vintage car expert Ken Gross. "There hasn't been a sale like this since [the 1960s]. People will come far for this."
The Williamson consignment of 12 cars -- including two rare Atalantes, three full-on race cars and several luxury sedans -- is expected to go for more than $15 million. Part of the proceeds will benefit Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Unfortunately for the collecting world, Williamson's prized possession, a 57SC Atlantic, arguably the most valuable car in the world, is not part of the auction. The family hasn't decided what to do with the car, but it's expected to be sold privately; estimates go as high as $50 million.
