If you want a Bugatti Type 59 Grand Prix racing car from the 1930s, you’ll likely pay more than $10 million, and that’s if an owner is willing to sell.
Next best thing is a 1:8-scale model from Amalgam Collection, which is producing the car in the livery in which Jean-Pierre Wimille raced at the 1935 Belgian Grand Prix.
Only 15 of these hand-crafted models will be available, at $18,607 each.
The Type 59, Amalgam notes, was “the ultimate expression of the Bugatti Grand Prix car… a testament to Ettore and Jean Bugatti’s extraordinarily creative engineering talents.”
The scale model is based on digital scans of Type 59 chassis 59122, “kindly allowed by its current owner Ralph Lauren, and, with the cooperation of Bugatti’s automotive historian Julius Kruta, developed one of its most stunningly detailed and precisely replicated models,” Amalgam reports.
The Bugattis built 7 examples of the car in Grand Prix configuration, and four — each raced by the factory team — are known to survive.
Amalgam’s 1:8-scale versions are more than 20 inches long, have removable engine covers and are comprised of “thousands of precisely engineered parts.”
These folks make the best models EVER. Go to their site and prepare to be gobsmacked. Their F1 models are to die for, and the others simply nail down the coffin lid. Could I afford such artistry, I’d have it all. Do check them out.