Bugatti Type 22 drowned 70 years ago fetches $368,860 at auction


The rare Bugatti Veyron was kind of lucky to have been rescued immediately after splashing into the lake. But not all Bugatti’s have the same luck. A Bugatti Type 22 lay buried in its watery grave (Lake Maggiore in northern Italy) for almost seventy years! The story goes thus. The 30bhp 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine car with an advanced multi-valve cylinder head was first registered in 1925 in Paris before being unofficially imported to Switzerland by a young architect. When the Swiss government demanded import duty, the car was almost worthless, and the best solution for the owner was to push the car into the lake. The car was discovered in the 1960s by local divers. But it was only last year that a salvage team recovered the Bugatti that lay covered in mud 53 meters deep. On recovery, it was realized that one side of the Bugatti was in much better condition than the other as the lake’s mud had helped to preserve it. But this not all; the resurrected Bugatti was then auctioned in the Retromobile Auction, fetching £228,000 ($368,860), a cool £160,000 ($258,865) more than the highest estimate!

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The new owner of this “drowned” Bugatti plans to display it in its current rusty condition.
[Autocar]

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