LOS ANGELES – Peter Mullin, owner of one of the world’s largest private collections of classic French automobiles, points to a 1935 Hispano-Suiza J12 cabriolet sitting among 60 other cars in his museum in Southern California.
“This is the finest car ever made,” Mullin says. “At 100 miles an hour, you couldn’t even tell the engine was on.”
The collector is just warming up at his Oxnard-based Mullin Automotive Museum, which was designed to evoke a 1930s art deco auto salon in Paris. He caresses the swooping fender of a red-and-black 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante coupe, designed by the company founder’s son, Jean Bugatti.
“I love all the French cars, but Bugatti is my favorite among favorites,” Mullin says. “It’s the ultimate car in engineering, design, performance.”
The museum’s crème de la crème spins on a pedestal in the middle of the 46,800-square-foot building. In May, an anonymous buyer paid more than $30 million for this 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, a silver-blue coupe with a raised spine that runs the length of the car.
It’s the highest price ever paid for a car, topping the old record by about $2 million. The same Bugatti sold in 1971 for $59,000.
Rich collectors are an eclectic lot, from comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who collects Porsches and who appeared in a 30-minute cable program extolling the brand; to Jim Glickenhaus, a Wall Street investor who covets Ferraris; to British television and radio host Chris Evans, who paid $10.9 million in 2008 for a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder once owned by Hollywood actor James Coburn.
“It starts with an interest, turns to passion, then migrates to obsession,” says Mullin, 69. Collectors are pumping money into the classic-car market like never before, driving up prices for the world’s most famous models of Bugattis, Ferraris, Mercedes-Benzes and Rolls-Royces.
Bugattis, along with Ferraris and Mercedes-Benzes, are the most coveted of the collectibles, based on auction prices.
The Bugatti 57SC Atlantic at Mullin’s museum is, for the moment, the world’s most valuable car because only three were made, and only two of them are known to still be intact.
