The car you see here looks like a genuine Bugatti Type 59/50S dating back to 1935, but it was actually made three decades ago. You can buy it if you hurry to outbid the current top offer of $260,013 USD.
It is not a replica, either, because Bugatti restoration specialist Ray Jones built the vehicle using authentic components made in the first half of the 20th century. Back in the 1930s, the French automaker put together only eight such cars, and Ray Jones chose to reproduce the second example made. Racing driver Robert Benoist drove that car to victory at the 1935 French Grand Prix. The recreated vehicle shares the body design and exterior paint with the original racecar, reproduced with painstaking precision based on original blueprints and photos.
Furthermore, the replica even runs on the original Bugatti Type 59 chassis and frame that Jones was lucky to buy from the automaker’s Molsheim factory a while ago. It features spring-based suspension with hydraulic shocks, spoked wheels and drum brakes.
Perhaps most remarkably, the car continues to use the same engine that powered the original Benoist racer. Unlike all other Type 59 powertrains made, this one was unique thanks to its design peculiarities and displacement. The other engines only had 3.3 liters of displacement volume, whereas this one had 4.97 liters and benefited from forced induction. A four-speed manual transmission carried the torque to the wheels through a self-locking differential.
The seller does not specify any mileage, but points out that the roadster was completely restored in the mid-2010s and comes with the full package of papers confirming the authenticity of its parts.