Nuvolari’s 1931 Bugatti Type 51 Up For Auction For The First Time In Decades

Bugatti doesn’t do much racing these days, but it was on the race track that it cut its teeth back in its heyday. And now a rather outstanding specimen of its pre-war racing dominance is up for grabs.

To understand the Bugatti Type 51, you need to first understand the Type 35 that came before it. The 35 was the most successful racing car of the 1920s, winning over 1,000 races and collecting, on average, 14 races every week at the peak of its success.

Once the ’30s rolled around, though, the Type 35 was growing long in the proverbial tooth. So Bugatti developed the Type 51 to replace it. Unfortunately for the Alsatian marque, the 51 was nowhere near as successful as its predecessor, outgunned by state-sponsored rivals from Germany and Italy.

This particular example, however, has a pedigree all its own. Aside from competing four times in the Monaco Grand Prix, it was driven by the inimitable Tazio Nuvolari at Brooklands in 1933. Its owner, Lord Francis Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe and first president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, entered it in numerous other races across Britain and Europe.

One of the first examples to be made, chassis number 51121 has had only two owners in the past 50 years. But it will now be put up for auction as part of Bonhams’ sale at the Quail Lodge on August 19 during Monterey Car Week. Check it out in the photos below, taken by P. Litwinski for Bonhams.