This Unique 1924 Bugatti-Diatto Could Fetch $1.3 Million at Auction

The most fascinating collector cars are not always the most powerful or pleasing to the eye, they’re the ones with the most compelling tale to tell or, conversely, shrouded in mystery. Such is the case with a machine all but forgotten through time, though pivotal in forging the early underpinnings of a now-fabled automaker’s legacy. Such is the case with this 1924 Bugatti-Diatto Avio 8C, set to cross the auction block through Bonhams|Cars on August 15.

The story behind this enigmatic machine centers around its engine, an eight-cylinder power plant born from a collaborative footnote in Bugatti’s history. Ettore Bugatti founded his eponymous marque in 1909, just three years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s  pioneering flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., and within the same 12 months that aviator Louis Blériot became the first to cross the English Channel by plane. Bugatti himself was captivated by both automotive and aeronautical engineering, and what became known as the Avio 8C was ultimately developed for both.

The visionary mill was the eventual product of Ettore’s 1907 partnership with Pietro Diatto, whose family had a well-established business manufacturing carriages. According to research by the auction house, Diatto became the licensee of Bugatti engines in Italy and began building the Bugatti Type 13 “Brescia” race car, introduced in 1921. Weighing just 1,080 pounds, the Type 13 model dominated motorsport for much of the decade. As for the Avio 8C engine, it laid the foundation for the one that powered the renowned and extremely rare 1926 Bugatti Type 41 Royale, a gargantuan automobile of which only six examples were made.

The car being presented, chassis No. B1919, is even more of an automotive unicorn, in that one of the surviving Avio 8C engines was paired with a Diatto chassis—the combination ending up in a museum in Turin without any known provenance or, apparently, information on how it arrived there. In a story told in the pages of the Spring 2019 edition of Magneto, an automotive quarterly, it was Bugatti historian Uwe Hucke who was driven to bring the automobile’s construction to fruition, a mission completed by another Bugatti authority and collector, Claude Teisen-Simony, who literally wrote the book on the subject, The Hidden Bugatti Diatto Alliance. The finished product was debuted at the 2019 Rétromobile exhibition in Paris. 

“This car, which almost seems too simple a word, is a visceral assault on the senses,” says Ian Gabriele, specialist at Bonhams|Cars. “With its 14 liters of aero-engined symphony, the immense torque is delivered to the rear wheels by chains that help shift the earth away from the car.”

This nearly forgotten puzzle piece contributing to Bugatti’s big picture, one that spans close to 116 years of stops, starts, and restarts, will be sure to cause a stir among bidders when it’s showcased at the Quail Auction hosted by Bonhams|Cars. The single-day sales event will take place at the Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel, during Northern California’s famed Monterey Car Week. And while the unique 1924 Bugatti-Diatto Avio 8C is estimated to fetch between $700,000 and $1.3 million, it’s being offered without reserve.

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Click here for more photos of this 1924 Bugatti-Diatto Avio 8C.