“Most of Pebble Beach’s cars weren’t built for hooning, but still should get more use than a drive across a golf course,” we wrote a while back. Fritz Burkhard gets it and has taken this idea to the next level. He’s driving his 1936 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante all the way across the country from Newport, Rhode Island, to show off at Pebble Beach, California.
“These are machines to be driven,” Burkhard told 12 News. “You don’t hang them on the wall, they’re rolling sculptures.” And just look at the lines on this machine. I actually prefer the classic headlights and twin horns of this car to the more streamlined and bug-eyed Type 57SC Atalante we’ve seen before. My favorite part is the roof that rotates back into the bodywork and turns this into a hardtop convertible. It’s smooth and simple, what Obi-Wan Kenobi might call an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. (Let’s just ignore how crazy the world was back in 1937.)
Another wise old man would say it’s dangerous to go alone, so Sean O’Donnell and Antonio Melegari of the Audrain Automobile Museum are joining Burkhard for the ride. They’re following along in a 2009 Ford Mustang GT500KR, providing support and documenting the journey on Instagram. It’s not every day you see an 89-year-old car worth $30 million driving down the road. Thanks to them, all of us can now enjoy this spectacle.
The journey so far
Unlike the Cannonball Run, slow and steady wins this cross-country race. The crew is limiting itself to just 300 miles a day, which is already 300 miles more than the average antique Bugatti gets driven. The car has just received a full restoration, and the engine is still breaking in, so they don’t want to push it too hard.
Day one saw them reach Hazelton, Pennsylvania, without incident. On day two or three (the numbering on their posts is inconsistent), the engine lost some oil, and they started trying to diagnose the consumption issue as they went along. That didn’t stop them from continuing to cruise along at 70 mph, an average highway speed today that would’ve been difficult to achieve on the roads of 1936. They reached Michigan City, Indiana, with no further complications. Day three (or four) found the cure to the Bugatti’s oil leak by tightening two pressurized bolts that had come slightly loose. Teething troubles like this could happen to any freshly reassembled engine. They reached Williamsburg, Iowa, and passed the 1,000-mile mark of the journey.
The Instagram posts are worth watching just to see the Bugatti in action across the highways and byways of America. I plan to keep following the journey, and so should you. We wish Burkhard and his crew a safe and successful journey to Pebble Beach.