Bugatti Sale of the Century

American John Shakespeare from Illinois was a curious gentleman who sought the unusual and the exciting.

Heir to his father’s fishing tackle fortune, John discovered fast cars amongst his other distractions of skydiving and waterskiing. He also had interests in oil, real estate and auto dealerships.

He tried his hand at racing Ferraris in the mid-1950s, even racing with Luigi Chinetti to a 6^th place finish of the 1954 Carrera Panamericana in a Ferrari 375 MM.

By 1963, he had accumulated a large collection of rare cars, with a strong focus on Bugatti’s.

The Schlumpf brothers in Mulhouse France heard of his Bugatti’s, and thought they would make excellent additions to the museum they were creating.

Negotiations began, with lots of back and forth, and by 1964, a deal was struck where Shakespeare would selling them all his 30 Bugatti’s for the lowly sum, including shipping, of $85,000 USD, which works out to about $650,000 USD in today’s money!


John Shakespeare seeing off his 30 Bugatti's
Pen&ink and white markers on blue and brown paper © Paul Chenard 2016

They were all loaded up on railcars, and shipped to France.

Considering that most individual vintage Bugatti’s sell between $350,000 and $30,000,000 USD today, the Shakespeare Bugatti deal could certainly be considered the used-car sale of the century!

Bluebird-Proteus CN7 Record Car

The Campbell family legacy of breaking land speed records goes back to Sir Malcolm Campbell born in the county of Kent, England in 1885.

He was a racing driver and journalist who took on the challenge, between 1924 and 1935, of setting numerous land speed records in various cars that he choose to christen “Bluebird”.

Sir Malcolm passed away in 1948, and his son Donald, born in 1921, decided to take on the challenge of speed.

He started on water with his father’s old record boat Bluebird K4. With modifications, the boat showed great promise, but he did not manage to set any new records with it.

Donald commissioned a new boat the Bluebird K7 of extremely advanced design, and through the 1950’s, set many new water speed records.

At the end of the 1950’s, he commissioned a land speed record car, which he christened Bluebird-Proteus CN7. It was a stunningly beautiful car, powered by a modified Bristol-Siddeley Proteus turbine engine driving all 4 wheels.


Corgi #153 Proteus Campbell Bluebird (1960-1965)

In 1960, he brought Bluebird to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA for testing. After various trial runs, making adjustments all along, Campbell crashed CN7, damaging it extensively and putting himself in hospital.

It was rebuilt through 1962 with a tail fin to add stability and was tested in 1963 on Eyre Lake, a normally dry lakebed in Australia.

After many months of bad conditions for a land speed run, there was a break in the weather and on July 17, 1964, Campbell decided to go for it.


Bluebird-Proteus CN7 on it's record run
Acrylic, pen&ink and colour pencils on 24"x 10.5" (60.9cm x 25.4cm) watercolour paper
© Paul Chenard  - Original art available -

On his two courageous runs, he brought Bluebird to an average speed of 403.10 mph (648.73 km/h), a new world land speed record for a wheel-driven car. Victory was his!!!

Sadly, Donald Malcolm Campbell CBE was killed while attempting a new world water speed record in the modified Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water, Lancashire, UK on the 4th of January 1967.

The Best of the Season to my Readers!

John Surtees OBE

Prismacolor pencils on gray archival stock 22.5"x 11"
© Paul Chenard 2008

John Surtees, the only person to win World Championships on both two (1956) and four wheels (1964), was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on the weekend, for his services to motor sports and charity.

Though it is wonderful that his great accomplishments are being recognized, I do believe that "Big John" Surtees is deserving of a higher level of recognition.

In the above sketch, Jim Clark is racing a Lotus 33 to a win of the closely fought Solitude F1 race in 1964. Left to right, we find Clark, second place finisher John Surtees in a Ferrari 158, Graham Hill in a BRM P261 and Sir Jack Braham in a Brabham BT7-Climax; both Hill and Brabham crashed out in the race. John Surtees finished the year as F1 Driver's World Champion with Ferrari.

In fact, everyone represented here was a Driver's World Champion. John Surtees took it 1964 , Clark took it in 1963 and 1965, Hill took it in 1962 and 1968, and Brabham took it in 1959, 1960 and 1966. Brabham also took it as a Constructor in 1966 and 1967. Lots of talent in one place!

Mr Surtees was kind enough to send me a comment on my illustration:

Dear Paul,

Yes a nice little piece of history. While it was very wet I of course had taken the lead and pulled away, it was only when the track started to dry up that Jim caught me. But of course I got my own back at the following race, the German GP, which I won.

Kind regards,
John

John Surtees

Available as a limited edition of 100 signed and numbered 22" x 11.25" premium archival Giclee prints for $150 plus S&H. (Includes the above quote from John Surtees O.B.E.)

Jim Clark - Solitude 1964

Prismacolor pencils on gray archival stock 22.5"x 11"
© Paul Chenard 2008

Jim Clark died tragically 40 years ago this year.
He crashed in an F2 race at the Hockenheimring in Germany in a Lotus 48.

In this sketch, Jim Clark is racing a Lotus 33 to a win of the Solitude F1 race in 1964. Left to right, we find Clark, second place finisher John Surtees in a Ferrari 158, Graham Hill in a BRM P261 and Sir Jack Braham in a Brabham BT7-Climax. Both Hill and Brabham crashed out in the race; Surtees finished the year as F1 Driver's World Champion. In fact, everyone here was a Driver's World Champion. Clark took it in 1963 and 1965, Hill took it in 1962 and 1968, and Brabham took it in 1959, 1960 and 1966. Brabham also took it as a Constructor in 1966 and 1967. Lots of talent in one place!

The following poster advertised the race ... beautiful artwork!