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!

The 1955 Mille Miglia: German Power, British Might

Post-WWII, Mercedes-Benz was busy digging itself out of the ravages of the war, and trying to regain the presence as a constructor of cars of quality.

They developed the W194 300 SL Gullwing sports car for the 1952 season, winning the 24 heurs du Mans and La Carrera Panamericana.

For 1954, they came with a full force of Formula 1 and Sports Car/GT racers and dominated the season.

For 1955, they fully developed their racing sports cars, closely based on their Formula 1 racers.

For the Mille Miglia, they had a team of 4 new 300 SLR's to do battle against the platoon of Ferraris.

The drivers were (Sir) Stirling Moss, with his navigator journalist/racer Denis Jenkinson, Hans Herrmann, with his navigator, and Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling, both sans navigators.

For their race, Moss and Jenkinson practiced by driving the whole route, with Jenkinson making pace notes all along the way.

The Mercedes-Benz team glued the pace notes together into one long scroll, and installed it in a waterproof windowed box so that Jenkinson could read them out loud to Moss en route.

Jenkinson’s pace notes allowed Moss to drive the whole race flat out, and they won in the unheard-of record time of 10 hours 07 mins 48 secs, with an average speed of 157.650 km/h (97.96 mph), all of it done on public roads!

It was the second time that Mercedes-Benz won the event, the first time being Rudolf Caracciola’s 1931 win.

"Lucky" earning his stripes

Primacolor pencil on archival paper © Paul Chenard 2008
Gary Faules Collection

I did this sketch of friend Gary Faules and his co-piloto Jon Emerson carving their way through the La Carrera Panamericana 2007 in Gary's Shelby GT350R, better known as "Lucky". In their first time out, they came in 3rd in their class and 9th overall in an exceptionally grueling race where just staying on the public road course is a mark of great skill, not to mention courage.

I am available to do illustration commissions like Gary's; just contact me with your request.

Gary's blog is at http://lacarrera2007.blogspot.com/

La Carrera Panamericana 1953 - Fangio

Prismacolor pencils on red stock © Paul Chenard 2008
Private Collection


Five-time F1 Driver's World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio was the pride of Argentina. Soft-spoken and humble, he could just as easily win in sports car, illustrated by his 1953 win of the Carrera Panamericana in a Lancia D24.

Limited edition of 50, numbered and signed premium archival Giclee prints $125 USD plus shipping/handling.