Fake Bugatti Type 51 race car to be auctioned for £100,000: Owner thought he had the real one from 1930

Purchasing the race car in 1987, thinking it was a Grand Prix winning Bugatti Type 51, with an estimated value at £2 million today, Riley went through his life thinking he had an original Bugatti. The owner, Alan Riley, now dead, left the vehicle to rot in his garage for over ten years. In fact after this vehicle was recently discovered after Riley's death in 2010, it was found that the vehicle is not an original by any shot of imagination.

Even though it is confirmed that this is a very clever fake, it will go under the auctioneers hammer this September where it is expected to fetch a six figure sum. In fact the vehicle only possesses two original Bugatti parts, that is its fuel tank and rear cross member.

Auctioneers at Brightwells reveal that this Bugatti is a fake and was built in the 1980s by Keith Butti, a London based engineer. Fake, replica apart, this vehicle is still expected to fetch £100,000 when it is put up for auction. Riley held his possession in high regard, thinking it to be an original.  He took it to all Bugatti meets in the 1980s and 90s and though he never raced it he always projected it as an original.  The so called Bugatti will be auctioned on September 26th at Brightwells Leominster.