A rare Bugatti bought for 475 and kept in a workshop in Ophir is now insured for $1 million. Shane Gilchrist reports.
''Nothing is too beautiful, nothing is too expensive.''
The motto of Ettore Bugatti, founder of the luxury car company bearing his name, possibly held little store for late Ophir resident Bob Turnbull when he purchased a one-of-a kind 1934 Bugatti Gangloff Roadster ''Type 57'' in 1958.
Known by friends as a man who did not like to spend more than he had to, Mr Turnbull apparently haggled 200 off the asking price, paying 475 12 shillings and sixpence to a New Plymouth car buff before driving it to his home in Christchurch.
Now, the rare car is insured for $1 million and housed in a workshop in the small Central Otago town of Ophir, where Mr Turnbull moved in the mid-1980s following his retirement as an engineer from CWF Hamilton, the Canterbury firm famous for inventing the propulsion system used in jet boats.
Built in Molsheim, France, this example of the Roadster ''Type 57'' was a customised, one-off prototype.
''In 1935 to 1939, Bugatti Gangloff made up to 10 'Type 57s' per year, but in 1934 they made only one,'' Peter Brabant, Ophir resident and friend of Mr Turnbull, explained.
Powered by a 3.3-litre, straight-8, twin-overhead cam engine, the ''Type 57'' lasted from about 1933 until 1939, when Bugatti was forced to build aircraft engines for the German war effort.
Mr Turnbull died in 2012 aged 82, but the restoration of the car was completed only in November last year.
''When Bob died, the Bugatti was just a rolling chassis with a body on it. The doors, windows, all that stuff had to be put on,'' Mr Brabant said.
Having done much of the mechanical work, Mr Brabant sought help from Otago's vintage car community, ''friends of Bob'', and panel beaters, upholsterers and restoration specialists, to complete Mr Turnbull's long-term project.
Mr Brabant befriended Mr Turnbull about 15 years ago. He and wife Julz eventually looked after Mr Turnbull as his health failed.
On Mr Turnbull's death, all assets were transferred to the Bob Turnbull Charitable Trust, which late last year gave out grants to 11 groups in the Ophir-Omakau area.
"Bob's instructions were, 'Pete, finish the cars, use them and enjoy them, and when you're ready, find a good home','' Mr Brabant said, referring to a collection that includes a 1907 Sizaire et Naudin and a 1904 Humber Humberette, believed to have been the first motorised car in Central Otago more than a century ago.
Yet those instructions have left Mr Brabant and his fellow trustees with a dilemma in regards to the fate of the Bugatti: a sale overseas would probably fetch many times the price a New Zealand buyer could pay.
''There's no rush to sell. It could be another year or so. If the car goes overseas, there could be big companies who'd be able to pay much more. They could set up a scholarship for engineers in New Zealand,'' Mr Brabant said.
In the meantime, the 1934 Bugatti Gangloff Roadster ''Type 57'', the 1907 Sizaire et Naudin and 1904 Humber Humberette will be on show at the Omakau A&P Show today.
