Long-lost Bugatti car worth $100,000,000 has been missing for decades

A super-rare Bugatti worth a staggering $100 million has been missing for decades. 

The Bugatti Type 57SC La Voiture Noire is one of the rarest cars in the world.

It was a Type 57SC Atlantic given the nickname La Voiture Noire, which translates to ‘The Black Car’, and was one of just four made during the 1930s.

The stunning vehicle was designed and owned by Jean Bugatti, the son of Bugatti founder Ettore.

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The Bugatti Type 57SC La Voiture Noire has been missing for decades

At the height of World War II, Bugatti wanted to keep his beloved La Voiture Noire safe from enemy capture.

So, in 1938, he decided to load it up onto a train and transport it to Bordeaux – a solid plan, right?

Except, what happened next remains a mystery to this day.

Such a mystery, in fact, that it’s not even known if the La Voiture Noire arrived at its intended destination or not.

All we do know is there have been no confirmed sightings of it since 1938 – making the missing car a sort of ‘Holy Grail’ of the automotive world.

As you can imagine, with such an intriguing mystery there are plenty of theories, speculation, and bold, but ultimately unsubstantiated, claims about what became of the car and its possible location today.

There are several theories about what happened to the car

A couple of years back, a Reddit user claimed to have found the long-lost vehicle, but the claims were soon shut down after experts noted that both the engine and chassis were different.

Amongst those shooting down the claims was Sandy Leith from the Bugatti Trust who told Jalopnik that the ‘Atlantic coachwork is sitting on a standard T57 chassis, which would not have been correct’.

According to some reports, the car was still being driven around by Bugatti engineers into the early 1940s, following the death of its original owner who was killed in a car crash in 1939.

 However, the marque has refuted these claims and says it has no record of the La Voiture Noire since 1938 when it disappeared.

Another theory suggests someone saw the car on the train and took it away for themselves after realizing its value, while an altogether less exciting theory claims it was completely destroyed in an air raid.

With close to 90 years passing since it was last seen, it’s unlikely the mystery will ever be solved but stranger things have happened.