Cruella De Vil’s car is iconic, and the real-life version just sold at auction for $1.5 million.
Cruella De Vil’s car is as iconic and frightening as she is, and the real-life version just sold at an auction in the United Kingdom at the Goodwind Revival for $1.5 million.
Dog O’Day learned this through Yahoo News.
Technically, the 101 Dalmatians villain’s car was inspired by the 1935 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante Faux Cabriolet, of which a grand total of three were produced.
This is the last one remaining, and it still has the original body, chassis, engine and gearbox, and is powered by a 3.3 liter engine with a top speed of around 80 miles per hour.
Like Cruella De Vil’s car, this Bugatti is painted in a black and cream pattern reminiscent of an elegant skunk.
According to Yahoo News, the car was produced in France and stayed there until the mid-1950s (around the time Dodie Smith wrote the 1956 novel that inspired the movies), when it moved to the States as part of an American’s collection, then criss-crossed back and forth across the Atlantic until it arrived in the hands of Barry Burnett, a British collector who traded a Dodge for the Bugatti sometime in the 1980s.
Cruella’s car ended up in a heap of mashed metal in a snowbank after chasing Pongo, Perdita and the puppies on their way back home to London.
The Goodwind Revival takes place at Goodwind Circuit, one of England’s most historic racetracks (it also hosts the Goodwind Festival of Speed hill climb), and it a celebration of vehicles from the track’s heyday from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. Many visitors cosplay in period attire as part of the fun.
It seems likely that in the upcoming prequel starring Emma Stone in the title role, Cruella will have an interesting car to drive, though likely it will be slightly different that this Bugatti, much like Batman has a slightly different Batmobile each movie.
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