1998 Best of Show Winner
May 28, 2021
1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Corsica Roadster shown by John Mozart
This superb Bugatti was built initially for British Colonel G. M. Giles, who was one of the original founders of the Bugatti Owners Club and served as its Chairman.
Colonel Giles purchased this Type 57SC chassis (57593), took it home to England, and had Corsica of London build the body for it. In an early piece in Bugantics, he describes how crowds would gather around the car whenever it was parked, admiring all aspects of it, including its exotic allegator interior.
A later owner, Irwin Goldschmidt, apparently brought the car to the United States in the late 1950s, and Richard Paine acquired it some years later. John Mozart acquired the car in the mid-1980s and put about 5,000 miles on it before beginning to restore it.
The restoration, done by Mike Hemus, focused simply on returning the car to its original state. “Great cars like this are what they are,” said Mozart. “You can’t embellish them.”
Perhaps the biggest task involved replicating the complex and repeated scraping pattern on the engine that was, in effect, the signature of its builder.
The car was named Best of Show at the 1998 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It has also won key awards at the former Meadow Brook Hall Concours d’Elegance and other classic car events.
