1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

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1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

Photo by Carter Berg/Ralph Lauren Corp.

1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

Photo by Carter Berg/Ralph Lauren Corp.

1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

Photo by Carter Berg/Ralph Lauren Corp.

1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

Photo by Carter Berg/Ralph Lauren Corp.

1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

Photo by Carter Berg/Ralph Lauren Corp.

Perhaps the most special and rarest car in Lauren’s collection is a 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. He was introduced to the Bugatti at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance years before he acquired it, and before the car earned any recognition from the Pebble Beach judges. After adding the car to his collection in the late 1980s, Lauren had it restored by Paul Russell of Essex, Mass., who, over a two-year span, spent 9,600 hours working on it. Since then, the Bugatti has claimed best-of-show awards at five concours, including Pebble Beach in 1990. “A car is about its age and the period,” Lauren says. “If you’re going to restore it, you’re restoring it so it’s not just a monument but a fine-working machine, something that has the quality that it had when it was new.”

The Bugatti may be the most renowned car in Lauren’s collection, but it is not his favorite—he does not have a favorite. “They all become personal and are very close to me,” he says. “They’re like children: They all have different personalities.”