A five-car selection of the Jim Patterson Collection is to be put up for auction at RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale in August 2026, led by one of four Bugatti Type 57SC Atalantes built on the lowered Type 57S chassis.
Before he became a collector, Louisville, Kentucky-based businessman Jim was the undisputed king of the American drive-thru. The first in his family to graduate high school, Patterson built a fast-food empire from scratch. He co-founded Long John Silver’s in 1969 – even helping formulate its famous fish batter – before cashing out his 40 percent stake in 1975 for nearly $20m. He didn’t stop there, later conceptualising the high-speed, double-drive-thru model with Rally’s Hamburgers and ultimately operating dozens of Wendy’s franchises across the country.
His passion, however, was coachbuilt pre-war European cars, which led to the The Patterson Collection in Louisville and a long association with RM Auto Restoration in Ontario, Canada. The partnership has led to an achievement shared by only a handful of collectors globally: winning Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance three times.
Patterson’s first triumph came in 2010 with an all-white 1933 Delage D8 S de Villars Roadster. Five years later, he took the lawn’s top honour again with a 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A F Ramseier & Cie Worblaufen Cabriolet, which had previously won the Grand-Prix d’Honneur at Cannes back in 1933. His most recent victory came in 2023, with a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Long-Tail Special Roadster. Ordered new by the Shah of Afghanistan and hidden away in a Parisian embassy during World War Two, the car was acquired by Patterson with 13,000 miles on the clock. He then had it restored to its factory black finish.
This 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante is chassis 57551, one of four Atalantes built on the lowered Type 57S chassis with the distinctive low-mounted headlamps. It was originally completed as a Type 57S and later upgraded to supercharged SC specification.
The Bugatti was supplied new to Jean Lévy, whose family owned a large milling business near Strasbourg. Lévy collected it directly from the Molsheim factory in July 1937, trading in his Type 57 Stelvio. During World War Two, the car remained at his farm in the Dordogne while he moved to the US. After the war, it passed through several French owners. Its original engine was replaced by unit 15 S from chassis 57492, which was renumbered 30 S to match 57551. Artist and Bugatti owner André Derain acquired the car in 1948. It later had owners in France and Switzerland before US Air Force officer Colin Doane brought it to America in 1959.
Harrah’s Automobile Collection acquired the Atalante in 1961. Its restoration was completed during the 1970s, when a supercharger was fitted and the car was finished in Patrol Cream and Lemon Oxide. It won Best of Show at the 1976 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Dr Herbert Boyer bought the Bugatti from Harrah’s in 1987, followed by Jim Patterson in 2000.
RM Auto Restoration subsequently completed a further restoration, returning the tail and lowered headlights to their documented original forms while retaining much of the original wooden body framework. Finished in black and deep green with a pigskin interior, the Atalante received the JB Nethercutt Trophy for Most Elegant Closed Car at Pebble Beach in 2014. It is estimated at between $4.5m and $6m as part of RM Sotheby’s Jim Patterson Collection sale.
This 1937 Delage D8-120 Coach Aérosport is chassis 51042, fitted with Letourneur et Marchand body number 5649 and engine number 51033. It is one of six first-series Coach Aérosports and is titled as a 1939 car.
The body was originally mounted on chassis 51000 and finished in black with orange mouldings and rear wings, together with a Havana leather interior. It was displayed at the 1937 Brussels Motor Show before being acquired by British Delage concessionaire University Motors and shown at the Eastbourne Concours d’Elegance. After proving difficult to sell in Britain, chassis 51000 was rebodied as a cabriolet by Coachcraft. The Aérosport body was transferred to chassis 51042 and fitted with Dunlop steel wheels. Delage historian Daniel Cabart believes the replacement chassis was supplied by the factory.
The car was sold from Britain to Harold T Raitt of Fort Wayne, Indiana, during the early 1950s. Later owners included collectors Ed Wachs and Henry Uihlein II. A California collection acquired the Delage during the early 1990s and commissioned a restoration by Hill & Vaughn of Santa Monica. It was subsequently displayed at Pebble Beach in 1997 and Meadow Brook in 2001. Jim Patterson acquired the car later in 2001, and it won Best of Show at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2002. It is estimated at between $2m and $3m at the RM Sotheby’s Jim Patterson Collection sale.
This 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C Competition Roadster is chassis 82928, the first of two prototype roadsters built by Figoni et Falaschi on short-wheelbase competition chassis, and the sole survivor. It is also the only extant T150-C prototype produced during the development of the T150 C-SS.
Talbot-Lago supplied the chassis in full competition specification, with a high-compression engine, large-capacity oil sump, drilled pedals, a lightened handbrake lever and dual braking system. The Figoni et Falaschi body incorporated the racing chassis’s original radiator surround, horizontal cross-member, bonnet straps and aerodynamic undertray, together with modified cycle wings, front suspension aprons, pontoon-style rear wings, chrome detailing and an exposed exhaust manifold.
Completed for the 1937 concours season, the roadster was presented by Madame Jeanne Falaschi at the Concours d’Élégance de l’Auto in Paris, where it won its class. Its first owner was Boris Aslan-Finaly, who commissioned Luigi Chinetti to test the car at Montlhéry. The Talbot-Lago later passed through owners in Czechoslovakia and Sweden before entering Allan Söderstrom’s museum collection.
Acquired by a Connecticut restorer in 1996, it was initially misidentified as the second of the two prototypes and partly rebodied. Tom Price purchased it in 1998, followed by Jim Patterson in 2001. RM Auto Restoration subsequently returned the car to its documented original form using period photographs. The work included recreating the grille and rear wheel spats, reshaping the tail around the original boot lid, refitting the surviving wings and sourcing correct mechanical components from France.
Finished in black with a tan leather interior, the restored car won its class at the 2002 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and was later shown at Amelia Island in 2008. It is estimated at between $1.5m and $2.5m.
This 1939 Delage D8-120 S Coupé is a unique Letourneur et Marchand-bodied example built on the lowered and lightened D8-120 S chassis. Its body carries number 2990 and combines two-door, four-seat accommodation with unusually compact sporting proportions.
The chassis was completed on March 13, 1938 and entered the Letourneur et Marchand workshops the same day. The coachbuilder’s records describe the body as a four-seat cabriolet completed in June 1939. However, period Portuguese registration documents identify it as having closed coachwork when first registered in Lisbon on August 4, 1939, while photographs believed to date from the 1940s or 1950s show the car in substantially its present form.
Its first recorded owner was Fernando Tavares de Carvalho, a Lisbon lawyer and former mayor of Sintra. The Delage remained in Portugal through several subsequent owners until 1976, when dealer Fred Yhap acquired it. It was then sold to British collector Patrick Lindsay, who found that he could not comfortably fit behind the wheel, and subsequently passed to Ares Emanuel. Don Williams acquired Emanuel’s collection in 1983 and sold the Delage to Stu Bewley. Stuart Laidlaw restored it in metallic blue with additional chrome trim, after which it appeared at the 1990 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
Following a period in a Japanese collection, the car was acquired by Jim Patterson in 2001. RM Auto Restoration later refinished it in black with a tan interior and rebuilt its mechanical systems as required. It received the Elegance in Motion Trophy at Pebble Beach in 2009, followed by Best of Show awards at The Elegance at Hershey in 2013 and the Keeneland Concours d’Elegance. It is estimated at between $1.5m and $2.5m.
This 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet is a low-mileage example originally supplied by Loeber Motors of Chicago. Finished in Silver Grey Metallic with a black leather interior, it has covered fewer than 22,000 miles from new. Its first owner was Dr Howard L Wilder, an ophthalmologist from Northbrook, Illinois, who retained the Mercedes for several decades. The car later moved with him to Palm Springs, California. Around 2016, it passed through a Missouri dealer before being acquired by the Jim Patterson Collection, becoming only its second private owner.
The factory specification includes a Becker Europa radio with an automatic aerial, a folding front armrest, tinted electric windows and air-conditioning. The exterior was repainted late in Dr Wilder’s ownership, while the black leather upholstery and convertible hood are believed to be original. It’s covered less than 22,000 miles. The 280 SE is estimated at between $350,000 and $450,000, and is offered with no reserve.
Further details
For more information on the RM Sotheby’s Jim Patterson Collection sale, head here.
