A VINTAGE Bugatti car which a Bury man sold for a mere £30 has fetched a staggering £54,293 at auction in the United States.

The gleaming 1922 type 13 Brescia Bugatti was bought in 1946 by Mr Andrew Heib of Bury.

Then, it was just a bare chassis, the frame of which had been cut in two.

Mr Heib of Brandlesholme Road, Greenmount, spent seven years restoring the sought-after car before he sold it in 1964 to a Rochdale man for £30 -- the same price he had bought it for.

In 1975, the Bugatti was sold again to the late Robert Sutherland, one-time president of the American Bugatti Club.

Proceeds from the weekend auction at Pebble Beach, California, which was handled by Christie's, will go to the Robert Sutherland Memorial Fund, established to help people diagnosed as manic depressives.

Told how much the Bugatti had fetched, Mr Heib said today: "It does surprise me, really. But saying that, I don't have any qualms about selling the car in the first place."

Bugatti was an Italian-born motor manufacturer whose French factory turned out the cars from around 1907 until the late '40s when production ceased.