Bugatti update: sold, for €3.4m

A classic Bugatti car, which gathered dust in a Tyneside garage for half a century, has been sold for 3.4m euros (£3m) at an auction in Paris.

Bonhams had listed lot 17403 as a "motoring icon" with an engine that has not been fired up for 50 years.

Relatives of reclusive Newcastle doctor Harold Carr found the 1937 Type 57S Atalante in a garage after he died.

It was originally owned by Earl Howe - first president of the British Racing Drivers' Club. Just 17 were built.

Bedazzled

Rhode Island School of Design's Fleet Library holds a major collection relating to dazzle camouflage. A temporary exhibit on this material has just opened, and there will also be a symposium on Valentine's Day. The exhibition website is here.

Real tennis

Graphite and carbon fiber? Aluminum racquets? Colored balls? Bah -- if you want to go back to when tennis really changed, check out the original game. Wikipedia article here, video of play here. Reference thanks to one of my English friends who plays the game.

ADDENDUM: In the USA, virtually the only place to see and play Real Tennis is right here in Rhode Island, at the Newport Casino.

PS Another only-in-England story, this via the BBC (with video and further links):

The first new mainline steam engine to be built in Britain for nearly five decades is making its first long-distance passenger trip into London.

Enthusiasts in Darlington, from where the train set off, raised £3m to build the Peppercorn class A1 Pacific locomotive, which has taken 19 years to complete.

Ancient mega-snake

Maybe this one would have been big enough to swallow an elephant:

The discovery of fossilised remains belonging to the world's largest snake has been reported in Nature journal.

Titanoboa was 13m (42ft) long - about the size of a London bus - and lived in the rainforest of north-east Colombia 58-60 million years ago.

The snake was so wide it would have reached up to a person's hips, say researchers, who have estimated that it weighed more than a tonne.

Odyssey Marine in the news again: HMS Victory found?

Odyssey Marine Exploration is expected to announce on Monday that it has found HMS Victory, the forerunner of Nelson's famous flagship of the same name.

The valuables from the vessel, including brass cannons, could be worth millions of pounds, some experts say.

If confirmed, the find could trigger a row with the British government.

The remains from HMS Victory have been reportedly found in international waters.

But as a military wreck, they officially belong to the British state.