As used cars go, Christie’s auction house...

As used cars go, Christie’s auction house thinks the old bus has a lot going for it: A 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale--one of only six surviving Royales, out of the seven that were originally built--19 feet long, 5,000 pounds, luxury body work.

And a one-owner car, at that.

The Bugatti, owned and shown by sportsman-collector Briggs Cunningham ever since he bought it in 1951 from the Bugatti family, which had never used it, was loaded on board an air freighter Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport for a flight to London, where Christie’s expects to sell it for the highest price ever paid for a motorcar.

“Last year,” Christie’s spokeswoman Hillary Holland said, “another Royale, also owned by Briggs Cunningham, sold for $8 million. But of course, this one is in better condition. It’s sure to bring a better price. Ten million at least, probably more.”

(Let’s see, now, that would come to maybe $200,000 a month.)

Larry Mettert, 46, of Mojave, insisted it was just a joke when he erected a wooden cross outside the home of an interracial couple in Lancaster last June 13.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Kent Cahill said he found that a little hard to believe.

Prosecuting Mettert in Lancaster Municipal Court on charges of brandishing a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and two counts of civil disturbance arising from other racial incidents in the area, he offered as evidence the Ku Klux Klan literature and membership cards found by deputies who served a search warrant at Mettert’s home.

Convicted Wednesday, Mettert was sentenced to two years in jail.

Candidate-watching can be fun . . . but you need an interpreter.

City Atty. James K. Hahn has never said he’s a candidate for mayor in 1989. In fact, he’s said he would never oppose Mayor Tom Bradley, who is expected to run again.

But when Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky (a definite, though as yet undeclared, mayoral candidate) held a press conference to denounce federal shipments of rocket fuel on the Ventura Freeway, Hahn was quick to schedule a press conference to do a little denouncing of his own.

Actually, the pair had marked off battle lines a few weeks earlier, when Hahn asked the City Council Finance Committee to approve his hiring of political strategist John Emerson--a former top aide in the aborted Gary Hart presidential campaign--as his chief deputy.

Committee approval was quick.

But not unanimous.

Voting against the measure: committee member Yaroslavsky.

It was not that nutty. It was reported here Wednesday that traffic on the Long Beach Freeway had been snarled by the spilling of 41,000 tons of almonds. Make that pounds.

Robert Tomarchin says he’s not really in show business.

But of course he’d consider any legitimate offer--stage, movies, television commercials or tent show--that would “let the world get a close look” at his 13-month-old Maltese terrier, whose name is Mo, “the smartest animal in the world.”

Tomarchin said he doesn’t like to brag (he arrived in Los Angeles this week from his home in Brisbane, and Australians are noted for their reserve) but “I’ve had animals all my life--lions, monkeys, macaws, chimpanzees, even a gorilla once--and none of them a hinge on the little dog.”

Non-showman Tomarchin said Mo can stand on his head, without help.

And he can print his name on a slate, holding the chalk in his mouth.

“Had a chimp could do that, once” he said. “Stand on his head, y’know. And print his name, too. But it wasn’t the same.

“See, a chimp’s got hands.”