Bugatti Type 40 Grand Sport Roadster 1927, França

 

Bugatti Type 40 Grand Sport Roadster 1927, França
Fotografia


"Bugattis encapsulate concepts of engineering which, once seen, change your ideas radically and definitively. Drive them, and you realise that each car is form and engineering in equilibrium, and a work of art." – William Stobbs, Les Grandes Routières.
By the early 1930s, Ettore Bugatti - 'Le Patron' - had established an unrivalled reputation for building cars with outstanding performance on road or track, the world's greatest racing drivers enjoying countless successes aboard the Molsheim factory's products and often choosing them for their everyday transport. Bugatti's origins, though, were a far cry from the glamorous world of Grands Prix.
Italian-born engineer Ettore Bugatti had learned his trade with De Dietrich, Mathis and Deutz before setting up his own factory in 1910 at Molsheim in Alsace, which was then part of Germany. While with Deutz he designed the Type 10, its number reflecting his nine previous designs, and this would serve as the prototype for the first Molsheim-built Bugatti: the Type 13. Introduced in 1910 and the first Bugatti production car, the Type 13 was powered by a four-cylinder, single-overhead-camshaft, 8-valve engine of 1,327cc, which drove via a four-speed gearbox and was mounted in a short-wheelbase chassis carrying a simple open two-seater body. Making its debut at the 1910 Paris Salon, the Type 13 was described by The Autocar as a "most delightful looking runabout".
Developed from the first Bugatti to be built at Molsheim - the aforementioned Type 13 of 1910 - the Type 13 Brescia took that name following the factory's first four places at the 1921 Italian Grand Prix for Voiturettes, held at the eponymous racetrack in Lombardy. Longer wheelbase Type 22 and Type 23 models were made, both of which used the single-overhead-camshaft 16-valve Brescia engine and were built alongside 8-valve Petit Pur Sang versions.
Introduced in 1926, the Type 40 Bugatti succeeded the Brescia types, being built on a longer wheelbase and equipped with a more powerful engine. Virtually identical to that used in the Type 37 Grand Prix car, the latter was a four-cylinder unit displacing 1,496cc and incorporating an all-plain-bearing bottom end with five mains. A single overhead camshaft operated three valves per cylinder (two inlets, one exhaust) and the Type 40's maximum power output of 45bhp or thereabouts was transmitted to the rear wheels via a separate four-speed gearbox. A total of 790 Type 40s had been made when production ceased in May 1931, with a further 40 Type 40As completed with the 1,627cc engine by the end of that year. It is estimated that fewer then 200 survive today.
Bugatti Type 40 number '40273' was delivered new as a rolling chassis, provisionally for a two-seat body, on 14th February 1927 having been ordered by Jerôme Wagner of Mützig, France. The Wagners were very close friends of the Bugatti family; Jérôme Wagner's father, Camille Wagner, was proprietor of Bières Mützig, and together with his friend, Baron Augustin de Vizcaya, a prominent Strasbourg banker, helped Etorre Bugatti to set up his factory in Molsheim in 1909. Following a Type 13, Jerôme Wagner owned several Bugattis: a Type 40 (this car), a Type 49, and finally two Type 57s.
'40273' has been in the same ownership since 1997. The present owner acquired the car via Jean-François 'Frankie' Du Montant, who apparently had sold it to its previous owner, a gentleman in France, nearly 10 years earlier (circa 1988/1989). It is likely that Du Montant had brought '40273' to France from England around the time of Morand's purchase of the car.
Whatever the case, it is certain that '40273' spent many years in the UK where it was totally restored at some point. It is believed that the car received gearbox number '23' (with cover number '40') perhaps at a time when the well-known Bugatti aficionado Jack Lemon Burton was still active. A photograph of a portion of the chassis of '40273', taken during restoration, appears in Barrie Price and Jean-Louis Arbey's book Bugatti Type 40 (page 15). It shows an alternator mounted on a pulley on the gearbox. The pulley remains in place today. It is assumed that the car received its current 'Grand Sport' coachwork while undergoing restoration in the UK. The style or type of its original coachwork is unknown. At the beginning of 2000 the engine was rebuilt in France by Novo, while the interior was restored four years ago.
We are advised by the vendor that '40273' has no suspect or disguised parts: the chassis ('288'), engine ('217'), rear axle and most of the rest are completely original to this car, while the gearbox and cam box are not original to this chassis but are authentic Bugatti parts.