Cole Lance - Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix Car and Its Variants

Type 35 rounds Orchard Bend at Prescott in the modern era of Type 35 competitive racing.

CarCraft 1

Lance Cole

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by PEN & SWORD TRANSPORT

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Pen & Sword Books, 2019

Profile illustrations Lance Cole

ISBN 9781526756763

eISBN 9781526756770

Mobi ISBN 9781526756787

The right of Lance Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Front cover. Top: The Amalgam Collections stunning model heads the international Type 35 model market. Centre left: Twin-filler caps were not unique to the Type 51, some Type 35s were retrofitted with them. Centre middle: Mike Marshalls Type 35 displays its blue in action at Prescott. Centre right: The later, wider radiator is more recognizable today and is seen on modern Bugattis. Profile: French racing blue shows its difference to Bugatti Blue in this profile circa 1927.

There are many cars with claims to fame, and many legends of motor sport, but the truth surely must be that the Bugatti Type 35 set both the rules and the runes for racing car design prior to the modern era. More Type 35s were built than any other racing car of its time. Today the Type 35 is still revered and a leading icon of the classic vintage supercar world despite being almost 100 years old.

This is not just a vintage car, but the car that founded the Grand Prix era a movement that is today a multi-billion dollar industry of global fame and Bugattis Type 35 was crucial to its origins.

Ettore Bugattis Type 35 was arguably, the worlds first purpose-built, forensically designed, pure racing car hence its sobriquet of the Grand Prix Bugatti. Other cars claimed such, but few could match the sheer level of detail design and exquisite engineering of the nimble Type 35 a car obsessive in its design delights but never at the cost of functionality. This was not a modified road car turned into a racer, and you could buy one for private and normal road use where it would perform without temper tantrums. Then there was the look of the thing low, smaller than fashionable and sheer perfection from every angle with not a line that did not work. What on earth did rival car manufacturers think when hit with the shock of the new Type 35 in 1924?

Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Delage, Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Bentley, Aston Martin, these are the names of great marques that excelled as sporting cars and racing cars in the 1920s, 1930s and beyond. But it was the Bugatti Type 35 that defined a new engineering and design language and motor sport record. As such, this car is a lodestone in the development of the motor car in its first century; many might argue that it remains such as the motor car develops into its second century.

The Type 35 was Bugattis most successful racing car and its variants enjoyed further victories. Type 35 won many a Grand Prix, the 1926 World Championship, five Tagra Florio victories, it took places at Le Mans and excelled in hill climbs, rallies and national club events all over Europe (and beyond). A Type 35 even raced in the outback of Australia at the long-forgotten races in Western Australia the desert Grand Prix.

With its new features, exquisite engineering, and forensically detailed design, Ettore Bugattis masterpiece sparked off a new world of focused car design amid the single-seater and twoseater categories of the 1920s.

The ingredients included a hollow front axle through which the front leaf springs pass a low-drag and ellipsoid body, alloy panels, ultra-thin chassis side members, special alloy wheel designs with the brakes insitu, advanced engine design with ball and roller-bearing crankshaft, and in later iterations, a supercharger on the 2.0-litre and 2.3-litre straight-eight. Throw in the dashboard-mounted magneto drilled components, and engineering became art. Type 35 delivered handling and steering that set new standards for driving: Bugattis Type 35, T35, or Tipo 35, is undoubtedly the vital monument in the history of engineering, industrial design and motor sport.

First launched in 1924 at the Lyon Grand Prix, the Type 35 drove and steered with standards of precision and response previously unknown. The strong, yet light chassis was flexible which greatly benefited the handling, the torque and power delivery ushered in a new era of performance. Yet under 400 of these hand-wrought masterpieces were built from 1924 to 1931 in all its derivative variants.

Legend of excellence: 'EB' Ettore Bugatti stylized his badge from the beginning. His cars would become progressively more elegant, but they were always advanced in pure engineering terms.

This Type 37 shows off the design that typified the Type 35 series. Note the narrow radiator, shorter nose and the suspension details.

The sheer joy of Bugatti open motoring at speed in a road-going specification car as it scythes through a bend in true Bugatti style.

A Type 51 caught going up Prescott hill. Note the larger radiator and longer body.

Bugatti in regular road use. This car has the wire wheels, lamps and wheel guards of the non-race, road specification.

Often raced in blue paint, but also subject to other schemes and numerous derivations, the Type 35 can only be described as a real icon and a consummate act of engineering genius. Today these cars are adored the world over and form a nuclei of still-racing, competitive classic racers that, although worth very large sums, are driven by enthusiasts and Bugatti Owners Club members; the cars live and have spawned films, books, paintings and a range of resin, plastic and metal models.