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By
DAVID PIKE
Ettore Bugatti arrived in Alsace in Eastern France from his native
Lombardy to design cars for a number of industrial concerns. Right from
the start he upset a number of potential customers by his dictatorial
attitude towards customers who dared to complain. There was no doubt
that he could design great cars but he lost many jobs because of his
intolerance of people who did not treat his designs with due respect.
With characteristic extravagance, he had a hotel
named L’Hostellerie du pur-Sang built next to his factory in
Molsheim. This was intended to accommodate customers awaiting an
audience with Bugatti in what was almost a feudal estate but also
to emphasise the fine qualities of his machinery.
It was here, in Molsheim, that he produced the
type 13, the first series of cars successfully sold by the make.
The bodywork for the model was produced by Forler, a well-known
craftsman in Strasbourg. Its adaptation as a racing car gave birth
to the ‘Brescia’ of which 435 were made between 1910 and 1920
and from which Bugatti’s reputation in car racing terms began.
Few car manufacturers had the artistry which French-domiciled
Italian, Bugatti had and this was reflected in his designs.
Bugatti was always ahead of many other car makes.
His 1914 racing version of the Type 13 used four valves per
cylinder and his forged hollow front axle with square holes
machined to take the springs on the Type 35 showed extraordinary
detail as did the superb fully compensated brakes on all four
wheels.
The Type 37 was a sports car adaptation of the
very successful Type 35 Grand Prix car. Its engine was a
four-cylinder in-line overhead camshaft, developed from the Type
30 by way of the Type 35 but with plain bearings rather than
roller-bearings as used in the Grand Prix cars. It also had wire
wheels in place of the exotic alloy spokes of the Type 35.
Every detail of a Type 37 was pure sculpture and
its purity of line made it one of the most desirable Bugattis
especially when fitted with a supercharger as the Type 37A in 1928
for small car racing.
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