Description
This is lot number 249 in the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed sale on July 12th, please see the Bonhams website for full details.
• Built by restorer Oliver Way
• Incorporates genuine Bugatti and the best newly manufactured parts
• Restoration completed in 2016
• VSCC inspected and approved
• Goodwood Members' Meeting competitor in 2016, 2017 and 2019
“It must have been Bugatti’s liberality of conception and eye for proportion (developed by observation without the ‘benefit’ of calculation!) which enabled so well-balanced and in fact well-engineered a design.” – Hugh Conway on the Bugatti Type 13/ 15/ 17.
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 two-seater open body. Making its debut at the 1910 Paris Salon, the Type 13 was described by The Autocar as a “most delightful looking runabout”.
The Type 13 was built in 8-valve Petit Pur Sang and 16-valve Brescia (or Brescia Modifié) versions, the latter taking that name following the factory's first four places at the 1921 Italian Grand Prix for Voiturettes, held at the eponymous racetrack in Lombardy. By the time production ceased around 1926, approximately 2, 000 of the Brescia version had been made.
Most of the mechanical parts of this car in its current form were imported into the UK from France in 2008. Included with these parts was some older Belgium paperwork relating to car number '1214'. This kit of parts was slowly added to with further original and UK-made reproduction parts until 2013. The parts were then assembled into a Type 13 short-chassis configuration Bugatti in the workshops of restorer Oliver Way. During the car's assembly a new, high-quality reproduction crankcase was sourced from specialist Roger Smith. A new Phoenix crankshaft and con-rods were also fitted at this time. New white metal 'banana' tappets (a Brescia peculiarity) were made by Auto Restorations of New Zealand. A new Gentry Restorations cylinder block was fitted also. The gearbox casing came from a slightly later Brescia and was salvaged, repaired and rebuilt. The front axle was a high quality, braked example made outside the factory but fitted with the innovative Bugatti compensator mechanism. The completed car was inspected by the Vintage Sports Car Club in April 2016 and determined to be built to “workmanship of the highest order and exactly as would have been manufactured in 1922”. It was issued then with a UK registration as Bugatti car number '1214'. The Brescia was invited to be displayed at the inaugural Goodwood Members' Meeting in 2015 and subsequently to race at the 2016, 2017 and 2019 Members' Meetings. It was also invited to the 2016 Chateau Impney Hillclimb, the 2019 Vintage Revival at Montlhéry, and the Bugatti Brescia Centenary celebrations at the London Classic Car Show and Prescott Hillclimb in 2021. In 2022 the Bugatti left Oliver Way’s care and subsequently was sold to a workshop in the Czech Republic. The car is offered with an Isle of Man Vehicle Registration Certificate (issued 30th November 2016).
