Description
This car is Lot 107 to be auctioned by Bonhams|Cars at The Bond Street Sale 12 December, please see the Bonhams website for full details.
Public Viewing:
Available 12th December 2024 from 09:00 until 17:00, at 101 New Bond Street, London.
Lot 107
The ex-Kay Petre, Sheila Darbishire, James A. Allington, Hugh & Richard Bergel. Purchased by Hugh G Conway, then single-family ownership since 1978
1925 Bugatti Type 35A / 35T 2. 3-litre Grand Prix Two-Seater
Registration no. EB 1926
Chassis no. 4564
Molsheim Engine: Stamped '4826'
Frame No. 51
Period competition history
Known ownership history
Registered new in France
Offered from the Conway family, ex-Hugh R G Conway, Chairman of The Bugatti Trust until 2023 and world regarded Bugatti Historian Hugh G Conway.
Welcome at the most prestigious international car events
Few racing car designs from the roaring twenties are more charismatic and instantly recognisable than that of the Bugatti Type 35 series. From its introduction at the 1924 Grand Prix d'Europe held at Lyon, through the developed model's (Type 39A) victory in that same race in 1926, Ettore Bugatti's Type 35 design became emblematic of all that was best about French racing blue. Most crucially, the Type 35 range could be tailored for both amateur level sports car racing in addition to the rarefied professional heights of Grand Prix competition. Contemporary rallying, touring, around-town use Bugatti and its dedicated agencies could provide a suitable Type 35.
Here, Bonhams offers this tremendously significant example; for 46 years the prized property of the revered, much-missed British-based Bugatti historian, the late, indisputably great, Hugh G Conway, and his son, Hugh R G Conway, Chairman of the Bugatti Trust until 2023. The car's previous owners include three female enthusiasts, most prominently the charismatic and as a racing driver incredibly talented (and glamorous) Brooklands racing star Mrs Kay Petre, 1933-35.
Bugatti Type 35 '4564' began life in 1925 as a relatively modest Type 35A, the simplified 'Grand Prix car lookalike' model nicknamed the 'Tecla'. While the all-out racing Type 35s of the period featured roller-bearing crankshafts the 35A used plain bearings. The early examples such as this particular car, retained magneto ignition, later examples used coil ignition, as a cost saving exercise. The 35As were also equipped as standard with conventional wire-spoked wheels, not Bugatti's advanced cast aluminium integrated spokes and rims.
This example sold brand-new to Mrs Florence Gould (née LaCaze), socialite wife of wealthy American Virginia Power & Railway Company founder, later hotel-group owner, Frank Jay Gould. Resident in Paris, Mr Gould was a noted philanthropist and, with Florence, an avid collector of impressionist paintings.
In August, 1926, London Bugatti agent Col. Sorel imported '4564' into the UK. It was first British road-registered as 'PG 3731' and used by GT Wilkins.
It was acquired by aspiring Brooklands driver Thomas Fothringham (not 'Fotheringham') who drove it at 'The Track' in 1931-32 before selling it to diminutive 29-year-old Canadian-born Kathleen Coad Petre (née Defries), known to all as 'Kay' Petre.
Absolutely beloved by the media and startlingly capable and competitive on track ultimately setting three Brooklands lap records in Bugatti and Delage cars and competing in three Le Mans 24-Hour races before her racing career was abruptly ended in 1937 by a terrible collision (for which she was utterly blameless) on the high-banked track in a single-seat works-entered Austin.
This Bugatti, meanwhile, had been sold in 1936 to another lady racing driver friend of Kay Petre's, Sheila Darbishire (née Morgan). Ulster-born, she became a notable driver in her own right both pre- and post-war; ultimately four-times Prescott hill-climb women's record breaker. She used this Bugatti in the 1937 Poole and Lewes speed trials and in racing and hill-climbing at Donington Park and Shelsley Walsh.
In 1938, London dealer Jack Lemon Burton then sold '4564' to C. A. Foyster. It passed from him to Captain Edward Pool MC, a parachute regiment officer who had lost a leg just after the D-Day invasion in Normandy. Later placed in charge of initial parachutist training at Tatton Park, Manchester, he had met Sheila Darbishire, volunteer organiser of the canteen there, and kept in touch postwar. She introduced him to Bugatti preparer Louis Giron who had '4564' for sale. Captain Pool campaigned it during 1947 but crashed at Prescott hill-climb (photograph on file). Being helped from the car by St John's Ambulance first-aiders he shocked them rigid by insisting upon walking back to the paddock with one foot his artificial one not only stuck out at right angles but crunching with every step...
Arch-enthusiast A. F. Rivers-Fletcher, pre-war ERA Club luminary and postwar PRO for BRM and the Owen Organisation, then bought '4564' and c. 1953 re-sold it to the then-budding cutaway artist the since-renowned James A. Allington and B. Waters - sharing the car in partnership. Waters advertised it in 1955 as having been "extensively restored in last 18 months".
While in the hands of Allington and Waters, the engine was rebuilt (in 1958) into its present 2. 3-litre Type 35T specification, and in 1959 ownership passed to Bugatti Owners' Club (BOC) and Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) luminary Hugh Bergel. He and his son Richard subsequently raced '4564' frequently, and in their family ownership it was track and road tested not only by John Bolster Technical Editor of 'Autosport' magazine but also by none other than Stirling Moss, for 'Ford Times'. Sir Stirling commented "I reached speeds of 100 mph with the Bugatti without pressing myself or the car..." and "... today's cars owe a lot to the Bugatti".
Between 1959 and 1978, the Bergels completed some 10, 570 miles in this remarkably well-connected car, before selling it on September 8, 1978, to the great Hugh Graham Conway.
This fine engineer like Kay Petre, Canadian-born was sometime chief engineer, then managing director, of the Short Brothers aircraft company in Belfast, then MD of Bristol-Siddeley Engines, and director of Rolls-Royce Ltd. He became a member of the UK's decimal currency board 1967-71, generating design of the seven-sided British 50-pence coin. He also served as President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1967 yet still made time to write his seminal histories of Bugatti cars and to foster both the Bugatti Owners' Club and the Bugatti Trust.
His personal Bugatti stable comprised '4564' here and the sister Type 44 which Bonhams also offer as Lot 108.
Hugh G Conway restored and maintained this Bugatti Type 35T before passing to his son Hugh R G Conway in 1988. In 2010, ownership passed formally to his son Giles Conway. Throughout this 46-year stewardship, dates, events and notes have been kept in a handwritten book which details its use, maintenance and activity under both the Hugh G ownership 1978-1988 and subsequently Giles Conway thereafter. The last notes are from April 4, 2019 a return trip to Prescott.
Hugh G Conway had bought '4564' in damaged condition, (photos on file) after Richard Bergel had inexplicably lost control in the first corner of qualifying at Silverstone. By late 1979, the car's chassis frame was on trestles and the engine dismantled. Handwritten notes record work carried out through 1979-80. On July 27, 1980 this Bugatti had its first outing with Mr Conway to Silverstone. A note from August 23, 1980, records a trip to Cadwell Park the car having then covered a total 480 miles since rebuild. The mileage and repair log continues as the events in which '4564' accumulated, with detailed hand-written notes upon each.
In April 1983 at Donington Park, HRH Prince Michael of Kent was photographed with this car. Between 1978 and 1988 10, 485 miles had been completed and Hugh R G Conway subsequently maintained this record all offered with this Lot, together with myriad related photographs and most crucially perhaps a detailed report from leading Bugatti specialist Mark Morris all of which can be inspected and assessed pre-Sale.
From July 1995 a photograph on file shows Michel Bugatti in the car on the Cote de Mont Ventoux in southern France with Hugh, hand-written notes confirming that '4564' ran well despite ambient temperatures of 30-35 degrees C. The car was continually used for Silverstone Classic weekends, Prescott, BOC Classic weekends, BOC hill climbs, Donington Park, VSCC driving tests, Winscombe Park hill-climb, Brooklands driving tests, all are detailed. As are the 1998 Rally at Vlodrop Netherlands with Giles Conway the 2000 German Rally in Pitburg and the Eifel a 2004 Sicilian rally etc.
Bonhams has relatively seldom had the pleasure of handling such a well-documented vintage car as this example, with so many written records, letters and photographs detailing its continuous competition history all available with this Lot.
Since 2021 the car has spent most of its time carefully stored by Gentry Restorations. It is currently drained of fluid and will require recommissioning before road use, work will include fixing the broken water pump.
Offered here directly from Giles Conway, this magnificent Bugatti Type 35 with its wonderful links mainly to pioneering female racing driver Kay Petre but also even to Sir Stirling Moss, no less plus its near half-century of ownership by the literally towering Bugatti-world figures of both Hugh G Conway and Hugh R G Conway, and family would absolutely enhance any historic and vintage car collection, whether growing or already well-established.
All lots are sold 'as is/ where is' and Bidders must satisfy themselves as to the provenance, condition, age, completeness and originality prior to bidding. Visit the Bonhams Motorcycles website for all pertinent auction information.
