Lot details
Registration No: DS 6599
Chassis No: 4289
Mot Expiry: June 2009

"The engine is wonderful, in its stream of power. The more one asks, the more one seems to get. The steering and suspension, the gear-changing are if possible a little better than ever they were, and altogether this is a very wonderful machine. It is an 'outdoor' car, which begins to earn nuts and / or cigars only after Esher, or Staines or Watford. It can trickle through Regent's Park very demurely, but to use it for that kind of motoring is rather like using a Grand National winner to haul a cart full of mangolds. It is a full-blooded motorcar, by intention and in performance" (E.N. Duffield Esq test driving a Type 30, Automotor Journal, 26th March 1925).

Launched in 1922, the Type 30 made history as the first Bugatti production car to be powered by an eight-cylinder engine. Further notable for introducing the monolithic powerplant architecture with which the marque became synonymous, its advanced 1991cc unit (60mm bore x 88mm stroke) featured a single overhead-camshaft, four ball-bearing supported crankshaft (three main, one auxiliary), detachable sump, twin four-cylinder blocks and three valves per cylinder (two inlet, one exhaust). Reputedly capable of generating 100bhp in race tune, it was allied to a four-speed 'Brescia' type manual gearbox with upgraded internals. Although the early cars also made use of a lightly modified 'Brescia' type chassis, later Type 30s got their own lengthened and strengthened frame; both variants employing beam axles and leaf-sprung suspension (semi-elliptic front / reversed quarter-elliptic rear). Hydraulically actuated to begin with but subsequently converted to cable operation (due to the inefficiency of the glycerine system's leather seals) the model's front-wheel brakes were another novelty on a Molsheim road car. Forerunner of the legendary Type 35 Grand Prix car, the Type 30 enjoyed a modest competition career of its own taking 2nd and 3rd places in the 1922 French Grand Prix and 9th in the 1923 Indianapolis 500 etc. Sufficiently close to the four-cylinder Brescia series in terms of appeal but enticingly more powerful, the eight-cylinder design helped Ettore Bugatti make the jump from voiturette to grand routier manufacturer. Out of the approximately 600 Type 30s made between 1922 and 1926, less than fifty are known to have survived to this day.

Writing to Janet Missen, editor of the Bugatti Owners' Club's 'Bugantics' magazine in 1977, the vendor's late partner Rosemary Burke related how she had come to own this particular example, chassis number 4289:

"The Type 30 is really quite exceptional. I was extremely lucky to find it. Many years ago when we lived in Sunderland we used to go to the local VSCC social meeting at a pub north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and the proprietor had a Bugatti - Richard saw it but I never did. A chance reminder by a member earlier this year recalled the car and I telephoned the owner. He remembered Richard very well and was happy to sell me the car - he said that as he was always so busy he decided not to take it to pieces until he was in a position to put it together again with the result that over the twenty years he had it, it wasn't touched. I can't trace the history back beyond his ownership as he bought it from a garage in Newcastle now redeveloped, so I have no registration number or logbook. The tale goes that four lads bought it before World War Two to make it into a racing car, but got no further than taking off the body. Only two came home, and the car was subsequently not touched again so it is still on its Rapson Super Comfort tyres and has all the right bits including the hydraulic systems with the brake pedal / cylinder / master cylinder . . . The engine is complete, with dynamo and starter and air pump etc (coil ignition) and quite free though the sump was off when I bought it so probably there are crank problems . . . The gearbox is what I am told I should expect (in other words all half chewed but working nicely) and the back axle seems OK but the American Spicer propshaft is shot. All the leather on the track rod ends and the back shock absorbers is in good condition and I'm missing things that came off with the body such as headlamps, front shock absorbers, steering wheel etc. I've got the cast aluminium bulkhead and dash and footwell, and the two Huile and Essence gauges but no other dash items. And a super radiator in very sound condition. Even the wheels are good, I've already got a new set of beaded edge tyres for it and intend to run it as original . . . At the moment I'm deep in body styles and want a very light torpedo like Mike Raahauge's but I have some reservations about the Carosserie Profilee and would like to see a Lavocat et Marsaud body before I finally decide".

Restored over the next several years, chassis 4289 was granted the age-related registration number 'DS 6599' in 1983. Modelled on a Lavocat et Marsaud design, the Type 30's newly fabricated Dual Cowl Torpedo body was trimmed with leather donated by a Gucci director. Treated to a replacement Gordon Allen crankshaft and conrods, the engine also benefited from fresh pistons and valves etc. While, other mechanical fettling saw the Bugatti fitted with a remote oil filter, modern propshaft, twin SU carburettors, improved front brakes and higher back axle ratio (the latter modification aimed at increasing its suitability for Continental touring). Travelling to Munster for the 1987 Grand Rallye International, chassis 4289 suffered cracks to its cylinder blocks the following year. However, these have since been repaired and new pistons made leading the vendor to state that "all seems well". Finished in black with a bare aluminium bonnet and brown leather upholstery, the nominal four-seater also sports a wood-rimmed steering wheel, well stocked dashboard, rear-mounted spare wheel, cycle wings, half running boards and Marchal headlights. A thoroughly appealing proposition, 'DS 6599' is said to be accompanied by all the parts that have been replaced on it over the last three decades. Riding on its original beaded-edge Rudge wire wheels, this gorgeous straight-eight Vintage Bugatti is offered for sale by the late Rosemary Burke's partner and comes with MOT certificate valid until June 2009.

H&H are indebted to independent Bugatti consultant David Sewell for the following additional information:

"I now have the original factory records data for this car, Chassis No 4289, but there is little of relevance that is not self-evident. Against Order No. 16009 it was delivered in chassis form to Bugatti's British Agency, Messrs Chas. Jarrott & Letts of London on 2nd July 1924 and invoiced to them five days later. It had initially been intended for delivery to their Spanish agents, Messrs Bertrand y Serra of Barcelona, but this was cancelled and it was redirected to London. It was fitted with Engine No 278 (8 cylinders, 60 x 80), Zenith carburettor(s?), battery ignition, five Rudge wheels fitted with 765 x 105 tyres, electric lighting and starting, front wheel brakes and four shock absorbers. Unfortunately the Jarrott & Letts records are not known to have survived, so we have no record of its original ownership, or of its original registration number. Researches into such matters always remain ongoing! Its original purchaser would have ordered (and maybe specified) the coachwork he required from his chosen British coachbuilder.

Regarding the remainder of the data faxed to me . . . It might be worth pointing out that the Type 30 engine has a barrel crankcase (like an Austin Seven but unlike every other Bugatti model). The fourth (auxiliary) main bearing is actually a thrust bearing fitted behind the (third) rear main, these are massive (140mm diameter) double-row self-aligning ball races, exactly as used later on the Types 35, 43 and 51. Like the Brescias, the Type 30 had to do duty as a front-line racing car (a true Grand Prix car in the case of the Type 30) at one extreme to a sedate four-door saloon at the other, plus all points in between. Price-wise, at the 1924 Olympia Motor Show the list price of a Type 30 chassis was £630, whereas a Type 22 / 23 chassis was £330 - little more than half. A Type 22 / 23 two-seater with standard Jarvis coachwork cost £485, a four-seater £505 and a coupe / saloon £600. Therefore a Type 30 saloon, as this car is believed to have been, would have cost at the very least £900 if a standard Jarvis body, so perhaps £1,000 or more for a one-off by another coachbuilder.

Power-wise, the 1923 Indianapolis Type 30 (Type 31?) Bugattis generated 104bhp @ 5,000rpm (a little more than a Type 35 - but not for long!), whilst a standard production engine probably gave no more than about 65 - 70bhp - still good enough for a lively road performance. I recall the car having twin 36mm Zenith carburettors so the vendor must have changed them to SUs at some later date. Although, less original, the car will doubtless now perform better . . . He certainly fitted a much higher axle ratio, a 15 x 54 instead of the original 12 x 54. This makes a huge improvement for road use, indeed I am fitting one to my Type 30 right now to replace its ridiculously low-geared 12 x 54 set . . . One important point - it is worth stating in your catalogue entry that the car retains its original chassis plate - this counts for a lot in Bugatti circles".