British title Customs cleared in the EU

Chassis no. 51154 Engine no. 17

British title

Customs cleared in the EU

Chassis no. 51154

Engine no. 17

- Works car, continuous and well-documented history from new

- Formerly owned by Prince Bertil of Sweden and Ralph Lauren

- Technical changes explained by the car’s history

- Excellent condition, eligible for all events

 

Bugatti’s Grand Prix cars have often had an eventful life. To come face to face with a works car is therefore extremely rare. Even its history is known and allows us to understand all the technical changes it has undergone. Such is the case for the Type 51 we are offering here, which began life as a works car and then continued in private hands, including some prestigious or famous owners such as Prince Bertil of Sweden and the great fashion designer and collector Ralph Lauren.

 

The car started out as a Type 35. The last seven Type 35Bs were built at the factory at the beginning of 1930. Among them, two became Type 51 cars with engines 17 and 18. A note states: “

Targa comp 27.2.1930, engine no. 205, pistons 28 1⁄2 mm, plate 8 mm, crankshaft no. 211 converted into a type 51 no. 17 on 7 July 1931.”

It was the future Bugatti 51154, the car offered for sale today.

For its part, the Type 35B with engine 207 was converted the same day with the Type 51 engine no. 18 and became car 51151. These two cars, 51151 and 51154, began life in July 1931 as 2300cc models, but after their career as works cars they were both delivered to private customers in 1934 as 1500cc models.

It is possible that the Type 35B with engine 205, the future 51154, was given the identity 4961 in 1930 and that it was one of the four works Type 35Bs to compete in the Targa Florio in May that year, but there is no evidence to confirm this.

 

When the Type 51s with engines 17 and 18 were ready in July 1931, it was too late to enter them in the Spa Grand Prix, but we believe that ‘our’ car with engine 17 is that driven by Grover-Williams at the Nürburgring Grand Prix on 19 July 1931. Details of its bodywork, such as the Type 35 bonnet with the supercharger blow-off outlet higher up and obstructed, or the opening in the bulkhead for a spare wheel on the driver’s side, are similar to those observed on 51154 when it was delivered to the customer in 1934.

We believe that at the time the car was used most often as a test mule. Louis Chiron thus took part in testing for the Grand Prix de la Marne on 3 July 1932, driving a Type 51 fitted with a radiator cap and two Type 35 screw-on fuel filler caps, details also seen on 51154 when it was driven by Robert Benoist for testing at Montlhéry in March 1934, before it returned to competition six years later.

 

The notes for repairs to the Type 51 engines indicate, for 9 and 19 August 1932: “

Overhaul of engine no. 17. Rear part of the cylinder broken, cylinder strengthened with a 2mm plate. 35mm pistons fitted. Reassembled as standard” ...

“

Rear axle no. 17 and gearbox housing no. 22 converted to standard items

.”

The car with engine no. 17 was assembled with rear axle no. 17 and gearbox housing no. 22. For 1933, there are few notes relating to the car, which appears not to have competed in any official events. From January to April 1933: "

5.00:1 final drive ratio fitted, attention to speedometer drive (losing oil), special supercharger from car 17 removed on 11 February and fitted to engine 26.

”

This seems to suggest that ‘our’ car was equipped at the time with a special supercharger, confirming the hypothesis that it was a test car.

The last notes from the factory relating to the car date from February 1934: “

Rear axle 17 serviced, axle shafts, hubs and diff. box changed. Gearwheel with Timken 15x54 bearings fitted. Engine 17: 35mm pistons fitted. Sub-cylinder shim 6+3mm, inlet manifold and supercharger diameter 52. New parts: camshaft-cylinder-timing gear case. Camshaft with multiplier.

”

 

 

Type 51, chassis no. 51114, engine no. 17

Converted into a 1500cc model, the car was sold on 13 July 1934 to Claude Bossu from Roubaix for 86,400 francs, and on 19 July, he registered it as 8143 MB 9. The registration document is marked ‘Type 51 14CV’, which corresponds to its 1500cc capacity.

Bossu was the first and last racing driver to use the car with engine no. 17 in 1500cc guise. He already had a little experience with Bugattis as he had taken part in the Chimay Grand Prix in May 1934, finishing third in his class with a Type 37. In a letter dated 28 July 1934 to the dealer in Niort, he told him that he wanted to sell his Type 37 as he had bought a quicker eight-cylinder twin-cam 1500. From a family of industrialists, Bossu raced under the name Barowski, so that his family would not be associated with his frivolous and reprehensible pastime as a Sunday racer ...

 

Barowski’s results in competition

We had the good fortune to meet Claude Bossu, aka Barowski, and he commented on the results he achieved with this Bugatti Type 51, chassis no. 51154:

- Mont Ventoux, September 1934: winner of the 1500cc class.

- Montlhéry, October 1934, one-kilometre race: second in the 1500cc class.

- Grand Prix des Frontières, Chimay, 9 June 1935: fifth at an average speed of 112.577kph.

- Eymoutiers, 11 August 1935: winner of the 1500cc class. He recalled how he stood up that day to Anna Itier, a quick driver in her Bugatti 51A.

- Lectoure, 1 September 1935: best time of the day, setting a new record at an average of 92.044kph.

- Montlhéry, 3 May 1936, one-kilometre race from a standing start: second behind Chaudé in the ex-Gaupillat 51.

- Coupe des Indépendants: second in the 1500cc class behind Villeneuve’s 51A.

- Grand Prix des Frontières, Chimay, 31 May 1936. Soon after the start, a duel began between Barowski and Hertzenberger, driving an MG: “I’d been trying for a while to overtake him, but he wasn’t having it.” Barowski was blinded by the mud thrown up by the MG’s front wheels. “The story of the 1936 Grand Prix then merges into that of my taking flight and landing in a meadow below the track. Given the bad weather, it was completely waterlogged, so there were no spectators, and that broke my fall. The organisation of the races was the stuff of folklore: at the time, I was working at my parents’ place all week, I used to arrive at Chimay on Saturday and leave very early on Monday morning, to be back at work at eight. We didn’t mess about!”

 

Technical changes

After this race, which could have ended in tragedy, Bossu decided to end his career as an amateur racing driver, as he told us:

“After the accident, the chassis of the Bugatti was bent; the engine hadn’t suffered much damage, but a mounting bracket must have broken. I therefore sold the car to a friend who owned a garage at Boulogne-sur-Seine, Jean Delorme, the president of the AGACI. He installed my 1500cc engine in his 2300cc chassis.” (Chassis no. 51149).

The car was officially registered in Paris in August 1937, but the actual sale no doubt took place in summer 1936. These stories which we learned from Bossu at first hand are essential to understand the rest of 51154’s history and to explain the presence of some engine parts from 51149 in the car today.

Delorme converted his chassis 51149 into a single-seater with a Cotal gearbox and installed the engine from 51154, while keeping the lower crankcase engraved as 51149. The engine was found at Neuilly in the 1950s and exported to the USA, where it gave birth to a new 51149.

51154 always kept its lower crankcase engraved ‘51154/17’. Only its top end and block came from 51149 and made it a 2300cc engine from 1936.

We have evidence that in September 1936, Delorme entered a race at Montlhéry driving a 1500cc car and that in autumn 1936, he put his two Type 51s up for sale. The first advertisement was published in the AGACI magazine in October, and then in November and December 1936.

“For sale: Racing model, 1500cc, DOHC, 8-cyl., supercharged, with trailer, 2 wheels, 30,000FF.”

And “Racing model, DOHC, 8-cyl., special A.C.F. Formula supercharger, can be used with 2 carburettors, complete motorsport equipment, new paint, lowered trailer with 2 wheels, the lot for 35,000FF. Jean Delorme.”

We believe that at this time the repainted 2600cc car with motorsport equipment was 51154/engine 51149.

 

Most likely in December 1936 or the start of 1937, the car was bought in Paris by Prince Bertil, the third son of King Gustav VI of Sweden and who was then under 25. It was undoubtedly his first racing car and he would go on to own Ferraris. Photographs show the Prince next to his car in its sporting configuration on the avenue Foch in Paris; in one of them, with the bonnet open, two bulges can be seen on either side of the supercharger which appear to have been made to accommodate an unusually large supercharger, a reminder of the advert: “Special A.C.F. Formula supercharger”.

The same modified bonnet is visible in a photo from the car's time with Donald Parkinson in the States.

 

In 1937, the car was sold to Jack Lemon-Burton, who quickly found a customer for his car 51154 in 2300cc guise. By early 1938 at the latest, the car was listed in his sales records as: “Bugatti Double Cam 2.3. 51154. £ 180 D.B. Parkinson. £ 135 plus £ 45 duty including delivery to Los Angeles”.

An American character and racing car enthusiast, Parkinson bought the car over the phone, without seeing it, and had it shipped to the USA. It still had the sports-type wings originally fitted by Delorme to 51149.

A year later, around 1939, the car was bought by George D. Parrish, the brother of the writer Anne Parrish, and who, suffering from an incurable illness, took his own life on 6 August 1941. His cars were then certainly sold to Tommy Lee, an eccentric and extremely wealthy collector, who took over from his father as head of the Cadillac dealership for the West Coast of the States and who owned before 1940 a collection of exceptional cars, including several Talbot T 150 SS, Alfa Romeo 2300 and 1927 Delage Grand Prix models ...

In 1941, Lee entered the Bugatti in the race at Muroc Dry Lake. Then in 1946, he sold it to W. Hudson Mills, who described it in the magazine Bugantics in 1951:

 

“In 1946, I had the chance to buy a 2300cc Type 51 Grand Prix. It was initially owned by Prince Bertil before coming to Indianapolis and the West Coast, where it was driven hard in testing at Muroc Dry Lake and Pikes Peak. At the latter event, I am told it created a sensation, reaching over 225kph with a 4.15:1 final drive ratio. When I bought it, it was in very poor condition: it had been damaged by a misguided mechanic and the gearbox had not survived the abuse inflicted on it.”

 

Mills set about restoring the car and obtained a set of gearwheels from the stock held by the agent in New York, while the Bugatti factory supplied an engine block and a complete set of pistons. A new dashboard was fabricated and all the parts fixed to the chassis were polished or chrome-plated. The car was finished in spring 1951.

Mills was one of the earliest active members in the New Jersey section of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). In the Bugatti Book from 1954, he is listed as the owner of the car, registered to his address at 90, Washington Street, East Orange, NJ. He was still presumed to be the owner in Hugh Conway’s Bugatti Register and Data Book in 1962.

 

The car was apparently sold to Bob Fergus around 1965–1966. Fergus was one of the biggest Volkswagen dealers in North America. From 1951 onwards, he attended the SCCA meetings and in 1952, he raced with his first Bugatti, a Type 35B, and then with a C-Type Jaguar the following year. In 1955, he bought the 57SC Gangloff cabriolet (chassis no. 57563) from another collector in Ohio, Woody Garber. A few years later, it was joined by the Type 51, and Fergus kept both cars for nearly 20 years, until January 1986, when Ralph Lauren persuaded him to sell them to him. They then went to the UK, to be restored by Crosthwaite & Gardiner. The restoration of the Type 51 took exactly four years, from March 1989 to March 1993.

 

Inspection of the Bugatti 51154

We were able to briefly examine 51154 for the first time in Crosthwaite & Gardiner’s workshop around 1990. The chassis frame had the number 482 engraved on it, corresponding to a frame from a supercharged Type 35 from the end of 1927. This number was confirmed at the time by the English experts who inspected it. Since then, the number ‘4’ has become a ‘7’. The reason is undoubtedly that this number, too low to be that of a Type 51 frame from 1934, bothered people. This in no way detracts from the car, which, we now know, was based on an old Type 35 frame.

This frame is either the original one from the Type 35B with engine 205, which is thought to have been taken from old stock when it was assembled in 1930, or that of a Type 35 which came from Jean Delorme’s garage at the end of 1936, if we assume that the bent frame from 51154 could not be reused.

Recent analysis of the car shows that the front of the engine is marked with the number 27, which corresponds to the 2300cc engine from 51149.

The drive housing for the supercharger is engraved with the number 205, referring to the Type 35 engine which was originally installed in this chassis. Another part of the drive housing and the supercharger are engraved with the number 28, since they came from car 51132, which was in California in the 1940s. The lower crankcase is certainly the original one from 51154, and is marked with that car’s chassis number and engine number 17.

The gearbox is engraved with the number 17 and comes from car 51127, which belonged to Joel Finn, who was briefly the co-owner of 51154 during its time with Bob Fergus.

The rear axle is engraved “17” and “4-13X54 RT”. Some of the figures, although old, appear to have been re-engraved. The torque strut has the number 17 marked on it.

There is no number on the front axle, but it is hollow and the correct large model for a Type 51.

The bodywork is new and was made in the UK during the restoration, but the framework for the bulkhead is original.

 

Conclusion

The car presented for sale has a complete history since leaving the factory, and even before! Its exceptional history explains the changes made and the replacement parts fitted during its long racing career.

It was a works Type 51 for three full years and was used by Grover-Williams, Chiron and Benoist as a test car before being sold to its first private owner, in whose hands it scored some great victories in national events.

It was completely restored in the 1990s and is in perfect running order, having been maintained by one of the best French mechanics, Michel Magnin. Paul-Émile B took part with it in many historic events such as the Monaco Historic Grand Prix on three occasions, Goodwood, and several Bugatti rallies. When we tested it on the track at Montlhéry in December, it ran superbly, and we felt the same emotions as its drivers back in the day. A dream to be handed down.

 

Pierre-Yves Laugier for Artcurial

 

Photos © Kevin Van Campenhout