Dear Friends

Thirty years after I fell in love with Bugattis, I've finally seen my first one in the metal. Saturday the 15th started ordinary enough, until early afternoon when my best friend called, and asked, sort of casually : "Would you like to see a Bugatti?" "Yes" I replied, "I would" "Be at my place at 5" said best friend.

At quarter to five I rang his doorbell. "If it's a bloody Veyron you're dead" I smiled sweetly. "Let's go" he said. We got into his daily driver, an Alfa Romeo 159, and drove to the airport, he explaining to me that a most exclusive rally from France was starting in Port Elizabeth, it being one of those rallies where the cars were ready and warmed up beforehand, so that when the people stepped off the plane, they simply walked to their cars, throw a bag into the trunk, and drove off to the nearest exclusive game lodge.

An airport rental car park is perhaps not the most romantic place to meet one's first Bugatti, but I was way too exited to care. We parked and walked over to the Avis car park; the first car I saw was a massive Rolls Royce P1 Tourer, then a Mercedes 190SL on the back of a truck and as I peered around a W.O. Bentley, there it was : the unmistakable shape of a Bugatti radiator.

I started taking in the details : Alloy wheels as per T35, but with big brakes. Wheelbase too long for a T35; a T43? I peered through the little hole on the right side of the bonnet. Straight eight, familiar looking pipe-work and the top of the blower; yes, a T43. Stood back and looked at the body : 2 seat roadster, proportions similar to 43A, but a little lower, and no moulding along the sides or the top of the bonnet. I have never seen this car before I realised. I peered inside. No wooden dashboard, metal turned, magneto in the middle of dash looks a little strange; the wires sprouting out of it looks like plug leads. And seem to be attached to the outside; the photos I've seen they just sort of flow out of the magneto. To the left, an oval instrument cluster - no speedo. I stepped back and just stared. Jesus, what a beautiful car.

Black body, light brown upholstery, beige top, the registration plate is red letters on a white background. It reads OBT 309. Member of support staff walks over, gets in and fires her up. A brief high pitched metallic ringing sound, followed by the most exquisite sounding exhaust I've ever heard. Mechanic puts the hammer down and the revs soar joyously. My insides feel like liquid sunshine. I'm happy, so's the Bugatti, she leaks a little fluid. I point it out to the French mechanic; he gives a perfect Gallic shrug and says : "Yes , very good" It was very good. He switches her off and gets into a 1968 - 72 big block Corvette and, for the first time ever, the sound of a big American V8 fails to have any effect on me.

I was looking at a Bugatti. I started taking in the little details : the wires connecting the bolts seem very thin, so does the bolts surrounding the rims. Keeping Bugwrench's photos of the balancing weights on the early T35 wheels in mind I pear into the wheels, but I cannot find any. Did notice the beautiful shape of the inside of the wheels though. And then that front axle : It looks tight, slightly dull, well used. Everything looks in good used condition, not over restored. I am falling in love.

Before the owners arrive, the mechanic starts her up again, and the revs shout in ecstasy, I feel like doing the same. Then the owners arrive. The gentleman is a handsome silver haired man with piercing light blue eyes, and the lady, blond, glamorous and blessed with beauty that comes from good genes, and not the surgeon's scalpel. I stepped back and just sort of observed, not wanting to spoil the moment by speaking to them. The last time I complimented a guy on his car, a Ferrari Daytona, he told me not to touch his car. Never meet your heroes, after all, they are merely people.

He opened the trunk, no rumble seat, but a real trunk, and casually flung a single leather bag in. They walk over to one of two 57-63 Mercedes 300 SL roadsters and have a rapid fire conversation in French with the owners. Every one seem to know one another; photos are taken, hoods are put down, and the support staff, who seem to outnumber the entrants, run themselves ragged trying to organise an orderly departure. Entrants get into their cars, start them up, the Bugatti, in particular being given lots and lots of revs. She seems happy. I am happy. Slowly the cars pull away, first the Rolls, then a pre-war Alvis, followed by a late thirties Caddilac, 2 Bentleys, one the W.O., the other a 3.5l, 2 Austin Healeys, 2 Jaguars (a MK V dhc. and XK 140 roadster) and 4 Mercedes. (2 x 300SL's ; a 280 SL and the 190 SL on the back of the truck, the owner having apparently suffered a heart attack on the plane, thankfully he survived, but he cannot drive.) Only the Corvette needs a push start; the lady driver laying some serious rubber when it catches.

The T43 pulled away, and you know what, that clutch really did seem a little sudden. And then she was gone. The last thing I remember was that the rear number plate, attached to twin rear mounted spares, was totally straight. And the noise, I remember the noise.

I am such a lucky man, the first Bugatti I ever saw, was a most beautiful T43. I felt no envy, no jealousy, just happiness for a pair of people who thinks that driving a Bugatti around South Africa is good thing. Saturday the 15th of March 2008, surely was a most wonderful day. I saw a T43, and I fell in love with Bugattis all over again.

Soon the Du Gan book on T43 will arrive. I hope OBT 309 features. You know what? I'm still happy.

Regards
Johan Buchner

I take it that, in the joy and ecstasy of the moment, you forgot to take any photographs for us?

And, the license plate, that's Belgium. Do you speak Afrikaans? If so, you could probably have talked with them.

Congratulations with your first Bugatti, and that many more may follow! Maybe we fly over to you once, in the 100P!

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www.BugattiPage.com
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Hi Jaap

Good heavens, no. I did not want to spoil the moment trying to take bad photographs - I wanted the memory etched into my brain. Seeing my first Bugatti was like seeing a beautiful sunset. It can only be experienced, it cannot be captured, but next time? Who knows.

Fly to South Africa in the 100P? You will be showered in South African hospitality, I assure you. That truly is one beautiful aircraft.

Hope to see you soon!

Johan

Hey,

Fantastic story!

Regards


SB

Congratulations! Great experience!

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Vive la Marque !!

The registration indeed looks Belgian, by colour but also by the numbering. I can't find it in the Dutch/Belgian register nor in the Type 43 register.

A serious search for a T43 with registration number OBT309 has not provided any result. I am afraid that there is not a Molsheim produced T43 with that number. I regret you did not take any pictures. Now the memory is etched into your brain only as you said and we can not help you to identify the car.
Bugwrench

Hi Bugwrench

Sorry for only replying now, but I've been a bit busy, and very embarrassed. Never, for a moment, did I even consider that my first sighting of a Bugatti would turn out to be wrapped in such mystery. Due to it being fitted with a never-before-seen body, and being a T43, it never occurred to me that it could be anything other than genuine.

There are, however a couple of anomalies : Their is no wooden dashboard like the photographs I've seen; the instruments, a small oval-shaped cluster on the left-hand side, lacking a speedo, is located directly on the machine turned scuttle. The magneto has the wires attached to it like sparkplug leads, complete with those little caps. Again, photographic evidence suggests the wires should sprout directly from the magneto.

At the back the fuel tank seemed bigger somehow, and I don't remember the chassis side-members curving out like the chassis in Conway. It did have the forward facing rear springs, though. The twin rear spares was mounted more horizontally than on the T43A and the wheels themselves are different to the ones you photographed and sent to Stuart - Whereas your wheels clearly show the end of the bolts attaching the outer rim to the inner wheel, on these ones only the bolt heads are visible, at the back there were raised semi-cylindrical castings containing, I presume, the threads for receiving the screws. I could find nothing that looked like balancing weights.

The engine looked to be right, blower bottom right and the Y-shaped piping above, and underneath I could see the cooling holes for the sump. No coachbuilder-plate inside the door aperture, nor anywhere else on the body either ; which reminds me, the steering wheel was higher relative to the top of the scuttle than both the Grand Sport body and the T43A roadster

As to the registration number : I doubt very much if I could have remembered the letters wrong ; OB was the registration for Bloemfontein during the apartheid era, and T was for Transvaal, but I could have made a mistake with the numbers. It was definitely a white background with red markings though.

I have never seen a photo of this car; it was completely new to me. I would be surprised if it turns out to be a replica, everything looked well-used, especially the front axle and suspension. I remember the mechanic started her from cold, and she started immediately and revved cleanly.

I tell you , I'm beginning to feel like a prize-pillock. Next time, perhaps a camera?

Regards
Johan Buchner