Dear Claire and Ard,

The work of historians is frustrating: everyday there is someone who finds something new that negates what you have written yesterday.

I feel trepidation to have to correct you in public, Ard, but please look at an excerpt from the letter that Michel Dovaz has written to you on Dec 28, 2007 and that you forwarded to me with his consent on January 5 , 2008. It was Edgar Bensoussan from the 'British Motors Garage' still active until after 1995. I now also see where I got the incorrect spelling from. Another interesting comment is that he doubts the ownership of Gaston Docime, but he suggests it may be of much earlier date. So that still requires further verification. He sold it still with the separate headlamps after which the car was 'modernized' which was done very often in those days as the separate headlamps were considered oldfashioned. See for instance the change between the MG TD and MG TF (1953- 1955). Then he sold it to Jean De Dobbeleer in 1956 (see my page of NLB-2)

This morning I also made pictures of the exhaust side of my car, a type II engine. The type I engine was fixed solidly just as all previous Bugatti types- adding to the stiffness of the frame- but it also meant all vibrations were transmitted to the frame and hence to the inside of the car, although it still had a smooth ride in comparison to other cars. From February 1935 the factory decided to insulate the engine totally from the chassis by hanging it up in rubber blocks, which resulted in less engine vibrations in the car. The front engine bearers were provided with rubber mountings whilst the rear crankcase arms were deleted and a diaphragm was designed which bolted to the chassis and surrounded the flywheel housing (ref: Price type 57). This was called the type II engine.This however meant that also the exhaust manifold had to be redesigned, see this picture. By this one can immediately recognize the type I and type II engine.

However as the factory did not use chassis numbers but engine numbers (chassis numbers were only added at the last minute for registration purposes only) there is a wide range of chassis numbers where type I and type II were intermingled (such as 57297 engine 151 and 57298 engine 177 which both have a type I engine). But even engine numbers cannot make the distinction: engine 175 (57312, May 1935) and engine 203 (57290, February 1935) had both type II engines.

So for a while- including the building period of your car- these were intermixed.
Viva le Marque
Kees

I didn't remember the letter, that Michel wrote me in december 2007. Kees is right.

Quote from Kees;

"Another interesting comment is that he doubts the ownership of Gaston Docime, but he suggests it may be of much earlier date. So that still requires further verification."

In the cars file there is a letter from Conway, it says;

Sold via Monestier to Perrot and resold by them to Glaizal on 15 Feb 1937 labelled "chassis grand raid, faux cabriolet 2 place".


So we also have this matter in look into now.

Claire

Claire,
As I promised you I will ask Michel Dovaz. Perhaps he knows something more.

Grand Raid, faux cabriolet 57263 from Johan we have Laugier quote;

"57263, engine 206, left on June 8, and was delivered to Mr. Blanc in Agen, France. After the war it reappeared in the form of a Cabriolet in southern France."

Then what?

Any ideas about what happens next?

http://www.bugattiregister.com/wiki/ind ... itle=57263

OK some good news - Lmarr have got my wheel discs sent off and I get them Monday.

Confirmed owners from Mr North = Mr Dixon (USA) and Ray Jones (USA) - so that fills in some details about the 2 names WIKI holds that I had no information on in my file.

Hi all, it's been a while.

Well what's new - I have had my wheel discs sprayed at last.

I see there is a new picture in wiki - I take it that it's from Ferrara expo? Who found the photo please, would love a copy.

A little while back we attended an event through Pistonheads called caring with cars and the event raised £5000 for the childrens hospice
http://www.caringwithcars.com/

Hope you are all well.

Hey, back again!

Very probably Bugatti69 found the picture on the Internet. I guess he will chime in and tell you where he got it.

Looking forward to see the car with new wheel discs.

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

Hello all again , I have a very basic question , where it says coach builder name and this has ‘usine’ next to it does that mean it’s body was built by the factory rather than a well know coach builder or does it mean the record book purely didn’t add a note of the coach builder ? Thanks

Coach builder notes