I overheard a conversation David Sewell was having with a friend.
David said that he thought the type 52 designation applied to the "baby" grand prix car is incorrect.

The car was introduced in 1927, i.e the same year as the type 43, so there is an evident inconsistency.

Does anyone have any views about this ?

In that respect I think there are more "errors". Type 50/51, in the beginning there are some strange things (type 14, 16, 18), and during WO2 things are definately difficult to follow.

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

When glancing at my (very unfinished) personal database of chassis numbers it occured to me that the nos. used for the "baby" GPs neatly filled in some of the gap left in front of the nos. allocated to the eight-valve cars manufactured in 1909-10. Do any members know any other "type 52" nos. or, is there a "marque specialist" for this model ?

101* First made ???? type 52
127
A type 52. 2000 BBR p.
142
A red type 52 said to have been given as a gift to Englebert Dollfuss. It exists in Austria apparently unrestored.
249A
A type 52. 2000 BBR p. 154.
294A
A type 52 which was offered for sale on “The Bugatti Pages” in late 2007.
305A
A type 52. Trevelyan. 2000 BBR p. 155.
324A
A type 52 “A young Mussolini” 1963 ; Roth-Coleman, Long Beach, California. 1983 ; R-C offers car for sale, B.46/1/38. Hanmer, London, UK. TBB(3) p. 143. 2000 BBR p. 155.
357A
A type 52. Offered for sale in 2005 for 28,000 euros.
361
The first production Bugatti. An eight-valve car listed in “Bugatti Magnum” with a delivery date of September, 1909. It was probably used as a demonstrator. (The 1973 Register refers to October, 1910).

362
The second Molsheim Bugatti. An eight-valve car listed in “Bugatti Magnum” with a delivery date of September, 1909. It was probably used as a demonstrator.
363
An eight-valve car listed in “Bugatti Magnum” as having been delivered to de Vizcaya who was Ettore’s banker.
364
An eight-valve car listed in “Bugatti Magnum” (p.538).
365
An eight-valve car with engine no. 6 built on a 2.4 metre chassis and listed as a type 15. According to the 1962 register the car’s first oner was Mr. Robert Patocka, the manager of a sugar factory in Northern Bohemia and registered before WW1 in the former Austria-Hungary. Listed in “Bugatti Magnum” (p.538) as having been delivered to Prince Hohenlohe. It has been a long term exhibit in the Prague Technical Museum, Czechoslovakia. It is fitted with a boad-tail two seater body with sumptuous upholstery. It is painted olive green with maroon wooden wheels. It is pictured in B.49/4/6 and in “Bugatti - Cars” (p.).
366
A 1910 eight-valve type 15 (2.4 metre wheelbase) with engine no. 16 (listed by Conway in 1962 as no. 18). It is thought to have been displayed at the 1910 Paris Salon and to have been fitted with “Berline Exposition” bodywork by Gangloff and probably used by Mme. Bugatti and other members of the family. It was issued with a factory invoice dated 13th December 1910 in the name of Paris agent Huet. Around 1912 it was acquired by Col. Dawson in Norfolk, UK who fitted its present two-seater bodywork and reputedly used it on the battlefields of Europe during WW1. On 23rd March, 1923 it was given the UK reg. no. BJ 2305. He continued to used the car until 1929 and retained it until 1938 when it was sold to London dealer Jack Lemon Burton. It was next purchased by Peter Hampton in Bolney, Sussex. On the 1st of July the following year he used it to win an Edwardian Race at the Crystal Palace cicuit in London (comp. no. 2) at an average speed of 39.32 mph. He later used the car in various other events and retained it until his death in 1991. It then passed to the UK government in lieu of death duty and in 1991 was acquired by the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, where it remains. A full page picture of the car appears in Conway’s “Great Marques” photo album (p.17).
415
A racing eight-valve type 13 with an “out of sequence” delivery date of 24th May, 1912 which was typical of a racing car retained by the factory and sold at a later date. “Bugatti Magnum” records the “Customer” for this car as “EB Racing”. Research carried out by Julius Kruta and Bernhard Simon who have had access to the factory records currently retained by Bugatti SAS indicate that the car is listed as being “fur Rennzwecke verwender” * i.e. used for racing purposes. The car was entered for the Grand Prix de France by the Paris agent Huet who operated from premises a 3, Square St. Ferdinand. The race was run by the Automobile Club de la Sarthe at Le Mans on 23rd July, 1911. The “Lilliputian speedbox” was driven by Ettore’s loyal employee Ernest Friderich and as a car made in Germany it was painted white, the German racing colours. The car was fitted with centre-lock wire wheels instead of the normal wooden wheels. The car had been tested to 66 mph and the race was run over 648 km (403) miles. This was said to be Friderich’s first race but he made good progress in the field of 14 cars and when the police closed the race he had completed ten laps which meant he finished second behind the Fiat S 61of Héméry which had completed the full race distance in seven hours and six minutes. A riding mechanic, name unknown, accompanied Friderich being required to share the cramped cockpit with a spare wheel.
424
An eight-valve type 15 invoiced to Strasbourg in November, 1911. In 1989 it was listed in “Bugatti Magnum” as being in Australia (?).

432
An early 1912 eight-valve car with engine no. 74 ( listed in the 1973 Register as “93 (?)”). In April 1912 it was sold to Vienna and 20th March it arrived at the premises of Franz Michelfeit who had been appointed as the Bugatti distributor for Bohemia. Its first owner was a vetinary surgeon named Dr. Horak who lived in Treboun, a small town near Budweis (the home of a well known brand of beer) in the south of what is now the Czech republic. Horak retained the car for eight years and then sold it to a representative of a firm called Kolben and Danek (later known as CKD). He modified the windscreen to accept a “convertible roof”. The car’s third owner, from 1927, was another resident of Budweis called Isodor Seda who is said to have and unusual comportment as the result of having had his skull repaired with a steel plate as a result of a WW1 injury. By the sixties the car had beeen dismantled and was stored in poor condtion in a barn. A Czech soldier name Franticek (Frank) Ernest who lived near Prague borrowed 6,000 Czech crowns from his mother to buy the car in partnership with two other enthusiasts called Ja Med and Jan Riska. Private ownership of cars was prohibited by the ruling Communist government so the three formed a “club” to run the historic car. Jan Med rebuilt the body and fitted a new roof and radiator. Ernest had engineering skills and was able to make new connecting rods to replace the missing items. A new wooden wheel was fabricated by a local joiner and the car was painted a bright blue. It was then used for local rallies including a major event in Munich in 1965 and the Italian “Incontro Internationale Bugatti” in 1994. In 2001 it attended the Molsheim Bugatti Rally and in 2007 appeared at the Czech Bugatti rally. It carries the registration C 16-39.

I have owned a Baby Bugatti, nr 394A, for the last 23 years or so.
The" type 52" was sold new in Holland to the van Marwijk Kooy family in Zeist/Bilthoven.

When I heard about it, I went to see the owner (I knew him from other activities) and learned that he used to ride it as a boy around the grounds of their house. He did crash it once and broke the front axle, so they repaired that rather badly. It also lost it's original wheels since they were at a size for which tyres no longer existed.
He wanted to keep it for his grandchildren but I managed to persuade him to sell it (for lots of money) and buy a few new toys for his grandchildren; he did.

I still have it as the second owner!!

I then send it to Crostwaite & Gardiner for a restoration

Some more pics of 394A as it has been for many years now.

Terrible photograph`s from the T-52.
Thanks

I am afraid I have to do with a replica.



I have a second replica, still disassembled. I have some questions on original construction, so I might jump in one day to make some detail shots, if you are OK with that.

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Vive la Marque !!

Herman,
No problem or just tell me what details you are looking for and I can make the pics to send to you.

For this time it is just the steering box that puzzles me. I have a picture of a Pur Sang replica, and of my Authentic Models, and these are vastly different.

The steering box internals of the second replica are missing, so I have to decide what to do / make / source.

I am sure I will run into more problems when assembling the car... But that is something to tackle in the future.

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

hello

I remember years ago ( atound 1986) Ive seen a T52 for sale at the musee in mougins near cannes.the price was about 2o.ooo.-- francs !!!!

I think that the type Nr. " T52" was given by hugh conway.

regards
mike

My apologies for adding such large photo-files with my previous posts.
I hoped the system would slim them down to screen-size level.......however now thw details are to be seen better!

They did in the past. Automagically. However, the new layout works a bit different. I tried to fiddle with settings in the CSS, but the modification that worked on the old layout, does not work on the new layout.

Anyhow, I will fix this some day. Untill then, we can enjoy large photos... No problem.

_________________
Vive la Marque !!

I always e mail my own photos TO myself [ from google mail to hotmail ] and this downsizes the photos so that I can then put them on the site.There is probably a quicker/easier/more simple method but this works for me.

Enclosed some pictures of the steering box and throttle pedal of 394A.

And the priginal Paris-Rhone electric motor (working)