(51126) has been written about in other posts. It is currently for sale by Martin Chisolm. There is some controversy about the continuous history of this car, and if indeed there are two cars, or not, that lay claim to 51126.

This is the write-up for the car, by Martin Chisolm:
A respected member of this group was collector and Bugatti racer Geoffrey St. John. An
engineer working for Smiths Industries, Geoffrey avidly collected Grand Prix Bugattis
regularly making trips to the old Bugatti Factory at Molsheim in a bid to rescue parts,
many of which were sold for their scrap value. Geoffrey’s passion was for the twinoverhead-
cam engined Type 51 and he was also an avid racer with numerous significant
historic racing results throughout Europe in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s.
This fine example you see before you was built up by Geoffrey and his good friend
Martin Dean between 1965 and 1974, on an original chassis using mostly original parts,
many of which were acquired from fellow respected Bugattist’s like Frank Wall, Tom
Thomas, Jack Lemmon Burton, Jack Richards, and Hugh Conway.

The engine was rebuilt in 1974 using an original Type 35 lower crank-case (numbered 89
and 4826) acquired from Hugh Conway, an original upper crank-case from Derry
Mallalieu in America; a block, original crank, tower drive, inlet manifold, supercharger
and one cam box, all from Geoffrey’s personal stock. Martin also sourced an additional
supercharger in Germany. Geoffrey rebuilt the bottom end of the engine, while the top
end was entrusted to Martin’s cousin Patrick Head who had just joined the Williams F1
team of which he is now the Engineering Director.

51126 was delivered to Count Czaykowski on the 21 April 1931. In around 1934 it was
owned by Genaro Loez before Jack Lemon Burton imported the car to the UK. In the
1940`s it was acquired by Michael Chorlton. He used a cut up Bugatti frame and the
engine from 51126 to make the single seat Chorlton Special. It is not known which
chassis Chorlton used to make the Chorlton Special as he had more than one frame
available, reference his advert in Motor Sport in February 1949. Chassis No. 51126 was
however later registered with the Strathclyde regional council as a Type 51 without its
engine (fitted with a Riley Engine) and the registration FHS 380.
According to the Bugatti register an association with chassis No. 51126 is being
suggested by another Type 51 which was constructed on the frame reclaimed from the
Chorlton Special, ex-Keith Butti. All we can say is this chassis was acquired in good faith
and to the best research at the time had a good claim to chassis 51126 and no conclusive
evidence has arisen in the last 40 years to prove or disprove this.

Does anyone know if there are any identifiable original Type 51 piece's on this car? I believe it has a Brescia gearbox, a T37 rear axle, and a T35B/C chassis frame which may or may not have once been a T51.

Can this car really lay claim to being 51126?

VLM

NO

It is christmas so we should look on the bright side.Where there was only one 51126 now there are THREE fine T51's.Sadly unless someone buys all three cars and rearranges the parts we shall not see the complete original car again.My personal preference for the continuous history 51126 remains the Butti car because nobody had thought to ask the widow if she still had the car,and it sat unmolested after Chorltons death [not unmolested during his life of course ! ] and everyone believed it had gone so everyone could claim the number on account of having parts that chorlton had sold off during his development work.

One of the three T51's is the Chorlton special.

Bugatti Register only shows one (51126) listed. If there is a second (51126), where can I learn more information about both cars side by side, in order to compare and understand this history? I am assuming the 2 cars are 1) ex-Butti and 2) Dean car.