From the Fana de L'auto of 1975 comes this strange racing car.Does anyone know more?

Interesting !

Cannot select the picture for a bigger view. Do you have a bigger picture ?

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You could get a copy of the Fanatic de L'automobile

I have seen this before, Bugatti based special from the 50's.

I do not remember the details, and can't seem to find it right now.

I am since long planning to make an article on all post war rebodied Bugattis, both racing as well as touring. If I had only completed that!

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I also have seen it before. I believ in this picture, there was not even an engine in.

Chorlton perhaps?

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Built for Falchetto in 1947,this car is apparently based on a T35 chassis with a 4.5 litre motor without supercharger.The article in the Fana talks of a 4.9 litre engine "debored" Built in the area of Nice this car seems to have faded away without ever entering a GP.No not chorlton.

Checked the Wiki- it is not in there yet:

http://www.bugattiregister.com/wiki/ind ... i_Specials

Lazarus may I suggest you add it to the Wiki ?

GCL-Wales compiled a nice list of Specials too some time ago
(viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1766&p=14321#p14321);
maybe he can identify it.

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Benoit Falchetto had somehow managed to make a T50B unsupercharged 4.5L Bugatti engine out of an old 5L T50 supercharged one. The thing was mounted on a T35 chassis and covered by a new body. The ugliest Bugatti in history ensued. Either parts were supplied, or some work had been done, or both, by the famous Friderich’s Garage in Nice who immediately put out a disclaimer of responsibility for the car.
It was entered By Falchetto for the Belgian GP at Spa (29 June 1947) where it retired in lap 3 with a broken gear box. The car mercifully disappeared after throwing a piston in practice for its home Grand Prix at Nice (20 July 1947).

Very interesting.It would not be so easy to squeeze a T50 motor into a Gp T35 frame.The driver sat ON the gearbox,hence the high seating position.Maybe Ettore saw it and this led to his sad demise?

Benoit Falchetto also happened to be Isadora Duncan's last driver.

The following is from: “Isadora – A Sensational Life”, by Kurth, Peter; Abacus, Time Warner Books UK, London 2001 (ISBN 0 349 116199):

Returning from Lyons Isadora Duncan and her friend Mary Desti stayed for a week at the Juan-les-Pins Grand Hotel, until the management realised that they were not going to be paid. They then left for a small hotel near Isadora’s studio in Nice. Her studio had been padlocked by the landlord and she was given until October 1, to vacate the place. Walking back that night to Juan-les-Pins they found a little restaurant near the sea, called Tetu after the owners. It was there that Isadora saw Benoit Falchetto for the first time, while he was dining there with three others. Mary Desti at first thought of him as a chauffeur, but Isadora declared him a ‘Greek god’ in disguise. She pointed to a lovely little Bugatti racing car with red, white and blue circles around its tail and said that it was his charriot. (pages 616, 617)

On the night of September 10 Isadora had herself and Mary Desti invited to dinner at Tetu’s bistro, where she had seen her ‘greek god’ and his car. At that occasion she asked the proprietors to give the young men her address when he would come again to the place, which he frequently did according to the owners. Isadora’s pretext was that she was most anxious to buy a car like his. It was then that Isadora started to refer to the young man as “Bugatti” (which Mary Desti in her biography of Isadora consistently spells as ‘Buggatti’). (page 618)

In the early evening of 13 September Falchetto arrived while Isadora was taking a nap. He had gotten the address from Mme Teetu with the message that Miss Duncan wanted to buy a Bugatti. Mary Desti, who answered the door, asked him for his car to give to Miss Duncan. After Isadora awoke Mary casually mentioned Falchetto’s visit, upon which Isadora reacted very excited. (pages 621, 622)

Bugatti wasn’t a Greek god, but Nicois garagiste Benoit Falchetto and French-Italian as his name confirms. Neither was his car a Bugatti, but an Amilcar Grand Sport, according to the first reports from the Riviera, license plate ‘2318 M9’. This information is based on the September 15, 1927 edition of the ‘France de Nice et de Sud-Est’ and the September 17, 1927 edition of the ‘Petit Nicois’, both in the Mary Desti collection on Isadora Duncan, held by the University of California at Irvine. (pages 622, 623)

On the morning of September 14, Isadora went the address Falchetto had left on his card, the Helvetia Garage. On arriving there she learned that Falchetto was out on a call but would return in the afternoon. She asked that he come to her studio at five, as she wanted to buy a car. (page 623)

See : http://www.bugattiregister.com/wiki/ind ... -Falchetto

Here are some better pictures of the Falchetto Special. The front wheels apear to be independently suspended.