Good question Uwe ; does anyone know?

J

Oh I almost forgot - Thanks Lazarus, I appreciate your concern, but feel free to "mess with my books" all you like, I'm always looking for an excuse to quote liberally from those who know more than me. It imbues me with the illusion of being a real historian!

How's the T251 adventure going?

Cheers
Johan

Being on four different sites [not counting AFF etc ] I forget just what info I have put on which,and when I get no response I tend to not write up the current work.I have just updated the T251 story with the remarks about the foundry work.I am this week fitting the dashboard and instruments to my daughters T37.I hear today that the Schlumpf Museum are yet again sending the T251 to Goodwood [non running as usual ] it is kind of them but I feel that it would be cheaper and better for them to send it to me here in France,Then we could get IT working and also make the required drawings for my own car.Tom Dark is working 23 hours a day getting his T73c engine together for Goodwood.Sadly he never asked me about the nosepiece of the crankshaft before getting 200BHP from his [ex Hucke car 73C 005].Bugatti modified this area but the mod was not made to all the engines.A hollow 27mm splined tube is not going to take the load from the blower and everything else on the engine.There are 5 different blower ratio drawings available.I dont think Bugatti even bothered with one to one !With this engine he was GOING for it in a big way.Interestingly we have discovered that the large blower was almost certainly designed off the car and it would have come as quite a surprise when they tried to fit it in the car and found the steering tie rod just under the blower where the carburettor was to bolt on.There is only two inches in which to fit a carburettor.I confess to having made the same mistake with my lovely manifold with a 50 DCOE.I have yet to find a solution to this one.I may end up with the "long wheelbase" version of the T73c.

Number 32 has just arrived. I have wanted a copy of Bill Boddy's Black Bess for the longest time and Jeroen has managed to find one for me. Here in Port Elizabeth it is cold and rainy, our library's operating system is down due to water damage, so I am now going to have some tea and read my book. My sincerest grattitude to the South African taxpayer who will still pay my salary even though I'm not going to do a stitch of work today.


I see Bill Boddy says the above car (714) is today in the Schlumpf collection as a chassis only.

The Register claims it to be 715. Which does ring true, Bob King and Norbert Steinhauser both suggest (if memory serves correctly) the fiacre was one of the Indianapolis cars, now lost.

I foresee a splendid evening in the company of books, but first I have an entire work day to waste. How do I cope with such a burden?

Regards
Johan

Some of you may recall I was less than enthusiastic about the Hucke/Kruta work when I first received it, and sure enough until last night it remained pretty much an ornament. But last night I tried something new, like actually reading it. Oops Oops indeed.

The late Mr. Hucke was a most splendid author, and I did his legacy a great diservice. I still wish the book wasn't so heavy ; it makes reading it while lying in bed a most tiresome exercise. Worth it though, I assure you. And once again

Johan

my friend Uwe would be delighted to hear you say that.He was quite passionate about Bugattis and especially the prototypes.

It is feezing cold here in Port Elizabeth, but I am snugly warm reading the words of the late Mr. Hucke, and I find myself overcome with a deep sense of shame, indeed so ashamed that I logged on specifically to delete the post in which I refered to his book as a "pile of steaming shit." But that is too easy, I must have the courage to face the consequences of my rash arrogance, my inane drivel, my grotesque stupidity. No, these words of mine shall stay and I shall suffer the torment. Because God knows, I deserve to suffer.

Uwe Hucke was a deeply passionate man, that much is clear, but he also had such depth of knowledge and insight - done justice by a superb translation. And then I remembered something else, every single person who ever met Uwe Hucke liked him very much. He was kind to people, warm and generous with his time, indeed, I have never heard anyone say anything bad about this man. Yet I dared to dismiss his life's work, his legacy with contempt. I am a fool.

To all those who knew and loved Uwe Hucke I apologise. To Mr. Hucke's family I offer an equally unreserved apology. I was wrong.

And thank you too Lazarus for your kind words, they provided me the determination to try and right the wrong I did to the memory of a great man. How I regret what I wrote ; how I regret my arrogance ; how I regret my stupidity. But most of all, it is a pity I failed to recognise that I've become a moron.

I am so very sorry.
Johan Buchner
Port Elizabeth
South Africa

Dear Johan,You might be amused to see Uwe's comment in my copy of his and monika's first book.He realised as I have that we learn something new all the time and can never be happy with our work.We just have to stop sometime and publish otherwise there would be no books at all !

You are absolutely right, as an outhor, one tends to see only the parts that are missing.

On the other hand, somebody who reads is, sees mainly the wealth of information that you already wrote!

One comment though: Julius Kruta copied the text and the drawing about the T125 directly from my site, which I am not very pleased about. Also the drawing he provides with the T72 is not correct, this is the drawing for the 50cc T69. This drawing also seems to have been taken by my site. A 250 euro book should not contain this level of copying or these errors.

I do not own the book myself, so I can't check for any other accounts of plagiarism.

_________________
www.BugattiPage.com
www.BugattiRevue.com
www.BugattiAircraft.com

As a friend of both Uwe and Julius I cannot critisise the new book.I will only say that perhaps Uwe's opinion of the T251 project might have been different if he had lived long enough to know what we know now about it.I also regret that Julius did not ask me to read the chapters on the later prototypes before going into print.

An expensive month : 385 euros for "Ettore Bugatti", 137 euros for the Swiss Register and £225 for "From Molsheim to Milan".

Up until now there have been two landmark Bugatti books :

1 : The Bugatti Book(1954) which coincided with, and contributed to, the post-war revival in the Bugatti movement.

2 : "Le pur-sang des automobiles" in 1963. Hugh Conway's masterpiece which explained so much and covered so much ground.

Now we have a third : "Ettore Bugatti - L'artisan de Molsheim". This is a must-have book, and GOOD VALUE. Dozens of new pictures and a huge amount of new information and opinion. I've had it for over day now and the only mistake I've found is one word in the English translatation. Warm CONGRATULATIONS Norbert !

Lazarus I completely disagree with your late friend, Mr. Uwe Hucke, his work is very, very good indeed. By the way, you have both the original and the new version ; has the text been changed much? You were right about his passion for prototypes, his description of just the T50B engine alone is worth the price of this book, dammit the man even makes the one-off T33 interesting. I do understand and appreciate the contribution from both the designers and Julius Kruta (strange they felt the need to use items from Jaap's site without at least doing him the courtesy of asking his permission.), but the source of greatness remains the words of Uwe Hucke.

I am delighted to hear that GCL-Wales is enjoying the Norbert Steinhauser work, another masterpiece. I completely agree with you about value for money, compared with some authors' work, I'm not naming names, it almost counts as a bargain. I tell you, us Bugatti book collectors are spoilt rotten.

Johan

I have not compared the two books in detail but yes there is a big difference.The T33 is a very interesting car.So much of it would be used again on other models.

I only got a copy of July's Classic & Sports Car yesterday (we have a two month wait down here in South Africa), and I see that the Steinhauser book is their book of the month. Interesting time-line, the Hucke/Kruta work, itself a book of the month a while ago, was launched long after the Steinhauser book yet Classic & Sports Car only now published their review of the latter.

I'm sure there must be an interesting story behind this apparent anomaly ; after all the Steinhauser work has already been awarded a very prestigious prize in Europe. Not that it matters that much, I just get such a thrill from being able to point to Classic & Sports Car and bore my friends to distraction with my : "Of course I have this one as well!" Soon I shall need new friends I suspect.

Kind Regards
Johan

Bugatti Argentina and the Swiss Bugatti Register has just arrived. Life's good.

Johan Buchner