Car 1994

Wikie lists R.C. Adams Jnr as owner of car 1994.

I think it should be John B. Adams.

1994
A 16-valve type 23 (with 69x100mm engine no. 365) invoiced to the "Magasin" Paris on 21st, March, 1924. It was one of a batch delivered on the 23rd March 1924, probably as a rolling chassis. The car's early history is unknown. It was fitted (but not necessarily when new) with a steel Jarvis-built 2-seater body of a type made for Senechals, with typically French oyster-shell mudguards.

It was subsequently imported into England and on 1st October, 1931or 1932 was issued with the UK registration PJ 8733. According to a later owner this log-book (which described the car as a 12 H.P. 2-seater Open Tourer) erroneously gave the engine number as 1944. Post WW2 the car was for sale in a London showroom (probably Jack Lemon Burton's) and was bought by Bob and Iris Scott who used the car as daily transport. The car provided them with reliable transport for almost four years with Bob Scott carrying out essential servicing. Iris "Poppy" Scott became much enamoured with the car and embellished her motoring sweater with a knitted Bugatti badge. On 22nd August 1947 she wrote a letter expressing deep sorrow at the death of Ettore, the manufacturer of "superlatively beautiful cars". Pictures of the car taken in the late forties in Somerset were published in The Bugatti Trust Newsletter 32 (pages 6-7). They show that the original brakeless front axle had been replaced with one from a Salmson with Perrot-shaft brakes. On Saturday 29th April 1950 the couple sold the car to facilitate the purchase of a family car.

The next recorded owner, who purchased it from a motor-trader, was Cheriton Lethbridge of Melrose Road, Weybridge, Surrey. In 1954 his ownership was recorded on page 24 of “The Bugatti Book” but the engine and chassis numbers were erroneously given as 1944. It was noted that Lethbridge had "deleted" the transmission brake and that its wheels had 19" well-base rims with RH thread serrated disc locking centre lock hubs. It benefitted from a twin-plug block but only four plugs were in use. The car later passed to serial "Brescia" owner Hamish Moffat who used the car in the 1961 VSCC Pomeroy Trophy (see photograph taken at Silverstone on the Bugatti Trust website).

Shortly afterwards the car crossed the Atlantic and in 1962 was listed in Conway’s "Register and Data of Bugatti Automobiles" (page 5) with W. Bumstead of 137 Guinida Lane, Anaheim, California, USA. It then passed through the hands of Shetler and H. Schoenfeld. In the 1973 International Register it is recorded in the ownership of R.C. Adams in La Mesa (USA) and in September 1995 it appeared on the International Rally held on the East Coast of America driven by John B. Adams also of La Mesa. In 2006 the car was listed in "The Brescia Bugatti" but only basic details of the car were provided.