Today is the first day of August 2008, and in little more than two weeks it is time for Pebble Beach. The one event where, as Jay Leno put it, "millionaires can take on billionaires, and win." It is also the one event where we enthusiasts put away our petty differences and simply celebrate great cars, devoid of the egos, the arrogant vanity and the replicas that bedevil so many other meets. All the cars are sensitively restored and preserved and the cheque's in the mail. (There is one other line, but it is rude, so I won't use it)

Anyhow, now the reason for this post. I wish to celebrate the 9 Bugattis which carried away with them the most coveted title on the concours circuit : The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance - Car of The Show.



The first was in 1956 when Dr. Milton Roth's T37, chassis number 37193 took the laurels. He truly did own some fabulous Bugattis, among them a T46 and no less than 7 T57's, yet he chose the T37 to enter Pebble. Odd.




1959 belonged to the late great J.B. Nethercutt when he entered his T57C Gangloff Coupe, chassis number 57775. This car, together with the Berline D'Voyage Royale formed part of the 16 strong collection of cars he sold to his great competitor Bill Harrah during the 1960's. After his death in 1978, the Harrah collection came under the ownership of The Holiday Inn Group and they duly auctioned off most of it during the 1980's. J.B. then bought most of these cars back, but not the Royale. A beautiful car, it is still owned by J.B's son, Jack.



The T46 that became a T50T and then became a T46 again. Bill Harrah's 1964 winner and the first Bugatti I ever loved. Now owned by Evert Louwman.



1966 and Bill Harrah again. Did you know the Binder Royale was driven from Reno to Pebble Beach? Chassis 41111, was first Armand Esder's Roadster, then never owned by King Carol, now with Volkswagen. Awesome innit?



Bill Harrah struck again in 1976, this time with a curiously restored and finished T57S Atalante, chassis number 57551. The front is wrong, so is the back and as for that colour scheme, words fail me. Not a high-point in Pebble history.



In 1985 all 6 Royales gathered together for the first time ever. A magnificent coup for the organisers, no doubt about that. Yet Jack Becronis' T57 Conv. by Saoutchick, 57735 was a curiously anodyne victor, especially seen against the back-drop of the Royale gathering. It is by no means an unattractive car, it's just not fabulous enough. Pebble Beach winners should be fabulous.



1990. The darkest hour.



57593 was always a supremely elegant car utterly ruined by an indifferent finish and diabolical craftsmanship. Saved from mediocrity by John Mozart's incredible restoration and proof absolute that sometimes Americans just do things with a little more panache. I only started to love this car after it's 1998 victory, the howling from the British Bugatti Mafia, and that Sewell fellow in particular, just made my love all the more delicious. All Hail John Mozart.



The Rotschild Atlantic 57374. Pebble Beach Supreme Champion in 2003 and a fitting memorial for the greatest Bugattist ever - Dr. Peter Williamson. We must never forget.

On Sunday the 17th of August 2008, a new Pebble Beach winner will be crowned. Not this year, not next year, but perhaps the year after that I shall be there. Please God let the winner be worthy.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Thanks Johan for this celebration

At the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Bugatti will be the featured marque in honor of Bugatti’s 100-year anniversary.

[Source] : Gooding & Company

_________________
Make your dream devour your life, so that life doesn't devour your dream.
[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

ROTHSCHILD, Lord Victor.

A leading member of the British wing of the prominent banking family. He was born in 1910 and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where, already a Bugatti owner, he gained a reputation as a flamboyant playboy. (He was the original owner of a black and blue type 55 (55220 with UK reg. no. EPF 4) fitted with a standard two-seater body). He was, however, a member of the Apostles, a predominantly Marxist secret society and at one time Rothschild was, unjustifiably, suspected of being the “fifth man”. He inherited his title on the death of his uncle Walter on 27th, August, 1937, and sat in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. The previous year he had become the owner of the first type 57S Atlantic (car 57374 with engine no. 2S and UK reg. no. DGJ 758). This was the last Bugatti he owned and the most exciting of all his cars. It was returned to Molsheim in 1939 to be upgraded to 57SC specification by the installation of a supercharger. However, not long afterwards, he was forced to abandon it in a field after a major mechanical trauma, but kept it in storage in England until, in October, 1941, it was sold to a Londoner called T.P. Tunnard Moore, who, with Robert Arbuthnot, ran High Speed Motors. The car was later owned by Peter Williamson in USA who restored it to a far better condition than when it was a new car in Rothschild’s ownership. He died in 1990 after a distinguised career in public service including a spell with the British secret service MI5. His son Amschel Rothschild became well known in historic racing events in the UK and elswhere but died, aged forty-one, by his own hand in Paris, in 1996 having, it is said, become depressed by the death of his parents, and business losses.

hello johann

fine job for presenting all pebble beach winners. I too remember the dialog on the restauration of the mozart´s T57sc. the main thing was the upholstery, mozart used ( I think crocodile??), for that was in sewell`s eyes incorrect. but in an answer , mozart proved that the gilles brothers
used the same. the only "not original" feature was the color, but all bugatti-fans, have a look on the original pale-blue, the car dhad`nt the
dramatic look as in black...
british bugatti mafia: remember the demonstrations against the schlumpf-
bugatti-buying mania, during a prescott weekend in the 6o`s. but who
sold many cars to schlumpf?? british owners...

mike

Thanks Mike

You know for all my sniping at the Brits, it does need to be pointed out that it was the British who started the first Bugatti Owners Club. It was the British who first started to collect and preserve Bugattis. It was the British who kept the Bugatti faith alive while the French were destroying Bugattis with gusto. But I think the thing I love most about the Brits is their absolute refusal to be fence-sitters. In my humble opinion there is only one unforgivable crime (apart from posting porn on this forum, that is) and that is boring the snot out of the rest of us. No British Bugattist is ever boring; controversial yes ; difficult and obstinate, yes, quite often. But never boring, and the best thing about those who hold such strong passionate opinions is that it makes for utterly great debate. It is this brutal forthrightness I so love about the British. And, lest we forget, Hugh Conway was an Englishman. None finer has ever walked on water.

Let me end on a contentious point : Dutch Bugatti historians share their research widely, thereby ensuring that all who wish to learn gets informed. The members of the B.O.C. on the other hand like to keep the contents of the "Sacred Scrolls" known only to a select few owners. The belief is that this will prevent those intent on mischief from getting "The Knowledge." How did Basil Fawlty put it : "We don't want the working classes sticking their noses in it." Too late I say, us poor people have loved Bugattis for a very long time indeed. I can almost hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth down here in the Southern Hemisphere! .

Kind Regards
Johan

PS. Herman, thanks for removing the smut. I presume you've banned the miscreant into perpetuity?

hello johann

I fully agree with you. they first started to rescue the very early veterans
, organised the first clubs and meetings and all in all they are nice people.
but sometimes , they like to act something boring, thinking, all in the world has british origin or must be ruled by british, although the victorian age is long gone....
I remember one night, when on holiday in london, there had been storms in the chanel, that no ship could cross it. the newsline read:
" continent cut off"!!!

Ive always wondered, why nobody of the BOC bought the bugattis ,that were kept in the factory until beeing sold to the schlumpf brothers. remember, dedobellier bought the T57 tank before them???

mike

In Wales you are regarded as Welsh if you were born there.

I've always thought of Hugh as a Canadian who became an Anglophile but spent a lot of his adult life in Northern Ireland where he had the workers at Shorts assisuously doing "foreigners" for him.


CONWAY, Hugh Graham.

A tall, authoritative engineer who became the most influential Bugatti enthusiast of the post-war period writing most of the seminal articles and books on the subject over four decades. He was born in Vancouver in 1914, the son of a civil engineer who became the Chairman of the Mexico City Electricity and Public Transport Authority. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and studied Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge at the same time as Raymond Mays and Whitney Straight ; both leading drivers during the inter-war period. He had a life-long interest in motor sport and competed in the thirties with an Austin 7 Ulster in inter-varsity speed events and in high speed trials at Brooklands where he met his future wife Eva, a former racing driver. He served an apprenticeship with Petters in Yeovil before moving into aviation with the Bristol division of the French undercarriage firm Messier. This post afforded him the opportunity to visit France and fostered his love of French cars and cuisine and he became an enthusiatic bon-viveur with a love of French wines who frequently dined in the smart restaurants around London’s Sussex Square. The German invasion of Europe escalated the importance of his employers and he was promoted to the post of Technical Director before progressing to Dunlop Aviation and Dowty Hydraulics. In 1955 he moved to Northern Ireland where he was Managing Director of Short Brothers and Harland. He stayed there into the sixties living at Shanoge, Crawfordsburn, Co. Down. His first Bugatti was a type 57 which he had purchased in France in the late forties. The car (which is pictured in “Bugatti 57”, page 53) carried chassis no 57440 and the Northern Irish registration no. SZ 6600 and was fitted with a Stelvio drophead coupé body. It required mechanical repairs which were delegated to Jack Lemon Burton in London but he did not take to the car and J.L.B. provided him with a type 43 engine to enable him to start building a car of that type which most definitely was to his taste. He owned various Brescias, and types 35, 35B, 37 (37131), 37R (BC 021 with chassis plate stamped 1021), 40 (40795 with replacement engine no. 603 ex-40714), 43 and 44 all of which he rebuilt himself. He is best remembered for his dark blue type 43 (43214 with engine 149 ex-43307) which was the fastest of its type at Prescott for several years, and for winning the UK VSCC “Pomeroy Trophy” in 1975 and 1978*. He wrote, or co-wrote, several books on Bugattis as well as countless articles mainly dealing with technical subjects. His definitive study Bugatti “Le Pur-Sang des Automobiles”, first published in 1963, is one of the very best one-make studies. His wife Eva bore him two sons, Micahel and Hugh and they remained married until her death in 1980. He was a founder member of the Bugatti Trust in 1987 but died on November 27th 1989 after a short illness. A thanksgiving service in his memory was held at the Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, London on the 8th February, 1990.

hello

just two more adds on hugh conway: his beloved T43 was donated to the trust in order to auction it for the raise of funds for the trust.
the T44 is still with the family.

mike

Just to make this post current again. Please note that 57775 is not owned by the Nethercutt Collection, I was wrong. Indeed, I can't find any confirmation that Nethercutt bought this car back from the Harrah Collection.