Various books and articles say that Bugatti is the most racing winning marque in GP racing, but sometimes the number listed as 1000 wins and other times it is 2000 wins.
Could someone clear this up for me? What is the correct number?

I suspect the exact number will never be known. To get the figure up to 2000 (or thereabouts) Ettore counted every win, whether it be a circuit race, hill climb or Councours d' Elegance! Also remember that Ettore was the first to mass produce (a relative term) racing cars and sell them to wealthy amateurs. He also started the fashion for single marque race meetings, not only guaranteeing a win for Bugatti but every car on the track was paid for - usually by the driver. (A T51 was given to the BOC as a sign of appreciation but this was very much the exception) Income and publicity - Ettore was clever that way.

Welcome to the forum.

Kind Regards
Johan Buchner

Le Patron was a great publicist. His 1920s advertising made much of his cars' "successes", but it seems that he defined "success" as his cars getting into the first three - whether it was an overall win, a class win or a concours, in a race, a rally, a sprint or hill climb. And he cast his net wide: as Johan pointed out, Bugatti were the first company to produce racing cars for sale in quantity and his lists of "successes" could encompass events in France, Italy, Switzerland, Morocco, Great Britain, Tunisia, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Brazil and more.

In a 1920s event, there might be classes for 1500cc, 2000cc, 3000cc and unlimited cars - you can perhaps see how many "successes" he could claim just from one race!

Over the decades, this information has morphed into "2000 Grand Prix wins".

There were races where only one car showed up.

Also counted as a win!

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