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Automotive Lifestyle
VINTAGE: Rare Bugatti Racer At Auction
The 1930s Type 54 Grand Prix car, ominously nicknamed “widow maker,” will be offered during Bonham’s Retromobile sale in Paris.
The Bugatti Type 54 Grand Prix, seen on the track at Goodwood, is one of the stars of the upcoming Bonhams sale at Retromobile in Paris. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)
The annual Retromobile show in Paris opens its doors Wednesday, with two auctions supporting the event: Bonhams at the Grand Palais in downtown Paris and Artcurial at Retromobile.
One of the most interesting machines to cross the block at Bonhams on Feb. 7 is the ex-Achille Varzi Bugatti Type 54 Grand Prix. The car was readied for the 1931 Italian Grand Prix at Monza by combining an existing chassis with the big Type 50 engine.
Due to its massively powerful straight eight, the Grand Prix racer proved very difficult to drive and rightfully earned the nickname “widow maker.”
The Bugatti Type 54, serial No. 54201, was Varzi's works racer and the first of four or five examples produced. This example underlined the Type 54's ominous nickname when its first owner, Prince Jiri Lobcowicz of the Czech Republic, lost his life driving it at Avus.
The car was shortly after rebuilt with a roadster body by Uhlik and dubbed Praha after the Czech Republic's capital. In the early 1970s, the body was removed in favor of a body similar to the original, but still with fenders for road use. The Uhlik body was saved and later fitted on a Type 55 chassis.
Chassis 54201 at Bonhams has a pre-auction estimated value of at least 2.5 million euro ($3.4 million).
Here’s the history of the Type 54:
To complicate things for the racing car manufacturers, 1930s Grand Prix races were held on both twisty-technical and high-speed tracks. In the first years of the decade, the sport's governing body did not set any real restrictions on what cars were eligible since it was hard enough getting a full field in these years of severe economic depression.
Few manufacturers were capable of producing a single vehicle for both track types, so they exploited the lack of restrictions by racing a nimble or a powerful Grand Prix car, depending on the track. Alfa Romeo and Maserati both fielded special high-speed cars using twin six-cylinder engines and a V16 created from two banks of eight cylinders.
With the various versions of the Type 35, Bugatti had been a dominant force in motor racing for many years, but by the turn of the decade, the winningest racer ever was showing its age. For 1931, a replacement was readied with a twin-overhead-camshaft eight-cylinder engine. Dubbed the Type 54, it was available with a variety of displacements with an optional Supercharger.\
Like the Type 35, this was a nimble machine perfectly suited to the more technical tracks, but it was no match for the powerful Italians. Bugatti's first attempt to build a high-speed monster was the ill-fated Type 45/47, which like the Alfa featured two parallel engines, but it was never raced.
One of the most interesting machines to cross the block at Bonhams on Feb. 7 is the ex-Achille Varzi Bugatti Type 54 Grand Prix. The car was readied for the 1931 Italian Grand Prix at Monza by combining an existing chassis with the big Type 50 engine.
Due to its massively powerful straight eight, the Grand Prix racer proved very difficult to drive and rightfully earned the nickname “widow maker.”
The Bugatti Type 54, serial No. 54201, was Varzi's works racer and the first of four or five examples produced. This example underlined the Type 54's ominous nickname when its first owner, Prince Jiri Lobcowicz of the Czech Republic, lost his life driving it at Avus.
The car was shortly after rebuilt with a roadster body by Uhlik and dubbed Praha after the Czech Republic's capital. In the early 1970s, the body was removed in favor of a body similar to the original, but still with fenders for road use. The Uhlik body was saved and later fitted on a Type 55 chassis.
Chassis 54201 at Bonhams has a pre-auction estimated value of at least 2.5 million euro ($3.4 million).
Here’s the history of the Type 54:
To complicate things for the racing car manufacturers, 1930s Grand Prix races were held on both twisty-technical and high-speed tracks. In the first years of the decade, the sport's governing body did not set any real restrictions on what cars were eligible since it was hard enough getting a full field in these years of severe economic depression.
Few manufacturers were capable of producing a single vehicle for both track types, so they exploited the lack of restrictions by racing a nimble or a powerful Grand Prix car, depending on the track. Alfa Romeo and Maserati both fielded special high-speed cars using twin six-cylinder engines and a V16 created from two banks of eight cylinders.
With the various versions of the Type 35, Bugatti had been a dominant force in motor racing for many years, but by the turn of the decade, the winningest racer ever was showing its age. For 1931, a replacement was readied with a twin-overhead-camshaft eight-cylinder engine. Dubbed the Type 54, it was available with a variety of displacements with an optional Supercharger.\
Like the Type 35, this was a nimble machine perfectly suited to the more technical tracks, but it was no match for the powerful Italians. Bugatti's first attempt to build a high-speed monster was the ill-fated Type 45/47, which like the Alfa featured two parallel engines, but it was never raced.
Goodwood Festival Of Speed
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