Description
LOT 277
The ex-Uwe Hucke
1914/ 24 Bugatti Type 22-Style 'Eight-Valve' 'Prince Henry Three-Seat Open Tourer
GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED
14 July 2023, 14:00 BST
Chichester, Goodwood
£120, 000 - £160, 000
Open Tourer
Registration no. UUE 679
Chassis no. 678 (See text)
Engine no. 329
• Noteworthy provenance
• Rare eight-valve Bugatti
• Elegant 'Prince Henry' design
Sophistication often resides within small packages. This delightfully eye-catching little Riviera-villa runabout embodies many of the compact-size, lightweight, performance-enhancing engineering principles upon which Ettore Bugatti developed his entire range of ultimately world-beating, Grand Prix and Le Mans-winning, sporting cars.
The great, much missed Bugatti enthusiast and world authority Uwe Hucke based this essentially Type 22 'Prince Henry' with its open three-seat bodywork upon a long-accumulated collection of original Bugatti components, most significantly the original 8-valve 4-cylinder engine serial '329' which powers this car today.
The engine had been fitted as-new in what was later assumed to be Bugatti Type 22 chassis '678' which had been delivered to its first owner in August 1914. A surviving document offered with the car records its engine's delivery, within that initial chassis, as having been made on June 17, 1914, to a Mme Louise Alexander, at the Hotel Meurice, Paris, France, the chassis then carrying what was described as a 'Yankee' type body made by the Dorr company.
The same document also records what we understand to have been Uwe Hucke's discovery of the car's major components as embodied today, in the Garage Franco-Belge in Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, c. 1968/ 69.
Mr Hucke eventually decided to re-assemble this selection of original Bugatti 8-Valve mechanical components within a modified post-World War 1 Type 22 chassis frame from the later 16-Valve model series. Bugatti authority David Sewell has concluded that this frame - as featured today - originated between mid-1924 and March 1926 when model production ended. The front and rear road springs featured are contemporary with the frame, which has been shortened slightly to 2. 3-metres wheelbase, less than the 2. 4 metres of the standard Type 22 and much shorter than the 2. 55 metre Type 23.
The car's gearbox, complete with its transmission brake, is also original, from a 16-Valve model of around 1924. The rear axle is from an 8-Valve model, and the front axle from either a late-8-Valve or early 16-Valve. The distinctive and original radiator is from an 8-Valve of 1912-14.
The car as offered here also features period Nirona brass headlamps and Duolamp tail lights. It rides on period 710 x 90mm wheels and has a period cast-alloy but wood-rimmed steering wheel. It is fully equipped with an onboard starter and belt-driven dynamo, and has 'a correct' fuel tank at the rear. The car's rounded 'red-faced' radiator features the 'round-dot' Bugatti badge, and has a replacement filler cap. The brass water pump on the original engine is stamped '614', while the engine number itself ('329') has survived as initially stamped over 100 years ago upon the unit's cambox, crankcase and sump.
In Uwe Hucke's ownership this chassis and engine was initially clothed in an original 1911 closed Fiacre body and at the time was indeed thought to be chassis serial '678'. However, the frame's post-WW1 origination then indicated that the pre-war engine number had actually been copy-stamped into this particular still-original, but post-WW1, chassis, adjacent to its nearside front dumb-iron. Over a ten-year period Mr Hucke then swapped the Fiacre body from this frame onto a genuine complete 1912 8-Valve rolling chassis, before having this car's chassis bodied in its most attractive present 'Prince Henry' 3-seater style with ash frame, and panel-work by Hugh Murray. The original engine was rebuilt by specialist Rondoni in 1990.
The grey-liveried 'torpedo' bodywork certainly lends a rakish aspect to this most attractive little Bugatti, and its black wings - those at the front featuring leather valances and with wooden running boards - add contrast. Overall this unique little 8-Valve presents all the charm of a 1920s' private yacht tender in land-borne form - in so many ways an ideal runabout to be attached to the Riviera villa, or indeed to the English country house or a Scottish shooting estate... or simply to evoke such an aura.
This most appealing and attractive Bugatti was bequeathed by the late Uwe Hucke to the present vendor, then a young child, in 2002 and it has been well preserved - with minimal running - since. then.
We commend it highly to the vintage market, with a liking for things Bugatti... and a sense of fun.
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