Beschreibung
This is lot number 149 in the Bonhams Bonmont Auction on June 30th, please see the Bonhams website for full details.
• Original mechanical parts except the engine
• Matching chassis frame 122; correct gearbox and rear axle 43 type
• Fully restored
• Numerous archives retracing its history
• Current owner since 2008
• Swiss registration document
Grand Prix Bugatti, Le Mans, 1929
Assembled in the factory during the summer of 1928, chassis 43264, fitted with engine 124 and crankshaft 159, would not be mentioned for the first time until 13th May of 1929, in the factory archives, along with two other chassis and inscribed "Prix Bugatti".
These three cars were destined to be the prizes awarded to the first three in the upcoming second Grand Prix Bugatti, which took place on 1 June 1929 on the Le Mans circuit.
Sixteen competitors lined up on the starting line, in five classes: a Type 35B, two Type 35Cs, six Type 35s, four Type 37As and three Type 37s.
"The great carmaker has, once more, done things right and made a rich endowment to this second automobile Grand Prix. Three prizes, of the following values, were allocated: the first was 165, 000 Fr, the second 60, 000 Fr, the third was 38, 000.
The Grand Prix Bugatti 1929 was won by the Italian-Chilean, Juan Zanelli, in a Type 35, who won the Torpédo Grand Sport 43264/ 124. The latter decided, in compliance with regulations, to exchange it for a new Type 35B from the factory. As such, in a letter dated 12 July 1929, Bugatti stated, at the Le Mans Automobile Club, Zanelli's decision to refuse the type 43 and their request to have the chassis returned to the Parisian showroom at 46 avenue Montaigne.
On 10 September 1929, the Torpédo Grand Sport was listed among the new cars at the rue du Débarcadère warehouse as "2L 300 Grand Sport n° 43264" along with two other Type 43s, four Type 44s and a 35A.
Leon Duray (George Stewart 1894-1956)
Leon Duray, real name George Stewart (1894-1956), was an American driver who already held records in the US with Miller disembarked with his team in Le Havre in early July 1929, for the purpose of promoting the Cord L 29 model with their exhibitions and record attempts.
A participant in records in Montlhéry then in Arpajon in summer 1929, Duray set a new series of international records in a 1500cc Miller, including reaching 139 mph over 5 miles with a rolling start! On 15 September in Monza, with two front-wheel drive vehicles, being by far the most daring driver in motorsport, he recorded the fastest time in his class. Duray dropped out due to crankshaft problems, but Ettore Bugatti, who was already aware of the records set in France, attended the Monza Grand Prix and became convinced of the interest of this type of dual shaft engine, which was very fast for such a small engine size.
The Molsheim industrialist then offered Duray an exchange on his two Miller Type 91 front-wheel drives for four 2300cc Type 43s .
On 30 October 1929 an article in the press said: "The Yankee driver Leon Duray left France for America [...] He took with him several Bugatti 2 litre 300 cars with compressors" Le Populaire.
"The American driver Léon Duray's stay in France comes to an end. After spending the whole summer season on this side of the Atlantic, setting several records at Linas and taking part in the Monza Grand Prix, the famous track racer headed back to his home country. In his luggage were several cars that Mr Bugatti gave him, in exchange for his front-wheel drive vehicles, with which he was seen this summer. Furthermore, Léon Duray has just obtained representative status for the marque in New York." L'Auto.
Type 43 in the US
It seems that Duray took the four Bugatti to New York, where he opened a car dealership, and probably sold the Torpédo Grand Sport 43264 to an East Coast enthusiast.
The earliest known owner is John Fritsche Jr of Sports Cars Inc in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He ordered the production of an aluminium coupé on chassis 43264 from the coachbuilder Derham in Rosemont in 1939, as shown in a picture of the car taken by Derham's official photographer, Charles Mills, and bearing the legend on its reverse "Built for John Fritsche Jr. 1939".
The Bugatti collector and dealer Gene Cesari remembered conversations with J. Fritsche, who sold a few Bugattis and who confided that he had sold a Type 43 to a client in New England... Was it this one?
The car's trace can be picked up again on the West Coast in Los Angeles in 1947. A photograph shows the Derham coupé still fitted with a New York plate in 1945: "9C 61 94 NY 45", in front of a poster for Raoul Walsh's film "The Man I Love", with Ida Lupino, released in the US in mid-January 1947, advertising showings at the Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles.
Not long before, a mechanics teacher at Ventura High School named George Banquet appears to have been responsible, along with a Ford mechanic, likely Ed Iskenderian, for the replacement of Bugatti parts by Ford ones, the engine and running gear. There is a photo of the car taken in front of a workshop, bearing a personalised number plate, EB 2300 for the occasion, it did not at this point have the radiator mascot that adorned it in the streets of LA in 1947.
According to historian Tom Konop, the comedian Donald O'Connor himself had the Bugatti engine replaced with a Ford 6 with dome pistons and special cylinder heads by the brilliant Ed Iskenderian, specialised in V8 Hot Rod engines.
It seems a given that the mechanical overhaul dates from around 1947, rather by George Blanquet who then appears to have sold it to Donald O'Connor (1925-2003), one of Hollywood's greatest stars of the 1950s, who won a Golden Globe in 1952 for his performance in "Singing in the Rain" with Gene Kelly! With his 43 Derham coupé, he took part in several hill climbing races in around 1948 and 1949, including the event at Little Tujunga Canyon in northern Los Angeles.
In the June 1950 issue of "Mechanix Illustrated", the renowned automotive journalist "Uncle" Tom McCahill presented the Bugatti in front of a sign for a second-hand car dealership that appears to be Movieland Motors in Hollywood. It still had the Ford engine, as shown by the dual exhaust protruding from the rear profile. At this time, one John Nelson of Hollywood is thought to have been the owner. The Californian license plate, 74L 521 can be read clearly.
Several photos taken in Los Angeles in around 1952 show the car with a new, unknown, owner posing in front of his vehicle, now equipped with chrome-plated wheel flanges and licensed 3RB 733.
After this period, the car went off the radar, although it was spotted in Inglewood by Bob Hammel and Bunny Phillips, in a state of neglect and in poor condition, at the start of the 1960s.
An article in the American Bugatti Club's Pur Sang magazine in spring 1981 highlighted a car whose owner at the time, Robert Lane of Long Beach, described in a magazine in 1979 as follows: "The chassis is Bugatti, as are the steering unit and radiator. The suspension and front running gear are from a 1932-1935 Ford. The engine is a Ford six cylinder, with "Iskenderian" inscribed on the cylinder heads. The engine has three Rochester carburetors fitted to a chrome-plated intake manifold. The coachwork is aluminium with sheet steel rear wings. The car is right-hand drive with two suicide doors and two small front seats, without any proper rear seats. The front brakes are generously sized and the rear brakes are perforated for better cooling. The weight of all components of the running gear has been reduced by drilling holes."
It would not be until 1997 that the American Bugatti registrar, Sandy Leith, announced that the car had survived and was in the hands of the family of the late Dr William O'Brien in Reno, Nevada. He confirmed that the Bugatti parts still on the car were the chassis frame, front springs, the steering unit, the radiator and the apron. Bill O'Brien had made it his quest to find the lost Bugatti of D. O'Connor. Only knowing of the latter as a former owner of the vehicle, he sought to contact him every time that he made an appearance in Las Vegas or in Reno. After 20 years on the case, O'Connor finally gave O'Brien the name of the enthusiast to whom he had sold the vehicle!
But the story is perhaps a little different, as in 2015 the brother of a certain Jerald Winchel told the story of how O'Connor's penchant for alcohol led him to abandon the car one evening in a Los Angeles street without ever being able to find it again! The car was impounded and would then be sold by the city police force to J. Winchel for $100 in the mid-1960s. He kept the car a dozen years, first at his home in Gardena, then in Carson, before having to part with it to pay garage costs. It is possible that the Bugatti then came into the hands of William Smith... The story of J. Winchel's brother does not match what is known of the history of 43264, which cannot have been owned by O'Connor after 1950, but we offer the story as told.
During the summer of 1983, W. O'Brien found the Bugatti chained to a tree in Southern California. It then belonged to a certain William Smith who acquired it in 1980 from a sheriff in the Los Angeles district, Nicholas Nickolenko, who had saved it in extremis from the scrapyard. The remains of the Bugatti 43264 were stored in W. O'Brien's garage, but he passed away before having started the restoration of the chassis.
Around 2008, chassis 43264 and the other matching Bugatti parts, namely the front springs, the remainder of the aluminium apron, the radiator and the steering unit, were sold by the O'Brien family to the English restoration specialist Robin Townsend, associated with the purchase for collector Michael Steele.
In December 2008, the project was sold to its current owner, a collector, who revived it.
Robin Townsend's atelier, Jarrot Engines Ltd, in Chalford, Gloucestershire, started the restoration of the chassis, which had no fewer than 314 holes to be filled. The owner has another Type 43 on a new chassis by Paulin in 1986, fitted with a replica Figoni 2-seater cabriolet frame, and decided to fit the Figoni copy on the original chassis. It was Simon Klopper, Dutch Bugatti specialist, who took care of preparing chassis 43264 in 2010. Paul Huet was in charge of reassembling the Figoni copy of the frame on chassis 43264, which he fitted with a new engine built by Laurent Rondoni in 2005.
In March 2016, the engine ran for the first time. In June of the same year, the cabriolet took part in its first official event, the Rallye International Bugatti in Italy.
Analysis by Pierre-Yves Laugier, May 2024. The full report of which is available on request.
The analysis of the vehicle finds an original chassis, whose frame, stamped 122, is that which matches with chassis 43264, engine 124.
On 16 January 2009, the expert and Bugatti registrar for the BOC, Mark Morris, inspected the vehicle with Hugh Conway Jr and in agreement with American historian Sandy Leith, they approved the BOC's allocation of a replacement chassis plate with number 43264.
The original radiator core was rebuilt by Star Engineering in the UK. The front axle appears to come from a Type 44. The engine, which is completely new, was fitted in 2005 by the workshop of Laurent Rondoni of Ventoux Moteurs Engineering in Carpentras. The gearbox is from the correct type and has the number 38 engraved on the body and the cover. The rear axle is from the Type 43, number 131 and axle ratio 13x54. The strut is also engraved 131. Given the logical continuation of numbers, this axle could come from the Figoni roadster chassis 43284 engine 129.
The coachwork, by a highly talented young Dutch craftsman by the name of Bert Nijhof in Lunteren, is new. The wooden frame was built by Anton Siebelink's workshop in Doetinchen in the Netherlands, but the latter passed away before the frame could be covered. It was completed using the photograph of the right-hand profile of the Figoni cabriolet chassis 43270 and engine 136 delivered new to Robert Bird following the Paris Motor Show in October 1928 as a model. The original car would be involved in an accident with its second owner in the summer of 1931, and in all likelihood destroyed, as a letter sent to its insurer seems to indicate.
?
Non-exhaustive list of successive owners of 43264
Bugatti factory, April 1929
Juan Zanelli, June and July 1929
Leon Duray, October 1929
John Fritsche Jr, EB 2300 plaque, Pennsylvania, 1939
XX, 9C 61 94, New York, 1945
George Banquet, Ventura, around 1947
Donald O'Connor around 1948-1949
John Nelson, 74L 521, Hollywood
XX, 3RB 733, Los Angeles, 1952
YY, spotted by B. Hamel and B. Phillips Inglewood, around 1960
Jerald Winchel, around 1965-1977
Robert Lane, Long Beach, 1979 according to a newspaper article
Nicholas Nickolenko, Los Angeles District police officer
William Smith, 1980
William O'Brien, Reno, 1983
Michael Steele & Robin Townsend around 2008
Current owner, since December 2008
