Bugatti – Type 35C (1928)

When the Type 35 was launched in 1924, it represented a revolution in the racing world. This racing car was to have a decisive influence on motor sport for almost ten years due to a number of revolutionary engineering details. The bombshell was also going to be extremely successful. It was powered by an inline eight-cylinder engine that was constantly undergoing development. Initially the 2 litre eight-cylinder was not supercharged but from 1926 onwards a supercharger packed more power. One of the outstanding visual highlights was provided by the aluminium wide-band spoke wheels that were a novelty at the time. They had the advantage of reducing the unsprung masses while also providing a marketing benefit. These wheels were a unique selling point because no other manufacturer had incorporated them into their designs. However, what really set the Type 35 apart from the competition was that Bugatti actually sold the Grand Prix racing car as a catalogue model to give it a unique position in the development of the automobile. Back in the day, many races could not have taken place without the army of private racing enthusiasts driving their Bugattis. This enabled Ettore Bugatti to adopt a twin-track approach in which he was able to sell his racing cars to ambitious, wealthy privateers at high prices since no other competitor offered any comparable racing car. The Bugattis being raced by privateers contributed to the brand’s reputation every weekend during the 1920s and thereby added value to the brand image. And Bugatti didn’t have to invest a single franc to achieve this! Bugatti built a total of more than 250 examples of the different versions of the Type 35. The Bugatti works team campaigned with this racer during the 1928 season and it was then raced quite extensively with privateers at the wheel after its works career had come to an end. Only a handful of these hard-bitten race cars have survived in time-warp condition as in the case of this exemplar shown here.