Techno-lust

This 1925 Bugatti Brescia was found in a state of profound neglect in a garage, and was auctioned off for almost a million dollars. It's a beautiful work of art. It doesn't run, but still…that would be a fine vehicle for a Sunday drive, once it's restored.

bugatticar

But it's the wrong model! Way, way back in high school, I was really into technical drafting, and I ran across this one legendary Bugatti, and I made it the subject of my class project: drawing scale 3-views, engine diagrams, isometric projections, all that kind of stuff, for a portfolio which, sadly, I no longer have. It's been a while.

But for a while there, I was in nerd love with the Bugatti Model 100.

bugattiplane

Isn't that gorgeous? It's a pre-WWII racing plane that got shelved by the war and never flew. There's a project in the works to reconstruct one, but as far as I know, it hasn't got off the ground yet.

Anyway, check your garages. If you've got a Bugatti 100 moldering in there, let me know, and I'll take it off your hands. I don't have a million dollars, but I might be able to (checks bank account, pats pockets, looks under sofa cushions) cough up a few hundred dollars, easy.

Wait, part of that will have to go to learning how to fly. So some money, anyway.

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I read once that the aircraft was part of an effort by the French government to have an extremely impressive fighter plane. If it had reached production, it would've been short ranged and lightly armed, but impressively quick, with two Bugatti straight 8s, cast in magnesium. Might've even been fast, but it was conceived around the time Curtiss - Wright thought a V-1710 grafted to a P-36 would be worth 400 MPH, and we know how that worked out.

If it had reached production, it would’ve been short ranged and lightly armed, but impressively quick, with two Bugatti straight 8s, cast in magnesium.

That would have been great until France found itself at war with Italy. It's true that the first Messerschmidt BF 109 prototypes used Rolls Royce engines, but they were at least planning from the outset to go into production with German engines once they became available.

Strangely enough, at that time Bugatti was based in France. The difficulty would have been in millatarizing that race plane, as you can see if one compares the Supermarine seaplanes with the Spitfire that was derived from them.

"That would have been great until France found itself at war with Italy"

Considering France enthusiastically switched sides to join the Axis 14 days after Italy entered the war, I believe that was always going to be a non-issue.

By Craig Thomas (not verified) on 03 Aug 2015 #permalink

I dont have any Bugatti Model 100, but still nice post!

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