Bugatti 57 - The Last French Bugatti

2015 | Transportation

"If I was asked to give my opinion as to the best all-round super-sports car ...I should, without hesitation whatever, say it was the 3.3 [T57] Bugatti." - Sir Malcolm Campbell, The Field, September 4th, 1937.The magnificent Type 57 was the final flowering of the genius of Ettore Bugatti and Jean Bugatti, and was the last truly new model from the Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France.Conceived as a fast, luxurious and exclusive touring car, the T57 was in production from 1934 to 1939, and was so successful that the model accounts for around 10 per cent of all Bugattis built at Molsheim.Not only a sales success, the T57 formed the basis of a Grand Prix model, a twice Le Mans-winning sports racing car and, in road-going form, wore some of the most beautiful bodies ever created by the great coachbuilders of the vintage period. See the work of Letourneur & Marchand, Graber, Gangloff, James Young, Corsica, Van Vooren & Saoutchik, Vanden Plas, Figoni & Falaschi, Sodomka, Henri Labourdette, Fernandel & Darren, Franay, Guillore, Malyby, Tuschner, Worblaufen and Rice & Harper. Also the standard bodies: Atalante, Galibier, Stelvio, Ventoux, Atlantic and Aravis.Barrie Price's work is a concise history of the T57 and its derivatives the T59, T64 and T101, an engineering analysis, and the most thorough survey yet of the many coachbuilt bodies fitted to this famous chassis.

The reader will also find appendices crammed with detailed and valuable information ranging from chassis numbers and original owners to sales and service statistics.

Barrie Price (Author)