The sleek elegance of a Bugatti Atlantic Type 57SC rounds ÒEttores BendÓ at the Prescott Hillclimb.
Photo: Simon Wright
The 1936 Bugatti Type 57G was also known as “The Tank” and it won Le Mans in 1939, just weeks before Jean Bugatti would tragically perish driving it. Photo: Gooley
The Bugatti T57C “tank” had won the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Jean-Pierre Wimille/Pierre Veyron and had been back in Molsheim for several weeks. It was about to compete in the La Baule Grand Prix but its designer, 30-year-old Jean Bugatti, was a perfectionist and wanted to make sure the long-nosed racer was up to it. So, at about 10 p.m. on August 11, he blocked off his habitual test section of the Molsheim-Strasbourg road with factory personnel to stop local traffic and let rip. Somehow, a drunk on a bike managed to infiltrate the guarded road near Duppidheim just as the tank arrived. Jean braked and steered wildly, but the car slammed into a tree and the young Bugatti was killed.
Ironically, the La Baule race was cancelled soon afterward due to the international tension that eventually led to the Second World War.
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