Automobiles, Planes, Trains and a Giraffe - The Bugatti Trust

On our way back from Mallory Park, Tim and I dropped by the Bugatti Trust which is housed next to the site of the Prescott Speed Hill Climb venue.



The Trust's raison d'etre is to encourage research into Bugatti's works, by experts and novices alike, an aim facilitated by a large archive of photographs, drawings, letters and articles accumulated by the father of the Trusts current chairman Hugh Conway.



The trust also houses a fascinating collection of Bugatti artifacts including this vertical 16 Bugatti King Aero engine designed by Ettore in 1916 and further modified for production by Charles King at Duesenberg Motors. This 500 hp 24.3 litre / 1482 cui leviathan featured two pairs of four cylinder blocks mounted side by side with two crankshafts geared to a central propellor shaft.



A small rotating selection of top quality cars is on loan to the Trust from Bugatti Owners Club members, this T35, which was built up from an assortment of pieces from a variety of T35's, belongs to the well known drummer Nicholas Berkeley Mason who's vehicles have featured in previous GALPOT blogs. Apparently, like all of his other vehicles, this car can be hired for film, television, and the media from Ten Tenth's.



T37A, chassis #37282, on loan from Charles Trevelyan, was delivered to Omnia-Kraftfahrzeug-Handels GmbH of Munich in September 1927 for 48,930 FF.



Details in this photo of the T37A's 1496 cc / 91 cui motor include the camshaft drive, top left at the rear of the motor, which is connected to both the dash board mounted magneto and the revolution counter which is driven by the pulley and rubber belt that can be seen on the left of the photograph.

The supercharger, lubricated by a drip feed, for the 4 cylinder motor can be seen beneath the vertical copper coiled pipe, the carburettor that mixes the air and fuel is mounted beneath the supercharger.



Contemporary to both the racing T35 and T37 is this T38 2 litre / 122 cui 8 cylinder touring car, unfortunately I did not get any clear shots of the detachable trunk at the back but it is a real work of art the finish of which I have only seen a copy of on The Pet MINI.



Rising to the challenge of beating Mercedes Benz and Auto Union Jean Bugatti sketched out the vehicle seen here with no less than three supercharged straight 8 motors with which to attack the speed record for vehicles driven on public roads in 1935. His still born car would have had around 1000 hp and should have been capable of around 250 mph.

Below the speed record vehicle is a model of Ettore Bugatti's successful motorised railcar.



I am not entirely sure what the thinking was behind the T59 piano wire wheels first seen in 1933, it seems the wire spokes handled the cornering loads while the teeth of the outer wheel rim meshed with the teeth of the brake drum to transmit the power from the drive shaft to the tyres. How this was advantageous over the regular alloy wheels Bugatti had used up until this date I am not sure.



While most of the Bugatti Trust collection focuses of Ettore and Jean's work there are some interesting pieces of work by other Bugatti family members including this sculpted giraffe by Ettore's brother, Rembrandt Bugatti.

I really can't recommend a visit to the Bugatti Trust highly enough and can't wait to go back with a raft of new questions for the friendly and helpful members of the trust who make a visit such a delight.

Hope you have enjoyed this Bugatti Trust edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Broken Promises - DB Panhard HBR

Somehow almost overlooked this photo by Ed Arnaudin of John B Mull in his DB Panhard competing in Race 1 at Thompson CT on the 20th July 1958, although John did not finish this race, we shall see this is a significant model in the world of national and international class H up to 750 cc 45.7 cui racing.



The manufacture of DB cars commenced after a promised drive failed to materialise at the 1936 French Sports Car Grand Prix for Charles Deutsch and René Dubonnet. The following year they entered a special of their own devising using the remnants of of a Citroen Traction Avant 11 CV.

Their specials placed in the very first post war race in Paris in 1945 and with the construction of the open wheel DB7 Automobiles Deutsch & Bonnet became a business entity in 1947.

Unhappy with the supply of Citroen parts they switched primarily to using flat twin Panhard motors of 744 cc / 45.4 cui. DB Panhards took class victories at the Mille Miglia, four times, Le Mans, three times, Sebring, twice and SCCA class H, the latter in 1958 with Howard Hanna at the wheel and in 1959 with Ray Heppenstall at the wheel.

Despite their on track success after building nearly 1000 vehicles, a disagreement over the architecture of their next model led to Deutsch and Bonnet going their separate ways forming CD and Automobiles René Bonnet respectively, the latter using Renault power became part of Matra Automobiles in 1965.

Panhard which as Panhard et Levassor had been in business since 1897 was absorbed in to Citroen in 1965 with the last vehicle produced in 1967 the name is still to be found in use as a brand of French built military vehicle.

The HBR model seen here was built from 1954 to 1961 on the most common DB chassis shared with Mille Miles and Coach models of which a combined total of 660 were made.

John B Mull appears to have had a collection of vehicles to race with Evelyn Mull between them they are known to have raced a Jaguar XK120, AC Ace Bristol, Austin Healey 100 S and this DB Panhard, JB is also known to have raced an OSCA S750.

Hope you have enjoyed the Race 1 Thompson CT 20th July 1958 series, my thanks to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for the photograph and to Terry O'Neil for the race results. Join me tomorrow for Ferrari Friday when we will be looking at a vehicle driven by a reigning 3 time World Grand Prix Champion on it's victorious debut and a month later was driven to a class victory by the USA's first future world champion. Don't forget to come back now!

Perfection In Seven Weeks - Morgan Aero SuperSports

The Morgan Aero Super Sports was launched in 2009, it is a targa version of the limited edition AeroMax I looked at in yesterdays blog.



It takes seven weeks to build a SuperSport starting with the aluminium (clipped British pronunciation) frame.



The 4.8 litre / 293 CUI BMW V8 can be specified with either automatic or six speed manual gearbox. At each stage of assembly only one person is responsible for and works on each vehicle, ensuring job satisfaction for the employee and 'perfection' for the customer.



Notice in the assembly process of the Aero SuperSport how the BMW cam cover will magically disappear.



The body panels are super formed and then finished by hand.



The aluminium body panels are bonded around an ash frame, this type of construction is both extremely light and also meets all the global crash standards required of a 21st century vehicle.



Morgan offer customers a choice of 40,000 colours for their hand painted vehicles, if they don't already have the colour you want they will make it.

The eight vehicles seen here in the Aero SuperSports assembly area will represent an income of over £800,000 pounds / US$ 1.28 million. Seventy percent of Morgans are exported.



As if by magic the BMW cam cover disappears !



Close to complete every detail is double checked to perfection in the Aero SuperSports finishing area.



The next stop for this Aero SuperSports will be either the customer hand over area in the factory or to a dealer.

Chairman Charles Morgan says of this particular model of perfection “ The Morgan Aero SuperSports is a luxurious flamboyant sports car which also remains true to Morgan’s philosophy of lightweight minimalist simplicity. It is a celebration of our love of cars and the romance of travel and is a fitting model to announce during Morgan’s Centenary year.”

Hope you enjoyed today's trip around the Morgan Motor Company following the production of the Aero SuperSport, tomorrow I hope you'll join me in looking at the production of classic Roadsters, don't forget to come back now !

The Boss's Car - Morgan AeroMax

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go on a guided tour of the Morgan Motor Company. To arrange the tour I visited the Morgan website two weeks in advance and made a booking. As I hope you shall see over the next couple of days I had a fabulous time.



The Morgan Motor Company was founded in 1909 by HFS Morgan in Malvern Worcestershire and is the oldest British motor manufacturer in continuous private ownership. Today the company is run by the Grandson of HFS, Charles Morgan and as luck would have it this is his personal one of a limited edition of just one hundred AeroMax models.



The Aeromax is capable of 0 - 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and will take you on to a 170mph.



Every detail of a Morgan is a testament to the genius of craftsmen, as we shall see there are power tools in the factory but there is no mechanised assembly line or machines stamping out parts.



Power for the AeroMax comes courtesy of a BMW V8, so far as I know Morgan has always used proprietary motors.



From the trunk of the Aeromax allegedly is large enough for a couple of Golf bags.



In 1991 the Britain's first reality TV businessman Sir John Harvey Jones was horrified to find Morgan with a seven year backlog of orders were still crafting their vehicles by hand in the Troubleshooter TV series, he advised Peter Morgan to modernise, increase production and prices. Bravely Morgan ignored this advice and the TV coverage led to the waiting list for new Morgans to extend from 7 years to 10 years. Sir John says he is pleased that Peter Morgan stuck to his guns and ignored his advice.

Hope you enjoyed my introduction to the Morgan Car Company, tomorrow I'll take you inside the factory to see how these cars are made, wishing everyone a sunny day, don't forget to come back now !