From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Article from 'The Autocar' magazine comparing an Alfa Romeo and a Bugatti sports car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 160\5\ scan0162 | |
| Date | 24th January 1941 | |
| 90 The Autocar January 24th, 1941 "TALKING OF SPORTS CARS" "Sequel" After the Alfa, a Bugatti as an Unexpected Treat and Source of Comparison [Image Caption 1] The front view is notable for the way in which the traditional Bugatti shape of radiator has been modified to blend with modern body lines. The shutters are thermostatically controlled. [Image Caption 2] An idea is given by this view of the superfine finish applied to the whole exterior of the engine. IT was hardly believable, in these times, that the recent chance of trying a "two-three" Alfa, which was subsequently referred to under this heading, should have been followed up by an opportunity of sampling a "three-three" Bugatti. The two marques, Italian and French, somehow go together in the mind, partly because so often in the past they have been racing rivals. But when I tried the Alfa a few weeks ago I little thought that what may be called its opposite number would come into by hands within a short time. Of course, a 2.3 Alfa and a normal 3.3 Bugatti are not strictly comparable in one sense; one being blown and the other not; but the names are enough, and the "three-three" can be blown, being known then as either the Type 57C or SC. A knowledgeable correspondent has recently reminded us of these designations, but whereas he and others have referred to the unsupercharged 3.3-litre Bugatti as the Type 57 plain, it appears from the instruction book I have recently seen that the makers term it the 57 Normale, as distinct from the 57C or S or SC. This Bugatti, a drop-head coupé, as the Alfa was, but a much newer car—that, it transpiring, being 1935 and not 1936 as I said at the time—came to me from the same establishment, Brooklands of Bond Street, a fact which goes to show the kind of machines included in their stock. It was a 1939 series and, by the licence, I gathered that it had been in use until, at all events, last November, in the Bristol district. £1,150 is asked for it now. For my own opportunities were somewhat limited—by present general circumstances and weather conditions combined, neither of which was the fault of the people now offering the car. None the less, I was able to take it over a route which other noteworthy machines have traversed, and which the Alfa also went over. It was in marvellous condition, the paintwork being unmarked. The engine of a Bugatti has a finish that, I think, is unequalled in any other car. The body was by a coachbuilder whose name was unfamiliar—Gangloff, of Colmar, in that same part of France as is the Bugatti works itself—Alsace. One wonders, in observing the superb workmanship of the engine especially, what is happening to-day at Molsheim, where the équipe Bugatti—factory seems the wrong word—had its being. The Bugatti treatment is extraordinary. Every surface on the engine is polished or engine-turned, even parts such as an inspection plate tucked away in the background. One notices a multiplicity of nuts and studs, most of them of small sizes, and nearly all either split-pinned or secured in groups by that workmanlike-looking method of wiring together through holes drilled in them. You are slightly surprised to see, against this background of high finish, a comparatively roughly finished brake fluid container attached to the engine side of the bulkhead, itself highly finished. It was impossible to resist opening the bonnet and gazing at the engine, absorbing as much as possible of the details. Almost every feature of a Bugatti seems different from conventional practice, for M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} Ettore Bugatti was ever an individualist. In some points simplicity is afforded by the unconventional treatment; in others the A 21 | ||