The Lost Bugatti
BUGATTI DIATTO AVIO 8C WORDS CLAUDE TEISEN-SIMONY & DAVID LILLYWHITE ARCHIVE PICTURES BUGATTI TRUST A mysterious chassis fitted with a one-off Bugatti aero engine, discovered in a Turin museum, turns out to have links to a famous pilot and to Maserati’s first car. But could it also have been the first step towards the super-luxury Bugatti Royale saloon? The lost Bugatti 90 / MAGNETO MAGNETO / 91 BUGATTI DIATTO AVIO 8C T This is one hell of a tale. It’s controversial at times, it brings in threads involving World War One fighter pilot Roland Garros, surprising links to Maserati, and the likely origins of not just Bugatti’s Grand Prix engines, but also the legendary Bugatti Royale. Most exciting of all, it introduces a remarkable aero-engined Bugatti that’s never been seen before. To whet your appetite, it’s a 14.5-litre and develops 250bhp at 2160rpm – Bugatti’s equivalent of the ‘Beast of Turin’ Fiat or the Benz-engined Scariscrow. Crucially, a large proportion of it is original, rescued from decades in hiding by a legendary Bugatti expert before moving on to its current owner. It’s been painstakingly researched, restored and part-recreated in secret by craftsmen in Denmark and the Czech Republic. To all but a select few, its existence remained unknown until its big reveal at the Rétromobile show in Paris on February 6. So, how did we get to this point? Let’s start with the engine, because actually it’s more important than the car itself in many ways. The story begins with French pilot Roland Garros, who in 1913 made the first-ever non-stop flight across the Mediterranean, flying a fast Morane-Saulnier monoplane.
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