The Lost Bugatti
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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. Garros had met Ettore Bugatti through his ownership of a 1913 Bugatti Type 18, chassis 474. Powered by a 5-litre, four-cylinder engine driving the rear wheels via two hefty chains, it was christened ‘Black Bess’ by a subsequent ABOVE The Bugatti AVIO 8C, an original Diatto chassis and prototype aero engine, with bodywork in the style that Ettore Bugatti could feasibly have been planning for it. 92 / MAGNETO MAGNETO / 93 BUGATTI DIATTO AVIO 8C owner, but is often referred to as the Garros bore and 160mm stroke, equating to 14.5 Bugatti. Ettore had a similar car, chassis 471. ‘The project had never litres, and developing 250bhp at 2160rpm. Buoyed by the success of the Mediterranean been finished, and Each pair of four-cylinder blocks was made flight, Garros boldly told his friend Ettore in steel with built-in water jackets – clearly Bugatti that he planned to attempt flying nobody seemed to the forerunner of Bugatti’s very successful across the Atlantic. know how it found its straight-eight engines, and a design that the Ettore’s reply was: “Why not!”, and they marque would use widely, from the victorious began tackling the challenges together; Garros way into the museum’ Grand Prix cars to the later 12.8-litre super- the aeroplane, and Bugatti the engine. The idea luxurious Royale. was thwarted by the onset of World War One – Its design was further developed by Italian and Garros was later shot down and killed just Bugatti was invited to set up a workshop car maker Diatto. How so? Well, although not a month before the end of the war, October 5, there and, with the assistance of Roland widely documented, Ettore Bugatti and Pietro 1918, one day before his 30th birthday. Garros, he started on the design of an eight- Diatto, the founder of Diatto Automobiles, But back to that aero engine... In 1915, cylinder engine. It was based on two enlarged had maintained a working relationship for ABOVE Deutz Bugatti Type 8A in the Prince Heinrich Trials, Ettore Bugatti was introduced to Lieutenant 5-litre ‘Garros Bugatti’-style Type 18 car many years, and in doing so co-developed a 1908 – the model that prompted a Bugatti-Diatto collaboration. Arnand de Gramont, Duc de Guiche, who had engines joined in-line, ostensibly for number of engines and cars. just been attached to the governmental STAé aeronautical use but little different in design Diatto built Brescia Bugattis under licence, (Section Technique de l’Aeronautique). Le from a Bugatti automotive engine. and Bugatti used Diatto’s facilities to develop Duc (the Duke) also had a laboratory in Paris, This marks the first experiment with an and test his new ideas until around 1925 – which during the war was home to a galaxy of overhead-camshaft, eight-cylinder, in-line including the hollow front axle in 1921 and the ABOVE 1916 line drawing by Ettore researchers, all with a focus on aviation. Bugatti engine. It was designed with a 120mm vane-type supercharger on Diatto-Bugatti Bugatti of the eight- cars in 1922. A number of Diatto racing cars cylinder aero engine. were also developed using Bugatti engines and Diatto chassis, and vice versa, and in 1919 LEFT The Diatto- the alliance led to a Diatto winning the first Bugatti AVIO 8C engine. Note the two Italian post-war race, the Parma-Poggio di separate blocks, each Berceto. The winning car was a prototype that similar to a Bugatti used a Bugatti chassis design and was referred 5-litre’s engine. to as “a Type 30 Bugatti in the name of Diatto”. Bugatti expert Norbert Steinhauser confirms that: “Bugatti since 1900 had maintained close links with Mr Pietro Diatto.” Also, that Pietro Diatto: “Took an interest in Bugatti’s prototype Type 8 in 1907. Their relationship was uninterrupted.” Anyway, in 1915 Pietro Diatto negotiated the licence for production of Bugatti’s eight- cylinder aero engine in Italy. His brother, head of engineering Vittorio Diatto, took charge of the development with help from Ettore Bugatti. They used the Turin-based Gnome et Rhône aircraft engine facility, in which Diatto had bought a controlling share, to develop the new engine, dubbed the AVIO 8C. LEFT Ettore Bugatti’s ABOVE Aero engine under 5-litre chain-drive car, test at Levallois-Perret, Later, Diatto wrote a telegram to Ettore chassis 471, minus the long Paris, where Ettore Bugatti’s Bugatti, to update him on progress on the tail of its racing body – and workshop was based during AVIO 8C engine. It read: similar to the Garros car. World War One. ABOVE The finished car, a well kept secret even within Bugatti circles, was revealed at Rétromobile, and will later go on display at Prescott Hill Climb, UK, home to The Bugatti Trust. 94 / MAGNETO MAGNETO / 95 BUGATTI DIATTO AVIO 8C “To Ettore Bugatti, 86 Rue Chaptal, Levallois, And that brings up the question as to what France, 23 September, 1916 ‘That brings up the the chassis and engine were intended for. Was “Happy to communicate to you: Excellent results question as to what Ettore Bugatti himself involved, and what of engine 50 hours completed just now without could his intentions have been? We know he the least incident other than changing one plug. the chassis and engine was a master of PR, at times exaggerating his Test began at 205hp, first 10 hours completed at were intended for. feats to catch the attention of the press. 209hp completed at 210hp very brilliantly STOP After World War One, a PR effort had We have the best test so far completed of any Was Ettore involved?’ undoubtedly been required to kickstart other engine STOP Accept our congratulations Molsheim car production. An easy way to stir Automobiles Diatto.” up attention for the prototype eight-cylinder Despite the success, no aircraft were ever had been placed in the Diatto chassis in 1919. masterpiece in peacetime could have been to equipped with the AVIO 8C engine. Racing The project had never been finished, and enter an aero-engined car in popular events – driver Ernest Friderich is said to have shipped nobody seemed to know how it found its way or even land-speed record attempts. some AVIO 8C units to the USA, but except into the Italian museum. Or perhaps Ettore’s intention was to test the for Bugatti’s own Paris workshop prototype It then moved on to another museum. The eight-cylinder engine in a car chassis... Indeed, no other examples have survived. respected Bugatti collector and historian Uwe as early as 1914, Bugatti wrote letters to close However, there’s one further twist. In 1923, Hucke took an interest, with the dream of friends saying that he was ready to create a Diatto technical director Guiseppe Coda (a creating the car that Ettore might have been luxury vehicle that would surpass any known close friend of Ettore Bugatti) and engineer planning. He managed to buy the engine and supercar. Ten years later he started work on Alfieri Maserati started designing an in-line chassis from the museum’s owner, and carried the Royale, the 12.7-litre, eight-cylinder super- eight-cylinder car engine together, for Diatto. out a large amount of work to create a full luxury saloon of which just seven were made. It was based on the AVIO 8C. rolling chassis, complete with gearbox, axles The layout of the AVIO 8C engine was that At the end of June 1925, Maserati delivered and chain-drive transmission. of a typical Bugatti car engine, so Ettore the second prototype of this engine to Diatto. Sadly, though, in 2002 Hucke passed away, probably never thought of it as a pure aero But, in agreement with Coda, Maserati and the project laid dormant until it was taken engine. There’ s a compelling argument to see ended up keeping this prototype engine as on by current owner Claude Teisen-Simony.