4 replies to this topic

[VAR1016]

Faced with the crushing superiroity of the German teams from the middle of the '30s, Maserati and Alfa-Romeo opted for the voiturette class - 1.5 litres. Whilst Alfa-Romeo made nominal efforts up to the war to compete in the larger formulae (i.e. 750kg and 3-litre s/c) Bugatti as far as I know more or less gave up except for his 3.8 litre car (I do not know the type number of this one) and of course his successful sports-car effort.

My question is: did he consider building a 1.5 litre car to compete with the Maseratis, Alfas and of course, ERAs?

PdeRL

[VDP]

In this era there was a strong nationalism. The french organizers change almost all to the sports category. In 1936 all the main race were for this type of cars: Talbot, Delahaye, Delage and Bugatti .

Robert

[VAR1016]

Originally posted by VDP
In this era there was a strong nationalism. The french organizers change almost all to the sports category. In 1936 all the main race were for this type of cars: Talbot, Delahaye, Delage and Bugatti .

Robert

A good point Robert; obviously the French response was to turn their backs on G.P. racing (except of course for Rene Dreyfus's great drive in the V-12 Delahaye at Pau) and concentrate on sports car racing for which they had excellent cars.

However it still seems extraordinary to me that with his amazing heritage, Bugatti chose to eschew single-seaters.

PdeRL

[VDP]

I am not a Bugatti expert, but you have to see the prod cars are almost based on same chassis or engine only with minimal change the gorgeous type 57 , on the other side obsolete technics like brakes with cables or non independant wheels. There was mostly also a lack of money.
Don't forget that the million race car or cork car derivated from a car built in 1933.

Robert

[Vitesse2]

I don't think Bugatti gave much (or indeed any) thought to building a new 1500cc car. Once the category began to revive in the early 1930s, the old T37A and rarer T39A were mainstays of French participation. But as Robert has pointed out, the predominance of sports car races after 1936 meant that there were very few places for French drivers to race a 1500cc car. In 1931, of 12 major 1500cc events, 9 were in France or French territories. In 1932: 9 of 15. 1933 was a poor year: just nine major races with four in France. This dropped to two of nine in 1934. At this point, 1500cc racing was in the doldrums everywhere, but the advent of ERA and interest from Maserati meant that it would revive in Britain and Italy: but not in France. There were eleven major races with just two in France. 1936 saw three French races (if you count the one-off Coupe Rainier in Monaco) out of 13.

It was 1937 when 1500cc racing really took off: 25 races, but just two in France - Albi and Picardie. Only Albi could be said to have attracted a class field.

I count 24 races in 1938: in France, just the same two, with Albi again the only one with a decent field.

There were three races in France in 1939. Albi again was the pick of them, followed by the Coupe de la Commission at Reims (where the small field was bolstered by some Simca (ie Gordini) sports cars).

Bugatti would have had to start from scratch with a new 1500cc car, but the showing from the late-30s GP cars doesn't fill me with any confidence that they could have achieved much against the ERAs, let alone the Maseratis or Alfettas. Nor does the post-war T73C.