1951 Bugatti Type 101 Guilloré Coupe

There are quite a few Delahaye 135M chassis with this body, which makes the car seem like a guest at the Ascot Races wearing a rented tux

by Donald Osborne

Ettore Bugatti never recovered from the tragic death of his 29-year-old son Jean, shortly before WWII in 1939. Neither did his company. The war and its aftermath left the Molsheim factory devastated, and then on August 21, 1947, Ettore Bugatti died, leaving six heirs to the estate.

In September 1949, the Bugatti factory manufactured a batch of 16 further examples of its pre-war Type 57/57C model, but evidently only three were completed. For a time the company concentrated on sub-contracted engineering work, before Roland Bugatti made an attempt to re-launch the marque in 1951 using an improved Type 57 chassis as the basis for the new Type 101.

These improvements included a down-draft Weber carburetor to replace the obsolete prewar Stromberg, an electric Cotal gearbox and 17-inch instead of 18-inch road wheels, while many components still in stock were utilized in its construction. As with the Type 57, two versions were offered, in this case Types...