Assembled in the factory during the summer of 1928, chassis 43264, fitted with engine 124 and crankshaft 159, would not be mentioned for the first time until May 13, 1929, in the factory archives, along with two other chassis and inscribed “Prix Bugatti.” These three cars were destined to be the prizes awarded to the first three in the upcoming second Grand Prix Bugatti, which took place on June 1, 1929, on the Le Mans circuit. It was won by the Italian-Chilean Juan Zanelli, who decided, in compliance with regulations, to exchange it for a new Type 35B from the factory.
The earliest known owner is John Fritsche Jr. of Sports Cars Inc. in Bryn Mawr, PA. He ordered the production of an aluminum coupe on chassis 43264 from the coachbuilder Derham in Rosemont, PA, in 1939.
The car’s trace can be picked up again on the West Coast in Los Angeles in 1947. A mechanics teacher at Ventura High School named George Banquet appears to have been responsible, along with a Ford mechanic, likely Ed Iskenderian, for the replacement of Bugatti parts by Ford ones, including the engine and running gear. According to historian Tom Konop, the comedian Donald O’Connor himself had the Bugatti engine replaced with a Ford 6 with dome pistons and special cylinder heads. O’Connor (1925–2003), one of Hollywood’s greatest stars of the 1950s, won a Golden Globe in 1952 for his performance in “Singing in the Rain” with Gene Kelly. He took part in several hillclimbing races around 1948 and 1949, including the event at Little Tujunga Canyon in northern Los Angeles. After this period, the car went off the radar.
It would not be until 1997 that the American Bugatti registrar, Sandy Leith, announced that the car had survived and was in the hands of the family of the late Dr, William O’Brien in Reno, NV.
Around 2008, chassis 43264 and the other matching Bugatti parts, namely the front springs, the remainder of the aluminum apron, the radiator and the steering unit, were sold by the O’Brien family to the English restoration specialist Robin Townsend, associated with the purchase for collector Michael Steele.
In December 2008, the project was sold to its current owner, a collector, who revived it.
The analysis of the vehicle finds an original chassis, whose frame, stamped 122, is that which matches with chassis 43264, engine 124. On January 16, 2009, the expert and Bugatti registrar for the Bugatti Owners Club, Mark Morris, inspected the vehicle with Hugh Conway Jr., and in agreement with American historian Sandy Leith, they approved the BOC’s allocation of a replacement chassis plate with number 43264.
(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams Cars.)
