In 1944 Ettore Bugatti initiated the designs of a new, supercharged 1500-cc car intended for postwar production. It was designated the Type 73, with variations ranging from a four-seater road model to a monoposto racing car.
Early in 1947 an artist's impression of a streamlined, two-door saloon appeared in a Bugatti advertisement in a Continental newspaper, and an engine-less prototype appeared on the Bugatti stand at the Paris Motor Show in October, 1947.
Ettore Bugatti had died in August, 1947 and, with the difficult economic conditions in early postwar France it is hardly surprising that the projected Type 73 Bugatti was destined to progress no further. By this time all the parts except the coachwork for an initial batch of five Type 73 racing cars had been manufactured in the old La Licorne works at Levallois near Paris, although not a single car had, in fact, been bench-tested. Thereafter, the five sets of parts remained in storage for several years at Bugatti's Molsheim works.
Belgian Bugatti dealer Jean De Dobbeleer, who assembled the parts into a complete but non-running car, had acquired one set of parts in late 1960. The remaining four sets of Type 73C parts were disposed of over the next three years, with two remaining in France, one being sold to a customer in Holland and the other set sold to the US. It should be explained that although these sets of parts were numbered from one to five, they were never allocated chassis numbers by the Molsheim factory: they were given chassis numbers 73001 to 73005 at a much later date. Thus, the major constituent parts of this report's subject car, shown as chassis number 73002, are actually numbered "two."
Chassis number 73002 was the first of the five Type 73C Bugattis to leave the factory, and after De Dobbeleer had assembled it, he sold it in 1961 to his American dealer friend Gene Cesari, who in turn sold it within the US to Jerry Sherman of Malvern, Pennsylvania. It is significant that this was the only Type 73 Bugatti to be listed in Hugh Conway's comprehensive Bugatti Register, and confirmed that the car was a Type 73C with chassis number 73002. From Sherman's ownership, it passed through several hands until 1969, when Eri Richardson of California acquired it.
English collector Tom Wheatcroft then bought the car in 1973. Around that time, Wheatcroft was assembling a large collection of racing cars, and was also in the process of purchasing the site of the Donington road-racing circuit that had remained unused since prewar times. In due course the Type 73 was restored to full running order in the Donington Collection workshops and a new body was built for it. Apparently there are two surviving factory drawings of racing bodywork intended for the Type 73C model, although there is no evidence that the factory ever made an example of either design. Wheatcroft elected to have a body built based upon the second of these two designs, which closely resembled the immediate prewar racing single-seater Bugattis with a centrally divided cowled radiator grille.
The entire car was restored to the extremely high mechanical and cosmetic standard. Although the car has never actually been raced, Wheatcroft drove it frequently and swiftly during visits to his Donington racing circuit. In 1994 ownership passed to the present North American owner.
SCM Analysis
Detailing
This car sold for $106,700, including buyer’s premium, at RM’s Amelia Island sale on March 9, 2002. The same car was a no-sale at a high bid of $165,000, at the RM Biltmore auction in January. Hindsight sometimes teaches harsh economic lessons.
Pity the poor old Type 73C Bugatti. It never actually reached production and despite being the last model in which Le Patron, Ettore Bugatti, had a direct hand, it is considered a compromised design by marque purists. To quote Bugatti super-authority Hugh Conway regarding the 73, “These cars, if not to be ignored because of their parentage, are not ‘pur sang’.” Conway adds charitably, “Even the Master is allowed his mistakes.”
The mistakes, in the eyes of Bugattistes, were radical deviations from the expected and accepted Bugatti engine design. These included wet cylinder liners, a detachable cylinder head, a single cast iron manifold and even-gasp!-the lack of special Bugatti-designed fasteners, their place taken by common hex nuts and washers.
This attractive little monoposto’s value is further complicated by the fact that its chassis was put together by a dealer rather than the factory. It has no competition record whatsoever and is so “one-off” that most vintage sports car enthusiasts have never heard of one, let alone seen an example. The body is all-new, which wouldn’t be a big sin on a veteran of racing shunts, but this one may not even be the intended design.
While this car will probably be welcome at nearly every vintage event, among Bugattistes it will always carry the stigma of being “the car that never was.” The price paid was a fair compromise between the exotic components and the fabled nameplate, and the lack of true factory provenance.-Dave Brownell