1944 Bugatti Other for sale

The production of the Bugatti Type 73 began in 1943, right before the onset of World War II. Production was postponed during the war but began again in 1947 with the introduction of the Type 73A. Ettore Bugattis death on August 21, 1947 spelled the demise of the Type 73.

The Type 73, Type 73B, and

Type 73A were touring cars that came with seating for either two or four people. All the Type 73 (A, B, C) were given, or intended to have, four-cylinder engines. The Type 73 had twin overhead camshafts with four valves per cylinder. The Type 73B was similar but had single overhead camshafts. The Type 73A had single overhead camshafts with three valves per cylinder.

Five chassis of the Grand Prix, single seater Type 73C were constructed with only one (73002) receiving an engine and testing by the factory. The chassis numbers were 73001 through 73005. The supercharged engine was a 1.5 liter straight-four with twin overhead camshafts and four-valves per cylinder. It featured a detachable cylinder head, wet cylinder liners, and a exhaust manifold constructed of cast iron. The rest of the chassis were sold off as the company ceased production. Most of the chassis were later completed, some being given bodies true to the original Bugatti design.

Ettore Bugatti had founded his reputation as a manufacturer of high quality performance automobiles with his earliest four cylinder models before WWI. He introduced his first eight cylinder cars in 1922, and within ten years his entire range was of this configuration. However, whilst attending the Bugatti Owners Clubs International Prescott meeting in July 1939 Ettores talented son Jean had intimated that a new four cylinder racing car was planned for the following season. Tragically this was destined not to materialize because within the next two weeks Jean was killed in a testing accident, and some three weeks later Europe was once again plunged into war.

Bugatti, assisted by his designers Noel Domboy and Antoine Pichetto, spent the war years planning future models, one a 1,500cc car to be produced in a wide variety of forms ranging from a five-seater sedan to a single-seater racing car. By 1944 his plans for production were well advanced and he detailed his intentions in a letter dated February 1945 to Eric Giles, the Secretary of the B.O.C. The car was to have a supercharged 1500cc 16-valve engine, with a single overhead camshaft for the road cars but twin camshafts for the racing model.

Further details were released once the war had ended. In a letter dated 27 September 1945 to Laurence Pomeroy, the editor of The Motor, Monsieur R.A. Bouchard of the Bugatti Company in Paris advised that the racing chassis was to be of ultra-low build, being derived from that of the pre-war 4.7 liter Type 59/50 B racing car, whilst its engine was to feature all-alloy construction with detachable wet cylinder liners, a detachable head (a first for Bugatti) and a five-bearing crankshaft. Transmission was to be by a four speed all synchromesh gearbox, and the cars total weight was not to exceed 600kg.

No more than twenty examples were to be built in the old La Licorne factory in the Paris suburb of Levallois at a price of 500,000 French francs each. Five were to be delivered in April 1946, with five more during each of the next three months. Already fifteen French racing drivers had each lodged deposits of 25,000 francs, and English readers of The Motor were invited to order the remaining five planned. Inevitably this ambitious timetable floundered against the troubled post-war economic background when materials required for motor car construction were all in extremely short supply, and several orders were cancelled.

Eventually a batch of five complete sets of parts for the racing model was produced, whilst an artists impression of a planned aerodynamic sports saloon