The Tale of Bugatti

Ettore Bugatti was born in September 1881 in Milan, Italy and was fascinated by the engineering and design of the "modern" machines of his time. As a young man he set his eyes on what he thought was the most thrilling manifestation of the machine age: the race car. in his early 30s Bugatti had earned enough success in his Brescia competition model to establish his own company as a full-blown constructor. As a result, the Type 35 arrived in 1924 ready to dominate the competition. 

It arrived at the 1924 Grand Prix de L’ACF in Lyon featuring a 2.0-litre, 24-valve, straight 8-cylinder engine and a chassis that was suspended on leaf springs at the front, with a live axle and quarter ecliptics at the rear and a top speed of 125mph. The car's unique hollow axle design allow the springs to pass through rather than be simply bolted onto. Despite running five cars, seventh was the best the T35 could manage on its first time out, a poor start in its history but would go on to be the most storied and successful racing car of all time. 

Bugatti disliked forced induction but would go on to add a Roots supercharger in 1925 to increase the Type 35's competitiveness. After this modification, Bugatti's dream would be realized by taking the 1926 GP World Championship. The Type 35 was phenomenally successful over its racing career, winning over 1,000 races in its time. Before it took the Grand Prix World Championship in 1926 the Type 35 won 351 races and set 47 records in the two prior years. To put that into perspective, at its height, the Type 35s averaged 14 race wins per week and won the Targa Florio from 1925 through 1929. Another notable historic win was at the first holding of the Monaco GP in 1929.