The Type 59 remains a fascinating epilogue to Bugatti’s grand prix story and… a thing of absolute beauty
Ettore Bugatti was an artist. One of his sculptures also happens to be the most successful grand prix racecar of all time, the Bugatti Type 35. Introduced in 1924, the Type 35 amassed over 1000 race wins during the subsequent years. But Bugatti was also a conservative. He held on to the same basic design for nearly a decade, gradually evolving it into the Type 59 of 1933, the last of the great Bugatti grand prix cars.
Bugatti debuted the Type 35 at the 1924 Grand Prix d’Europe at Lyon in France. There was not one single element that made it stand out, though the Type 35 did have an exceptionally low weight compared to the other grand prix cars entered by the likes of Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Delage.
The Type 35 was built around a steel ladder frame and featured a two-piece hollow front axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, alloy wheels with integrated brake drums and a horseshoe-shaped radiator.
Carried over from the earlier Type 30 was the car’s straight-eight engine. This used five roller bearings for the crankshaft and a single overhead camshaft, driven by a shaft at the front of the engine. The camshaft actuated three valves per cylinder, two inlet and one exhaust, which were mounted vertically in the head, allowing the engine to have a very distinct, square appearance. The compact unit could rev up to 6000rpm and produced around
