Vanity Fair UK – September 2019

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Above, from top: Angela Hucke with the Type

35B raced by Hellé Nice; the original Bugatti

Type 59/50B, which came to the UK with

Jean-Pierre Wimille in 1939 (left) makes a

historic return after 80 years

I

could almost say that I

entered this world in a

Bugatti, as my father dashed

to the nearest hospital with my heavily

pregnant mother in the back of a 1938

Bugatti Type 57C Saloon. Alas, that

would not be true, but I can confirm

that I cannot ski, row or sail as every

single childhood holiday was filled with

driving and looking at vintage Bugattis.

This life-long fascination comes

down to one man: Ettore Bugatti, born

in Milan in 1881. He made his mark on

automotive history when he introduced

the iconic Bugatti Type 35 at the 1924

Grand Prix de Lyon and went on to win

close to 1,800 races with his Ecurie de

Pur Sang painted in blue, the national

racing colour of France.

Just as you never forget how to ride a

bicycle, you never forget how to drive a

Type 35. The car has a near unbearable

lightness of handling and an urgency to

propel forward—I have never felt more

alive than at that steering wheel. A few

years ago, I was invited to drive the

pacey Bugatti Type 35B raced by Hellé

Nice, the legendary female driver of the

1920s and ’30s. An overwhelming rush

of adrenaline reminded me why driving

a vintage car is so addictive. You feel

like you are sitting within the engine

itself, you hear and connect with every

Ettore’s eldest son Jean took after his

father, designing successful roadsters,

touring cars and the ultimate car for

Kings: the Type 41 Bugatti Royale. In

1939 Jean Bugatti and star racing driver

Jean-Pierre Wimille came to the UK

with Bugatti’s most powerful racing car

ever: the 4.7-litre Type 59/50B. On loan

from the legendary Cité de

L’Automobile, this historic car is now

back in the UK after 80 years and on

display with the Trust until September.

Caroline Bugatti, granddaughter of

Ettore, runs a racetrack in France and

frequently competes in motoring events

such as the Rallye des Gazelles in

Morocco. She joined us recently with

her family as did Jean-Robert Aumaître,

son of Bugatti’s number one racing

mechanic. As I led them to discover the

Wimille Bugatti, an imaginary

soundtrack of Irving Berlin’s “Blue

Skies” playing in my head, my vie en

bleu was feeling quite complete.

tiniest motion of metal on metal. All your

senses are working overtime and the

sixth sense for me kicks in when

reminiscing about those trailblazing

racing drivers of the earliest decades of

motorsport: Elisabeth Junek, Anne Itier

and, of course, Hellé Nice.

For the last three years I have been

curator of the Bugatti Trust Museum in

Prescott, Cheltenham. It is the only

heritage centre in the world dedicated to

the original Bugatti factory and family,

and holds more than 27,000 technical

drawings, 10,000 photographs and

thousands of historic documents. Our

active outreach programme for schools

and universities enthuses the next

generation of designers and engineers so

Bugatti remains relevant, exciting and

inspiring. I write this fresh from La Vie en

Bleu, an event which saw 90 historic

Bugattis assemble to celebrate the 90th

anniversary of the Bugatti Owners’ Club.

At the Bugatti Trust we, too,

celebrated a significant landmark.

Blue-eyed Girl The curator of the Bugatti

Trust Museum shares her love for the

French marque in its 110th anniversary year

I have never felt more

al ive than at the

steering wheel of a

Bugatti Type 35

Vintage Racing

By Angela Hucke

SEPTEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR EN ROUTE

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