Drove my first Bugatti at the weekend

K

kiwi 03

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Fellow Frogger
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Location
Christchurch, NZ
What an awsome day yesterday!!

Warm sunny day in Greymouth, and am preparing for the ride home when my mate says "you take the Bug. and I will meet you in Christchurch.

So my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of a type 37A Bugatti on a fantastic road for a decent car from the West Coast, over Arthurs Pass to Christchurch.

What a brilliant day's driving. The experience is evey bit as good as the legend.

For those who don't know Bugatti's, a 37A is the 1500cc supercharged version of the type 35 Grand Prix car


It will be a very long time before I have a better day than that.
 
I know exactly how you feel!

I had a ride in a vintage car for the first time, a 1910 Brush single-cylinder that was on the 100th anniversary run to celebrate the centenary of the first Sydney to Melbourne Reliability Trial.

Only 13kms, but with no doors, no windscreen, no mirror, driver on the left, a single 1100cc cylinder struggling to keep it moving up hills even in first gear... unable to rev out beyond 60kmh down hills in second gear (and there ain't no more!), and the hand-operated clutch that's functioned by the gearlever... the hand throttle, advance lever... starting routine... it just went on.

Then to get out and resume hitch-hiking (that was just a lift with a friend who was taking his turn to drive a stint after he'd picked me up 100kms earlier in his Landcruiser support vehicle... a friend I hadn't seen in three decades, but who I had to note with shock has aged 30 years in that time)... well, pretty soon an 8-litre Bentley went by.

It did a U-turn and came back to me, offered me a lift.

No trouble getting up the hills in this one, and it had a door and a screen and a mirror and more than two gears! Right to my front door!
 
you are a very luck boy to drive a 37A
a dream of many of us. did anyone take some shots?
 
alpine said:
you are a very luck boy to drive a 37A
a dream of many of us. did anyone take some shots?
Click to expand...

It was a pretty much a dream for me to.

Hopefully a friend has some photos of us near Porters Pass. We stopped here and I gave him a ride down the pass and into Springfield. The grin on his face from when I booted it in third to pass a queue of modern cars is still there. The noise the thing makes when it is working is unreal.

Still to come - a drive of a Facel Vega HK500!!!
 
kiwi 03 said:
It was a pretty much a dream for me to.

Hopefully a friend has some photos of us near Porters Pass. We stopped here and I gave him a ride down the pass and into Springfield. The grin on his face from when I booted it in third to pass a queue of modern cars is still there. The noise the thing makes when it is working is unreal.

Still to come - a drive of a Facel Vega HK500!!!
Click to expand...

Lucky bugger. How on earth did you manage that????

JohnW
 
JohnW said:
Lucky bugger. How on earth did you manage that????

JohnW
Click to expand...


It was surprisingly easy.

My vintage car is off the road at present, and my mate with the Bug. suggested I come with him to the West Coast rally as navigator, and my partner could go with his wife and kids in their 66 Prince B200 (I drove that too, and without being rude, I don't ever want to own one!).

As we were packing up to leave on the Sunday morning, Mike tells me "We are wanting to stop at Shantytown. You and Maggie can take the Bugatti and go on ahead"

Needless to say I didn't take long to say "Yes..."

Happy Happy Happy
 
Seems like a good excuse to post these pictures of a 1929 Bugatti among other old gems out for the day at Walhalla in eastern Victoria back in November, 2002.
 

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The vintage Vauxhall was one of the best cars of its time. A melbourne collector has one in preference to a bentley, and he can afford anything he wants.

When GM bought Vauxhall in the late 20's things went rapidly downhill, untill they stuffed it up completely in the late 70's.
 
175 Peugeot is better

The 175 Peugeot won LeMans in 1923 and 1925
it is on par with the Vauxhalls and Bentleys if not better,

I have ridden in them all, give me the Peugeot anyday
it has superior handling and brakes to the Bentley

the only remaining complete example is here in Australia
and reluctantly for sale at $85000 a bargain given its heritage and performance
if i had the readys I would love to own it, it is totally rebuilt

check out the color pic out in Unique Cars.

Alpine
 
Vauxhall

Surely this fine example of the 1CV is representative of the proud tradition of GM. It is a vehicle in fine fettle! They still cling to the technology of those times. Chevrolet have entered their Daewoo in the World Touring Car Championship. Remember Alain Menu? Even with his skills, on points, they are last.
 
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