1931 T51 Bugatti GP Replica

This fine example of a 1931 T51 Bugatti GP car has been lovingly constructed over a 27 year period using only the best original Bugatti parts available. All the main parts are 100% period Bugatti T51, not some new made copy-cat replica. This has enabled her to earn chassis ID number BC132 with the Bugatti Owners club, a Historic technical passport, VSCC Buff book eligibility and the new FIA passport for class 13 making the car eligible for racing at all major historic and vintage race festivals, anywhere in the world.

Ettore Bugatti was as much an artist as an engineer and this is reflected in the overall finish of his work. Attention to detail is everywhere, from the fine machine turning in the engine bay to the beautifully crafted wooden handles in the cockpit. The overall finished product is as much a work of art as it is a fine racing car.
Employing a supercharged straight 8 cylinder engine now producing some 250 hp from only 2262cc, a new fresh racing gearbox and conversion to run on methanol, the car has a performance that a lot of modern day vehicles would struggle to achieve. Despite the performance and the fact that the T51 is fundamentally a Grand Prix car, she is remarkably easy to drive. A crisp, responsive engine coupled with a gear change that can only be described as silken, leaves you with the utmost respect of the men that created these cars over seventy years ago.
A very successful Grand Prix car in the 30’s, this particular example has been prepared for racing. In the past years BC-132 was used on the road and ran in many international vintage car rallys. We spent many months to take this T51 Bugatti from a road-rally car to a full blown GP racer, and her first shakedown race with the new owner was the See Red event at Donington in September 2006, One of the major events in the 2006 calendar, it also was included in the Donington celebration of 100 years of Grand Prix racing. BC132 was chosen to lead the parade celebrating 100 years of GP racing, before competing in the Williams Trophy Race for pre-war GP cars. Over the weekend, she drew a terrific amount of attention, receiving praise from both spectators and press.
BC132 subsequently took part in the Goodwood VSCC sprint event the next month. She proved to be one of the fastest cars of the day, achieving almost 140mph down the Lavant straight and a top 5 lap time. Only the loss of first gear prevented a further improvement in performance, although she was still capable of achieving this performance starting from second gear!
The car has seen further development and chassis dyno work over the closed season and now displaying #17. Our first event was the BOC Prescott “La via en Blue” and came in 2nd with a 1/10th sec. off the hill record. Then BC-132 was invited to the Brooklands 100 year Centenary festival, and actually ran 3 full laps of the Brooklands outer circuit, (this has not been done by any car since 1939), before the war damaged the circuit for any future racing, we also lapped several miles on the new Mercedes-Benz test circuit at race speeds.
Our team was selected to the Brooklands Centenary lunch in the Bluebird Room with HRH Prince Michael of Kent and Lord Montague of Beaulieu, as their guests. There were only 50 people invited to this very prestigious 100 year re-opening of Brooklands.
And we all are honored to part of this re-enactment of the opening of Brooklands in 1907.
The next event of the season was the Dunsfold “Wings & Wheels” and the car proved to be a real head turner on and off the airport circuit. Our last event this September 2007 was the VSCC Donington “See Red” and we placed 4th fastest in the first practice and went on to finish in the top 10 in the Williams trophy and the Seamans historic races, against some of the fastest pre-war racers in the world.
The last event of the season will be the VSCC Sprint at Goodwood, (October 28th) where we expect to set a few records, like we did last year. I can say proudly that this Bugatti T51 to be equal to any others in the world in it’s current tune and set-up.

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