A virtual magazine for a true passion!

Editor: Jaap Horst


Volume 4, Issue 3

A compilation of all T54´s

Andrea Medda

The number of chassis reported to the Grand Prix model Type 54 are thirteen (13); however only twelve (12) of these are certain:

Chassis 54201 : assembled engine n° 1, it was sold in April 1932 to the dealer Bucar of Zurigo. Later the car was bought by Czechoslovakian Prince Lobkowitz who driving it found his dead on the Avus circuit, on 05/22/1932.
Actually the 54201 was restored like a roadster and it's in Europe.

Chassis 54202 : assembled engine n° 14, it was sold in the march 1932 to the french driver Marcel Lehoux.
IT'S MISSING.

Chassi 54203 : assembled engine n° 2, it was sold in the January 1932 to Kaye Don who drove it in a lot of races without great successful.
Actually it's in England.

Chassis 54204 : assembled engine n° 3, it was sold in the January 1932 to J. P. Wimille. It was given back some time later. The engine was converted to a type 50 T engine.

Chassis 54205 : assembled engine n° 5, it was sold in the april 1932 to Lord Francis Howe who drove it in the 1932/33 season.
Actually the 54205 is in the U.S.A and it was completely restored. It hasn't a race car aspect because in the second half of the '30 it was modified by an english craftsman that give it a body very similar to a 55 roadster.

Chassis 54206 : assembled engine n° 4, it was sold to the dealer Bucar of Zurigo. It was returned to Molsheim dismantled. The engine was converted to a type 50 T engine.

Chassis 54207 : assembled engine n° 6. This car was destinated to Sir Henry Birkin who, we don't know the reason, didn't recall it. The engine was converted to type 50 T engine.

Chassis 54208 : assembled engine n° 9 and it was, in the 1932/33 season, Bugatti official race car. Later the engine was assembled on a laboratory car, and the chassis become a Type 59. (59123 ?)

Chassis 54209 : assembled engine n° 8, it was sold to Count Stanislav Czaykowski who driving it established the new record of the hour on the Avus circuit.
In 1933 Count Czaykowski found his dead in 54209 on the Monza circuit (you understand why Type 54 is considered a "letal car").
Actually the car is the best 54 arrived to our days.

Chassis 54210 : the nude chassis is in the U.S.A. ?

Chassis 54211 : the nude chassis is in the U.S.A. ?

Chassis 54212 : never built.

Chassis 54213 : assembled engine n° 7 and it was, in the 1932/33 season, Bugatti official race car. Later the engine was assembled on a laboratory car, and the chassis become a Type 59. (59124 ?)

ANDREA MEDDA P.S. this study don't want to be definitive but I hope that other Bugatti lovers can help me to widen it. Send me an e-mail addem@iol.it


Back to the Bugatti revue

Vive La Marque !!