T23 by Figoni & Falaschi

This photo of Talbot-Lago is quite well known, published in different books but always wrongly identified as being a T150 chassis, some authors even indicate the chassis number as being 90101.

In fact this car is a T23 model and its chassis number is 89076.

The coachbuilder is, of course, Figoni & Falaschi, famous for their tear drop coupe design: le coupé goutte d’eau.

This T23 got its registration number, 2270-RL1, département de la Seine in June 1937. The fate of 89076 is not known, it disappears in the South of France in the early 50’s.

Bugatti type 73

At Paris motorshow in october 1947, a completely new Bugatti car, the type 73 is exhibited. This is one of the last cars designed by le Patron, and exhibited few months after the death of Ettore Bugatti, on 21 august 1947.

The project for the Type 73 probably started prior to WWII. Different versions of the type 73 are planned: the 73, a sport car, powered by a straight 4 motor of 1.5 liter (70x95); the 73A passenger car equipped with a single cam engine (76x82) ; the 73C, a racing version with the same engine as the type 73 but a with a lighter chassis.

Built at the workshop located rue du Débarcadère, Paris, the prototype chassis is sent to the Carrosserie Pourtout, in Rueil, to be coach built as two-door saloon. The design of the body is very typical Bugatti late design; it can be seen as an evolution of the type 57S Atlantic and of the type 64, both due to the genius of Jean Bugatti, Ettore’s son.

The Paris motor show car has never been sold; it ended-up in Molsheim and was part of the factory cars acquired by Fritz Schlumpf in April 1963.
Repainted in cream color, this car can be seen today at the Cité de l’Automobile in Mulhouse.

Grand Prix Bugatti by Louis Dubos

This outstanding car is indeed a Bugatti Grand Prix, a Type 51 (chassis #51133) originally owned by Louis Chiron.
André Bith bought it in June 1936 and he decided to transform his Grand Prix Bugatti into a coupe. In April 1937, Bith ordered a new body from Louis Dubos, a coachbuilder who had his workshop at rue de Sablonville, Paris. Dubos was a coachbuilder working mainly on medium range cars (Citroën, Peugeot, Delahaye …) and also busses.
The design of the coupé has been drawing by André Bith himself, being definitely inspired by the famous Bugatti Type 57s Atlantic. The cost of the body was of 20,000 French francs, for comparison a Citroën Traction Avant 7cv was priced new 22,500 FFR.
Painted in Bugatti racing blue, Bith participated to the Paris-Nice rally of 1937, see the picture.
Few weeks later, the T51, repainted in a darker blue, was presented by Jacqueline Ganet, Bith’s girl friend, to the concours d’élégance organized by the newspaper L’Auto, in June 1937.
The car was sold by Bith in Fall 1938.
Today 51133 with its original body can be seen in the Nethercutt collection in California.

Bentley by de Villars

Recently find in a period magazine, this rendering from the famous Parisian “de Villars” coachbuilder company on a Bentley 3½ litre chassis.
This is most probably the cabriolet built for Argentinean Juan Blanquier, on chassis B87EJ in October 1935.
Carrosserie de Villars built 5 bodies on Bentley chassis and only one is known to have survived. This survivor is a coupe on a 4¼ litre chassis (B8MR) which is, currently, for sale by Frank Dale & Stepsons in England. I would suggest to the future owner of this nice coupe, to re-install the running boards that have been suppressed, it should stretch the line of the car and then make it slimmer.