1925 Bugatti Type 30 Tourer

Ettore Bugatti stunned the world in 1922 with the new eight-cylinder engine in the new Type 30 model. Bugatti had previously produced over 2000 lightweight sports/racing cars with smaller four-cylinder 1.5-liter 30 horsepower engines in a decade. The new overhead cam eight-cylinder engine produced 70-130 horsepower from the slightly bigger 2.0-liter engine. Six hundred Type 30 models were built, but many fell into disrepair.

This Type 30 was ordered by French Art Deco architect Jean Bernard Charavel and is one of six surviving in the U.S. today. Charavel drove it daily for 35 years and kept it for 60 years until his death, when it resurfaced in 1960 with its unmodified body and engine. In the 1980s, it was sold to Lee Kun-hee, who became the richest man in South Korea as Chairman of Samsung. He, too, held this car until his death in 2020.

The Bugatti Type 30 was the first eight-cylinder production Bugatti. They were produced between 1922 and early 1926, with almost exactly 600 examples built.

The Bugatti Type 30 was powered by a single overhead eight eight-cylinder engine with a barrel-type crankcase under a pair of fixed-head cylinder blocks. It had a single cambox in which the overhead camshaft operated the valves by finger-type rockers to the two inlets and a single exhaust valve per cylinder. Carburetion was supplied by a pair of either Zenith or Solex carburetors; ignition was initially by magneto, with a coil used for later cars. The gearbox was a four-speed unit with right-hand change lever and mesh gears, along with a wet multi-plate clutch. In the front was an I-beam axle and hydraulic front brakes. The rear drums were considerably larger than those at the front.

This touring car Bugatti Type 30 was ordered new by Bugatti agent Dubuisson of St. Quintin for his customer, Mr. Chavel, and the chassis was produced in January of 1926. Dubuisson purchased the rolling chassis only, with an unknown coachbuilder producing the four-passenger open Tourer body, with two doors - one door was located on the left for the front passenger, and one on the right.

Delivered to Monsieur Chavel, the car remained with his family until 1960. It was sold to J.P. Leger of Dreux, France. While in his care, the engine was removed and given another correct Type 30 unit, engine 418. The car was refinished in its present color scheme of yellow with black cycle fenders and wire wheels.

The next known owner was Henri Chambon of Clermont Ferrand, who purchased the car in 1972 and registered it as 7892 QG 63, using it at the International Bugatti Meeting in Denmark five years later. Ownership then passed to Bernard Viallon. It has been in the current caretaker's possession for the past two decades.

This Tourer has its original frame, transmission number 1420, and original rear axle number 588. It has brown leather upholstery, Marchal headlamps with yellow reflectors, wood cappings along the sides of the body and dashboard, and a black cloth top. The engine has two brass Solex carburetors, the cockpit is trimmed in dark wood and there is a four-spoke wood-rimmed Bugatti steering wheel in front of the white-faced instruments and gauges by Jaeger, Paris. There is a rear-mounted spare wheel and a classic Bugatti horseshoe-shaped radiator.

By Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2016