1935 Bugatti Type 59/50S Monoposto

This 1935 Bugatti Type 59/50S offset-seat Grand Prix car is chassis No. 2 and fitted with engine No. 8. It was produced by the artisans of Automobiles Bugatti at Molsheim in Alsace from available parts of the period. Only such peripherals as the body paneling and tanks have been remade.

This Bugatti is powered by a 4.9-liter straight-eight cylinder twin-overhead camshaft power unit (number 8) that began life as the Type 53 engine, previously used by works-backed customer Count Stanislas Czaykowski to smash the World 1-Hour speed record at Berlin's AVUS speedway circuit in 1933. The power unit is coupled to an up-rated gearbox deemed necessary to handle the much-enlarged engine's extra power and torque. The gearbox drives the correct period-made type of propeller shaft and gear-driven back axle.

This engine was the prototype for the Type 59/50B cars that came later.

The car was built by Greg Jones and was based on the car driven by French driver Robert Benoist in the 1935 French Grand Prix. Many of the components built into this car were concealed in a storeroom at the Molsheim factory in which they had been cached almost certainly just prior to the wartime German invasion. Many more were accumulated during the years of extremely perceptive and discerning international dealing with fellow Bugatti enthusiasts and components collectors.

In 1968, the Type 59 chassis was purchased by Ray Jones, the current owner's father, with the intention of restoring it. The work was completed in 2015. Other original Bugatti Type 59 parts were fitted during its build, and the current owner constructed the replica body from original factory drawings for his tribute to the Benoist car.