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Ettore's
Lorries
by - David Blumlein
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The impending return of
the Bentley marque to the tarmac of La Sarthe (albeit with a rather
Teutonic flavour) begs comparison with the glory days of the late
twenties when those thundering machines which Ettore Bugatti allegedly
labelled "the fastest lorries in the world" carried all before them
in the 24-hour race. Their exploits seem to have stimulated the artistic
engineer into imitating their formula for by 1930, just as Bentley
Motors was about to start the slide into oblivion, Bugatti had come
up with his own brutish "lorry", the type 50. There the imitation
ceased for the French machines achieved no success at all at Le Mans;
in fact, they did not so much as record a finish! So what exactly
were these big monsters that failed to bring 'la gloire' back to France?
They were developments of the Type 46, or rather the Type 46S with
which they shared the basic chassis, suspension and 3-speed transaxle
transmission. The big change was the adoption of a twin-cam 4.9-litre
motor which was supercharged. This brute force coupled to a car carefully
engineered in every detail and clothed in a regulation four-seater
Weymann body built by Vanvooren should have swept the board but it
was not to be. Perhaps the fact that
Bugatti had three works cars entered for the 1931 Le Mans race painted
in uncharacteristic black was a bad omen.
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Rumour had suggested that
this was a form of protest against the French for not supporting a
'home' team which sought to restore the honour of France in the great
race after the trouncing dished out for four successive years by the
Bentleys. More akin to the truth is the fact that the French motor
industry suffered a serious slump in production figures from 1926
onwards and the idea of mounting an attack in the 24-hour race was
way down the list of the industry's priorities at the time! These
considerations apart, it was tyres which caused Ettore's cars to fail
in that first race. The Patron had fallen out with Dunlop and fell
back on Michelin to supply rubber that could cope. That it could not
quickly became evident from the start of practice. The three cars
had been driven to La Sarthe from the factory at Molsheim in Alsace
but, the moment they were pushed up into the realms of racing speeds,
the treads started to let go. There was little that could be done
in the time left to rectify the situation. And so to the line came
no. 4 for Chiron and Varzi (the Italian having his only start in the
24-hour race), this car being designated as the hare to try to break
the Alfa and Mercedes opposition, no. 5 Divo/Bouriat and no. 6 for
Count Conelli and Maurice Rost, the latter having had much competition
success as the works driver for the Georges Irat company.
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Initially, the cars were
restricted to 4,000 rpm., some 125 m.p.h., but shortly after the start
of the race Chiron had trouble while leading as planned. As the Monégasque's
car shed more rubber, the drivers were told to cut speeds down to
115 m.p.h. but disaster soon took over. Rost's car had a big blow
out at the rear causing the driver to lose control as the machine
plunged into the trees on the Mulsanne straight, killing an unfortunate
spectator who had wandered out in front of the fence. Rost was badly
hurt - this curtailed his racing career - and Jean Bugatti, who was
managing the team, consulted his father who recommended withdrawal.
Perhaps it would have been prudent to pull the cars out after practice
as was to be the case with the Sauber-Mercedes which suffered similar
tyre problems fifty-seven years later! The no. 5 car - chassis 50177
- actually ran at Le Mans thrice more. In 1933, still painted black,
it was entered by a cavalry officer, one Jean Louis Tarante, who intended
to take the wheel himself.
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However, the army refused him leave and
the ex-E.H.P. driver Pierre Bussienne accompanied a brave Madame Marie
Desprez on the car now shod with Dunlop tyres. They had worked up to 5th by midnight but the water pump failed and
the car had retired by six in the morning. In 1934 it appeared again,
this time in a 'proper' light shade of French blue, with Roger Labric
and Pierre Veyron in charge. The factory had prepared the car which
ran as high as third before the big ends failed. The following year
the four-year old car with the same colour and crew, led the race
at 3 a.m. but the crown wheel broke after 116 laps when lying second.
Thus ended the saga at Le Mans of Bugatti's "lorries" although another
Type 50 was entered in 1935. It was a production car fitted with a
4-seater (ex-Le Mans?) body from the factory, this replacing the original
Figoni coachwork. Alas, it was crashed in practice and never made
the start. But it was not to be the end for Bugatti - his Type 57
was to win in 1937 and 1939, Pierre Veyron sharing in the latter success.
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