Bugatti’s missing link

The legacy lives on

Though modern car fans might only know Bugatti for impossibly fast and incredibly expensive hypercars such as the Veyron and Chiron, the marque has been around in one form or another for 110 years.

One thing that’s held true across the years has been a focus on innovation – and nowhere is that more obvious than with the story of Bugatti’s lost classic, the Type 68.

Only one example, a prototype, was ever produced – but that didn’t stop one enthusiast from recreating the model based on original drawings dating back to the 1940s. 

Read on for the full story behind this stunning classic.

A true pioneer

The huge diversity of Ettore Bugatti’s design projects is one of the many impressive achievements of the famed engineer.

Despite the turmoil of war, the loss of his talented heir Jean, and the German occupation of his Molsheim factory, Ettore’s brilliant mind remained as prolific as ever.

At the heart of these ideas was a series of new engines, ranging from a single-cylinder unit to mount on a bicycle to a 62-litre, eight-cylinder marine powerplant – and automotive applications were the focus.

And none were more fascinating than the bold Type 68, a double-overhead-camshaft 318cc ‘four’ to power a new compact range for the immediate post-war age.

Its beating heart

The new engine, with four valves per cylinder, gear-driven camshafts and supercharged induction, was designed to rev to 12,000rpm.

Known as the ‘long bolt’ unit after the method used to secure the cast-iron cylinder liners between the head and crankcase without gaskets, the new design confirmed that the great engineer had lost none of his creativity.

The one-piece aluminium crankcase featured three bearings with a caged roller centre.

A gem of a motor

It is believed that just three T68 engines were made, and Le Patron himself tested one in a motorcycle frame of his own design.

“With classic Bugatti features scaled down, such as the oil filter, it’s a jewel of a thing,” enthuses marque specialist Tim Dutton.

“The valves are so small they look like nails, and the compact Roots-type supercharger on the nose of the crankshaft is just like the one that drives a suction pump on a modern F1 engine.”

Diminutive dimensions

Several car applications with different body styles were planned, but just one, a puggish-looking two-seater runabout, was completed for testing.

This little-seen prototype was later saved from scrap by the Schlumpf brothers, and today is displayed without an engine in the Cité de l’Automobile, Mulhouse.

It’s believed that three ‘underslung’ T68 chassis frames were also completed.

Daring to be different

Among the Type 68 drawings were several sketches done by 25-year-old Roland Bugatti, Jean’s younger brother, for a dramatic two-seater coupé with ‘gullwing’ doors, and a roadster with cutaway sides and ‘Grand Raid’-style head fairings.

But with the death of Ettore in 1947, the Type 68 project lost focus as Roland and new director Pierre Marco revived car production with the Type 101, a thinly disguised pre-war Type 57.

Sent to storage

Grand Prix ace Maurice Trintignant remembered testing the Type 68 in the early ’50s, but the fluid flywheel proved problematic.

Eventually the prototype was pushed into storage to gather dust, while the drawings were stashed away in packed plan chests, lost among a multitude of ideas and dreams.

The turning point

Fast-forward to the 1970s and passionate German Bugatti fan Uwe Hucke had become absorbed in everything about the great French marque.

He’d saved and restored a fantastic range of legendary cars, as well as creating a series of ‘what ifs’.

Mentored by Hugh Conway Snr, his close friend and Bugatti guru, Hucke also began rescuing factory drawings, which included the fascinating designs for the little-known T68 project – and he sourced an extensive selection of T68 parts including a chassis frame, a back axle and an incomplete power unit.

All coming together

“In around 1996, Uwe showed me the engine components, which included an alloy crankcase, a part-finished cylinder head, camshafts, valves and conrods, with the idea of assembling it for display,” recalls Richard Day, then curator of The Bugatti Trust.

“The first plan was to make a wooden block and spray it silver, but we concluded that it would be a shame not to do it properly and make the engine work.”

Way ahead of its time

“It was an incredible design for the time,” says Day, “but would have been too expensive to produce because the critical machining of the cylinder head would have been impractical in 1945.

“You have to remember that it was still at prototype stage, and only three engines were made. But as with so many of Ettore’s design ideas, the T68 was way ahead of its time.”

“This was a pre-production unit,” he adds, “and at least 10 engines would have been tested and destroyed before the engineers got it right. Ettore appreciated the production challenge of the 16-valve cylinder head, which is why he revised the design for the T68B with a simpler eight-valve head.”

Breathing new life

Working with a near-complete set of original factory drawings and a newly cast block, Day enthusiastically set about completing the short-lived 16-valve unit: “It’s a beautiful motor, with so many clever features. The timing tower gears, for example, drive everything including cams, lubrication system, water pump and ignition.”

For the transmission, Bugatti had planned a two-speed ’box with fluid flywheel, or possibly a Cotal electric, but for practical reasons Day used modern Reliant gears inside a Bugatti-style casing.

Heading in the right direction

Tim Dutton and his father Ivan were involved with the project from the outset, when Hucke commissioned them to fit the axles and steering.

“The suspension – solid axles and leaf springs with reversed quarter-elliptics at the back – is typical Ettore,” says Tim.

“If something worked well, it was continually developed. This would handle better than early independent solutions such as the Fiat 500 or Alfa 2.9. Only on rough roads would it show its limitations.”

A fine form

With the engine and chassis sitting on four wheels, work started in earnest on the ‘gullwing’ coupé body, based on Roland Bugatti’s sketch.

Hucke enlisted Steeve Bernaud-Heyd, a young French stylist who had been employed by Romano Artioli at Bugatti Automobili SpA in the futuristic Campogalliano factory.

Beautifully simple…

“Working on the EB110, I loved my job and embraced the Bugatti universe,” says Bernaud-Heyd, “so when Uwe started talking about the amazing T68 project I loved the idea.

“Roland’s sketch was very simple, and I had to reinterpret his lines to create a shape that could fit an adult and work ergonomically but still capture the Bugatti spirit.

“The dimensions of the chassis were unconventional with such a small engine, but I like to think Ettore would be proud of our work. For that time, the idea was very sophisticated.”

…and simply beautiful

Hucke then instructed coachbuilder Terry Hall to make the body using Bernaud-Heyd’s scale drawings.

A set of profile sections was cut to evaluate the shape, before Hall began masterfully rolling and shaping the aluminium to create its fantastic form.

Passing on

During construction Michel Bugatti, Ettore’s son from a second marriage, visited Hucke and loved the ‘mini Atlantic’.

Unfortunately, the project came to a halt after Hucke’s death in April 2002, following a long illness.

The unfinished T68 was inherited by his daughter, Angela, who shared his passion for the marque and became closely involved with The Bugatti Trust.

Back in the spotlight

After a period in storage, in early 2018 the silver coupé was taken to Paris for display on Dutton’s stand at Rétromobile. In the very city where Ettore conceived the T68, and later when exhibited at the Trust’s Prescott headquarters, it drew a lot of interest.

“I was nervous at first, but the reaction has been fantastic, which is a great tribute to my father,” says Angela.

One final push

The project now needs a new enthusiast to complete it. “It’s 80% done and just needs finishing with all the little things – cooling, wiring, clutch and trim – to make it work,” says Dutton.

“Ettore never resolved the airflow through the cockpit, so with fixed windows it will need vents. It’s a remarkable design that shows how ahead of the game he was. Who else in 1945 was thinking about material shortage, limited fuel supply and city congestion?”

Anniversary aspirations

With the 110th anniversary of the marque in 2019, wouldn’t it be great to see this beautiful Bugatti Type 68 run up Prescott, or being displayed beside the T57SC Atlantic and T51 Dubos Coupé?

Fingers crossed…