Bugatti Type 57

Bugatti Type 57 at a glance

Jean Bugatti and the Type 57

German Wikipedia explains the background. Bugatti's sales had fallen from 622 cars in 1930 to 156 in 1932, and the company needed a single, more modern touring car. Jean Bugatti was officially in charge of the Type 57 and took over day-to-day management in 1936, while Joseph Walter drew the factory bodies. Production ran in three series: the second from late 1936 with a stronger chassis, a rubber-mounted engine and Allinquant telescopic dampers, and the third from 1938 with hydraulic brakes.

The engine was based on the Type 49's, with a 72 mm bore and 100 mm stroke. Unlike the bevel-driven Type 50 and Type 51 engines, it used spur gears at the rear to drive two overhead camshafts, with fibre gear wheels for quieter running. German Wikipedia adds a six-bearing crankshaft and a non-removable cylinder head. The grille was a smaller version of the Royale's horseshoe, and thermostat-controlled shutters on the engine sides regulated the temperature.

Ettore Bugatti kept his own ideas about the chassis. He insisted on a rigid front axle on semi-elliptic springs rather than independent suspension, and he strongly opposed the hydraulic brakes that replaced the cable system in 1938. For the company's earlier history, see our pre-war Bugatti history.

Type 57, 57C, 57S and 57SC compared

"S" stands for surbaissé (lowered) and "C" for compresseur (supercharger). To lower the 57S, the rear axle had to pass through the frame, and the engine needed dry-sump lubrication. The wheelbase shrank to 2,979 mm; German Wikipedia gives 2,890 mm. The 57S also had a V-shaped dip at the bottom of the radiator and mesh grilles on the engine sides. Supercharging raised the top speed from 201 km/h (125 mph) to 217 km/h (135 mph).

The power gain from the base car to the 57SC is 47 kW, almost 50% more from the same displacement. Our power converter gives these figures in PS and hp.

The 57SC Atlantic: four coupés

The Atlantic grew out of the Aérolithe, a 1935 prototype on a shortened Type 57 chassis that became the 57S chassis. Its body was made of Elektron, a light magnesium alloy that is highly flammable when hot and cannot be welded. The panels were therefore riveted on the outside, a technique taken from aircraft, and that created the dorsal seam running from nose to tail. The Aérolithe was shown at the Paris Motor Show and at Olympia in London, then reportedly taken apart at Molsheim.

The production cars kept the seam but used plain aluminium. At first they were called "Coupé Aero"; the name changed to Atlantic in memory of Jean Mermoz, a French aviator and friend of Jean Bugatti, who disappeared over the Atlantic in December 1936.

Pierre-Yves Laugier's 2004 book Bugatti: les 57 Sport showed that 57453 and 57473 were separate cars, correcting the earlier belief that they were one. Bugatti's 2019 one-off La Voiture Noire, a modern hypercar, was named after the missing coupé. The 2015 design study is described in our article on the Bugatti Atlantic concept.

Atalante, Stelvio and the other bodies

The Atalante, named after Atalanta of Greek mythology, had a one-piece windscreen and no dorsal seam. Four Atalantes are in the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse. One of them, chassis 57502, built in 1937 for the 5th Earl Howe, was found in a garage in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2008 after 48 years untouched, and sold for €3.4 million at Rétromobile in Paris on 7 February 2009. Gangloff alone built about 180 Type 57 bodies, and independent coachbuilders such as Vanvooren added one-offs.

Le Mans winner and the death of Jean Bugatti

The 57G "Tank", a streamlined racing car based on the Type 57, was built three times in 1936. It won the 1936 French Grand Prix at Montlhéry and the Grand Prix de la Marne. In 1937 Jean-Pierre Wimille and Robert Benoist won the 24 Hours of Le Mans; Jean Bugatti then gave the Atlantic "La Voiture Noire" to Benoist. The 1937 winner, chassis 57335, is the only surviving Tank and is displayed at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia. In 1939 Wimille and Pierre Veyron won Le Mans again in a 57C with a Tank-style body.

On 11 August 1939 Jean Bugatti, aged 30, was killed testing that car on the closed road between Molsheim and Strasbourg, when he swerved to avoid a drunken cyclist. He considered the Atlantic, especially 57453, his most innovative design.

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