Bugatti Type 64 Coupe Completed After 73 Years

A BugattiBugattiFrance, 1909 > present41 models
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Type 64 CoupeBugatti Type 64France, 1940 > present has been completed after 73 years and will be on display at the invitation-only Quail Motorsports Gathering on August 17 during the Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance and Monterey Historics. 

While the Bugatti factory officially completed one Type 64, two chassis were built without bodies on them. Car collector and proprietor of the Mullin Automotive Museum, Peter Mullin owns one of these two uncompleted Type 64s and commissioned a new body to be built for it. 

In 2010, Mullin held a contest at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for design submissions to place a body on his chassis. The winning entry came from Stewart Reed design, the head of transportation design at the center. 

The design is inspired by Jean Bugatti's plans for future versions of the Type 64's body including gullwing doors. It took so long to produce the car because the entire body has been made from aluminum and mostly by hand. In a unique touch, the body is not actually going to be bolted to the chassis but just lie on top. At the Mullin Museum body will hang a few feet above the chassis, and visitors will be able to see the body but also get a chance to see how Bugatti constructed the chassis. No work will be done to the interior. 

The Type 64 was meant to be the successor of the famous Bugatti Type 57Bugatti Type 57France, 1934 > 194010 versions
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and was designed by company founder Ettore Bugatti's son, Jean. Power came from a 4.5-liter straight-eight engine with about 170hp. Plans were cut short by Jean's death in August 1939 when he swerved out of the way of a bicycle while driving is Le Mans winning Type 57SBugatti 57G Tank Le MansFrance, 1936 > 19364 photos
and died. Germany invaded France less than a year later, and that ended all production through the end of the war. 

The work on the car is finally completed, and it will be displayed for the first at Monterey. 

Source: Autoblog and Autoweek