> > ROVER FOLLOWS JAGUAR, ASTON MARTIN DOWN THE ROAD
[. . .]
> > only to pass it on to the resurrected Italian company Bugatti.
>
> I remember the original Bugatti, (brothers Ettorre & Armand ?)
> as being French. Is this new Bugatti incarnation Italian based,
> or is Reuters just plain wrong?
Well, Ettore Bugatti was born in Italy but naturalized French because
he could found a semi-feudal industrial empire in Alsace. His son Jean
may be the one you're thinking of; Jean, like Dino Ferrari, died young.
Ettore Bugatti was the consummate perfectionist, choosing to put an
engine-turned finish on the *outside* of his engine blocks, which were
cast in a single piece, block and head, and machined to fit dual overhead
cams, large valves, etc. It was a Thirties-era solution to the problem
of blowing head gaskets from the supercharger's overpressures. (To give
this a little more LBC content, I read the other night that the M.G. K3
Magnettes were constructed by smearing the deck and the head face with
valve lapping compound and rubbing them together to get a perfect fit.
Different solution to the same problem.)
The new Bugatti company is a consortium of Italian investors who basically
are doing everything in their power to spend as much money as the space
program. Nobody knows where it's coming from. They have a a ridiculously
expensive car in the works, something over half a million dollars all
told, and they're buying car companies and factories and the works, all
without yet having sold a single vehicle as far as I can tell. It's
curious. They're sort of a cross between a European version of Jerry
Wiegert's Vector (which does exist, I've seen one! :-) and a money-
laundering scheme, with what appears to be a very, very capable car at
the center of it.
> I hope BMW doesn't screw up the Autoweek-leaked plans of a
> reasonably priced all new MGD.
I do too, though an aluminum/composite mid-engined 1800-lb roadster
with a reworked K1 engine would be a blast.
Actually, there has also been talk, you may recall, of BMW making a low-
priced roadster *in the US*, at their new factory somewhere in the Piedmont
region (can't now remember if it's Virginia or No. Carolina). It might
be interesting if that car came with a Parthenon on the grille instead
of a double-kidney shape, wouldn't it?
--Scot "Sicherheit Schnell!" Fisher
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