1931 Bugatti Type 56 Phaeton
No, this isn’t a joke, it really is a Bugatti! I know, at first glance you think it is from the late 1800s and should be pulled by horses. It couldn’t possibly be from the same designer as the beautiful type 41 Royale series or the impressive type 35 racing cars; but we promise you, it is. It certainly isn’t what you might expect from Ettore Bugatti but it is actually an historically significant car, being an electric vehicle and the personal transport of the great man himself.
Aging is something no one can avoid but Ettore Bugatti was not the sort of character to sit back and moan about it. When his age made it harder for him to get around the expanse of the Bugatti works, he simply designed himself a little runabout.
Apparently, one of these cars even had Belgian Royalty as an owner, in the form of Queen Elisabeth, wife of Albert the 1st of Belgium.
Design
The Type 56 is a very small battery powered vehicle. Boasting one whole horse power and top speed of 20mph it certainly isn’t something that fits easily into the Bugatti line of cars. Clearly narrower and shorter this isn’t a car for production to the masses but the Type 56 does squeeze through narrow doorways and has a nice tight turning circle; ideal for indoor use.
The appearance of the vehicle is reminiscent of the old two-seat horse drawn buggy being suspended by curved metal leaf-type springs above a simple ‘A’ frame chassis. The driver sits on the right side of the two-person bench seat (you might squeeze three if it were a couple of children you wished to ferry around). Beneath the bench seat are the six, 6volt accumulators, wired in series, which stored a total of 36 volts. This electrical energy powered the 28amp electric motor situated over the rear axle and directly to the frame so as to power the rear wheels. This motor was similar in design to the starter motors Bugatti used on some of its larger cars. The vehicle had four gears available, which also served their function in reverse too. Braking came from a combination of systems. The electric motor itself as power was reduced and rear wheel drums which could be operated by the foot pedal and/or from the hand brake lever too. There were no front brakes. Steering the vehicle was done with the left hand operating a tiller to turn the front wheels. By 1930 this was a very outmoded form of steering, but simple and easy at low speeds. The right hand was then free to select gears, use the hand brake or to gesticulate during conversation with the passenger. The whole contraption weighed in at around 770lbs, close to 350kg, and could run for up to 40minutes before needing several hours’ worth of recharging time.
Presumably Bugatti chose to go electric as he wanted to use the vehicle around the factory, and needed something quick and easy to use. There was enough noise and potentially noxious gasses around a factory back then with out needing to add more from an internal combustion engine. The small size of the vehicle doesn’t warrant a larger engine either, and, the electric motor makes the car almost silent so conversation with a passenger was easier as well. Perhaps he even enjoyed sneaking up on the odd unsuspecting employee too!
Either way it is pretty evident you can’t drive a normal size car around indoors so this tiny little vehicle is just perfect for the job. Towards the end of his life, it is said, Bugatti would use the car outside around his estate at Molshiem too. It must have been great if you liked to look at nature and animals without making the great announcement presence that an ICE unit makes.
Production
Ettore Bugatti never intended any sort of production run from this design, it was for his private use around the factories. However, clients and friends who visited the Bugatti works and rode with Bugatti were keen to have something like it for themselves. Bugatti then displayed the little car at the 1931 Salon de l'Automobile. It must have looked rather out of place alongside the Type 41 Royale beside it.
Because of the insistence of his customers and the popular demand generated at the show Ettore Bugatti was persuaded to build more Type 56 runabouts. The actual number built varies wildly between sources but seems most likely to have been around ten. The first is known to have been bought by Mr. Violet, Director of the Byrrh drinks company with others being produced between 1931 and 1936. Clearly one of the rarest Bugatti designed vehicles ever to come out of the Bugatti works.
Legacy
When it was originally conceived the Type 56 was a road legal vehicle. It could keep pace with any horse drawn traffic and on the then much less populated roads it wouldn’t have held up motorised traffic much either. Today this silent little machine would not fair at all well in our fast and heavy traffic even without the many legal reasons for it never going on the public highways.
In today’s world we are all considering electric vehicles much more seriously. Modern battery technology is far superior to the old accumulators and so much more knowledge and experience has given us much more reliable and long-lasting motors too. Back in the 1930s an electric car was a thing of the past, now it is the thing of the future; so, this vehicle was really out of place. But, along with the Lohner-Porsche hybrid car of 1900 now provides a body of knowledge and practicability that has allowed new technicians to present us with fantastic new ecologically friendly vehicles.
Today there are four Bugatti Type 56 cars known to be in existence. Three of them are just as they were from the factory and the other has been fully restored. As for the original Type 56 that Ettore Bugatti himself drove, that one now resides at the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse; and waits patiently for you to visit.
Rod, in his 85th year, scratch built this model during July 2020. After a period in hospital due to a life-threatening illness he came home and carried on as if nothing had happened. With arthritis in his fingers and glasses on his nose, Rod continues to enjoy the hobby and remains passionate about automotive history.
So, any older modellers out there who think they should give up at their age; don’t. Keep on model making as long as you enjoy it. Model making not only keeps those fingers moving, when a lack of use would see them seize up more, it also keeps you mind active too. And, don’t worry about the model’s quality either, everyone gets older, none of us can change that, but we can change how we deal with it.
This model is entirely made from plastic card, rod and strip, except the fine wire spokes in the wheels of course. The plastic is primed with Halfords grey primer (not so easy to get when the UK was in a Covid19 lock-down), Rod then brush painted the tiny car with Humbrol, Revell and Citadel acrylic paints.
