The 1966 Exner Bugatti Roadster by Ghia was the final result of three disjoined auto fable working together . Virgil Exner made his fame project stunning show cars and the finned " Forward Look " Chrysler vehicles of the Fifties . Bugatti became fabled for its sports / racing gondola of the Thirties . Ghia is the highly respected coachbuilder that over the years has produced many one - off show cars . Put the three together and you have what we call the 1966 Exner Bugatti by Ghia , though this automobile ’s title in reality reads Bugatti 101C.
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In November 1965,Motor Trendwrote about the 1966 Exner Bugatti Roadster by Ghia that " This modern classic 2 - passenger roadster is the a la mode thing off Virgil Exner ’s lottery display board . It ’s his version of the modern Bugatti . build is actually a Bugatti , castrate to 112 inch ( from 130 ) . major power comes from the last dohc , Type 57 , flat 8 Bugatti built in 1951 by Pierri Marko , Etorre [ Bugatti ’s ] correct - hand man , who made one final attempt to repair the car . Only 6 chassis / railway locomotive combination were built and only 5 bodies fit . "
Etorre Bugatti ’s demise in 1947 presage the collapse of the automotive dynasty that bore his name . The declension had set about when Bugatti ’s talented son Jean fatally crashed while testing a powerful Grand Prix automobile driver in 1939 . That blow was followed by World War II .
Fortunately , a memory cache of parting continue from the fabled prewar Type 57 enabled loyal works personnel to assemble a new simulation without all-encompassing retooling . The Type 101 , unveiled in 1951 , was a modernized adaptation of the Type 57 . Its chassis take the same uncoiled - eight engine , but the matching overhead cam were now driven by chains or else of gears . The supercharged 3,257 - cc Type 101C locomotive engine developed 200 horsepower . A tacit four - speed gearbox with overdrive and Lockheed hydraulic brakes were new , but the self-coloured front axle was a carryover .
Of the five chassis of the new " hemipteran " that encounter coachwork , two were shown at the 1951 Paris Salon . The sixth – position aside as a show anatomy – was purchased by Exner in the early Sixties for $ 2,500 . He designed the innovative - but - classic exterior , highlighted by a traditional Bugatti - dash wicket . Virgil Exner Jr. did the inside . Ghia , meanwhile , spent six months construct the steel - embodied one - off .
