Search results for ""author barrie price""

Founded in 1895 under the aegis of R.H. Lea, the company originally built cycles and motorcycles but, by the 1920s, was established as a manufacturer of high quality sporting cars. From the 1930s to the 1960s, Lea-Francis specialized in medium-sized cars built with care and the best quality components. Successful in motorsports, "Leaf" was an innovative company, but a lack of regard for good business principles led to fluctuating fortunes throughout the company's long life. This text tells the story of the firm.

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If I was asked to give my opinion as to the best all-round super-sports car ... I should, without hesitation whatever, say it was the 3.3 [T57] Bugatti. - Sir Malcolm Campbell, The Field, September 4th, 1937.The magnificent Type 57 was the final flowering of the genius of Ettore Bugatti and Jean Bugatti, and was the last truly new model from the Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France.Conceived as a fast, luxurious and exclusive touring car, the T57 was in production from 1934 to 1939, and was so successful that the model accounts for around 10 per cent of all Bugattis built at Molsheim.Not only a sales success, the T57 formed the basis of a Grand Prix model, a twice Le Mans-winning sports racing car and, in road-going form, wore some of the most beautiful bodies ever created by the great coachbuilders of the vintage period. See the work of Letourneur & Marchand, Graber, Gangloff, James Young, Corsica, Van Vooren & Saoutchik, Vanden Plas, Figoni & Falaschi, S

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The Bugatti Type 46 was announced in the autumn of 1929. The new Bugatti chassis, at almost twelve feet in length and powered by an 8-cylinder engine of 5300cc, was intended to be the basis of a superlative large luxury car - and so it proved to be. Bodied by the greatest European coachbuilders to the highest standards of quality and style for rich and discerning clientele, the T46 was in many ways a smaller Royale and is said to have been the favourite of Ettore Bugatti. Later, an optional supercharger became available to create the 46S model.In 1930 the Bugatti Type 50 superseded the T46. The new model still used the T46's chassis and most of its running gear, but featured a new, high-performance, twin-overhead-camshaft engine of just under 5-litre capacity. This supercharged unit gave the T50 very spirited performance for such a large and luxurious car, placing the model firmly in the Grand Sport category.1931 saw a team of T50s take part in the Le Mans 24-Hour race, but the cars were withdrawn before the race finished after Rost's car crashed, tragically killing a spectator in the process.In total, fewer than five hundred T46 and T50 Bugattis were built in but, with the obvious exception of the Royale, these cars represented the pinnacle of luxury car manufacture for the famous Molsheim marque. See fabulous coachbuilt bodies by Gaston Grummer, Chapron, Ghia, James Young, Van Vooren, Weymann, Billeter & Cartier, Gangloff, Joss Neuce, Mllion-Guiet, Freestone & Webb, Van den Plas, Arthur Mulliner, Kellner, Lancefield, Corsica, Visse et Haf, Ottin, Brainsby-Woollard, Sodomka, Graber, Weinburger, Abbots of Farnham as well as Bugatti's standard bodies.Barrie Price's work is a concise history of the Bugatti Types 46 and 50, an engineering analysis and the most thorough survey yet of the many coachbuilt bodies fitted to these famous chassis. Appendices include a complete chassis listing and reproductions of promotional material produced by Bugatti, Bugatti agents and others."...a galaxy of superb coachbuilt and standard bodies on both chassis ..." - The Automobile"Barry price writes with great authority ...a fine collection of rare photographs and period advertising material ..." - Classic Car Weekly

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The 4-cylinder Bugatti Type 40, sometimes unkindly referred to as `Ettore’s Morris Cowley,’ nevertheless shared its fine engineering pedigree with all other Bugattis. Packed with mainly period photographs, illustrations and sales literature, the book also features the factory’s individual chassis sales records.

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Bugatti - The 8-cylinder Touring Cars 1920-34 is a detailed study of the medium sized touring cars in the extensive range built by Bugatti during the fifteen years following World War I. Aspects of design and development are considered together with pictures of components and chassis commencing with the Type 28 and culminating with the Type 49. These cars represented the bulk of production and typify the Bugatti style and design, which was the basis of the company's unique standing in the field of automobile engineering.Over 150 different cars are depicted via 200 principally contemporary photographs, many of which have not been published before. The works of many different coachbuilders, throughout Europe, built upon these chassis are illustrated together with tables showing their market position compared with other makes and models, which were competitors.A study of the performance of these cars in competition is included together with a survey of the fall and rise in values over eight decades. The book represents an important addition to the series already produced by Veloce covering models Type 40, Types 46/50 and Types 57/57S. The royalties pass to the Bugatti Trust, a foundation dedicated to the study of the works of Ettore Bugatti and the furtherance of aesthetics in engineering design.

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