Who buys a Fiacre?

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Ettore Bugatti loved horses and in later years he intended to build a stagecoach with which he wanted to cross the Alps, Hannibal style. Unfortunately the carriage was never finished. Instead Ettore’s ambition resulted in several versions of the Fiacre style built on his automobiles. Fiacre translates to Hansom Cab in English and this body style clearly shows its horse-drawn origins. Now back to the question: what kind of customer buys a Fiacre? How about Mademoiselle Hellé-Nice… she owns a two-seater version, with a dickey-seat instead of a luggage trunk. Although it appears she has been a bit careless, judging by the damaged rear-wing.
These pictures come from a new book that has just been released by Veloce and exclusively deals with the Bugatti 8-cylinder Touring Cars built between 1920 and 1934. Written by Barrie Price and John Louis Arby, this book is an addition to the three Veloce series covering the Type 40, Types 46/50 and Types 57/57S. It is truly a book for the Bugatti connoisseur and it contains over 200 black/white photos and drawings we haven’t seen before. We especially liked this shot of the chassis assembly shop, showing both Types 44 and 49 in the course of the build, presumably at the point of changeover to the 3.3-litre car in late 1930/early 1931. Photo captions are in English and French. See read more for more details about the book. (photos courtesy Bugatti Trust, Veloce Publishing and A Raffaëlli/Maeght ed.) (RB)

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