| outstanding entry, to have worked for weeks and weeks for the success of the show, and then see everything ruined by the weather was too cruel to be believed.’ (Our colleagues in the Club office will be able to relate to this. However at least we do not have to clean up the ‘Start’, with mud transferred from the Paddock, as then not surfaced, by pouring petrol and setting it on fire – it was concrete in 1939- in order to dry it out.)
The Sunday morning practice session stopped at 1 o’clock. The weather had cleared up and even turned hot, the course dried and the record for the Hill was broken again four times!
Then just before 2 o’clock the Clerk of the Course ran Earl Howe, the R.A.C. Steward, up the Hill in Colonel Giles’ recently acquired Type 57S (GU 7). The crowd was rewarded with an afternoon of exciting climbs with further Hill records culminating with Raymond Mays in Class 7 achieving 46.16 secs!
‘Finally, with Class 8, the big cars came up to the line. The Works’ Bugatti, built under the 1937 G.P. formula but with a supercharger fitted, was brought up to the line, an electrical starting device was inserted in the offside just forward of the cockpit and at once the engine started. Wimille, as immaculate as ever, handled every control with finger-tip lightness.
A consultation took place between him and Jean Bugatti and with a deep roar he was away up the Hill. His first climb in 47.50 secs. was marvellous considering how unsuitable the car really was for the Hill and then on his second run he got down to 46.69, a matter of .55 secs. slower than Raymond Mays. Wimille was naturally disappointed that he had not done better, but Jean Bugatti was philosophical, “I am sorry,” he said, “I have brought a car that is unsuitable for your hill. Next year we will bring over a 1 ½ litre car – one of our new ones – and I hope that we shall do better.”
Sadly circumstances would not allow this to happen. Only some five weeks later this Country was at war with Germany.
Also in this Class, Shakspeare with the Club car achieved 51.34 secs. on his second run. A.H. Beadle in his second season of racing and making a first visit to Prescott came third overall with a time of 47.37 secs. in his supercharged Alta. Wimille, despite the disadvantages of not having detailed knowledge of the Hill and the long wheelbase of his car, had achieved a new Class record, coming first in Class 8 and second fastest time of the day. He won £30 and a silver cup.
Wimille’s car was a one-off built by the Bugatti factory. Using twin rear wheels, to aid traction and to cope with the power from the big straight-eight supercharged engine. It was not possible for the car to use the rough return road from the top of the hill. The width of the car has been stated as the problem here but it may also have been linked with the wheelbase and condition of the return road. However it has been stated that proceedings had to be held up after each run for the Works’ Bugatti to return to the paddock by way of the Hill itself. Thus the spectators were able to get a second look at the car on its descent.
After the war the factory produced the car for the first race meeting in Europe, the Coupe des Prisonniers, held in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris on September 9th 1945. Driven by Wimille it won the main event. This was the last race to be won by a car entered by Bugatti. Wimille had served in l’Armee de l’Air until the fall of France and then in the Resistance and finally in North Africa during the war. The racing career of this great driver came to an end when he was sadly killed in an accident during practice for the 1949 Buenos Aires Grand Prix.
With the closing down of the Molsheim factory the car was acquired by the Schlumpf brothers, and today it resides in the museum at Mulhouse.
Paul Gibbons Club Archivist
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