1070 Type 22

Chassis 22 1070 was produced in Sept 1920 with engine 568 and delivered to Bugatti agent Th Pilette in Brussels, The designation 27 means that it was a 16-valve car. The engine of this car had been installed in a 2-seater pointed tail racer by an unknown coachbuilder which Dolf De Ridder had bought before the War around 1937 for his personal use. However it had the papers and the original chassis plate of 918, which was also stamped on the rear circular boss of the engine where the chassis number is located. De Ridder had a Bugatti garage in the fifties. The only modification was that he added brakes on the front wheels. Before the War the car overturned when he was on his way to Francorchamps but luckily he escaped unharmed. He repaired the car and used it even during the war. After the War he drove in the mountains with it as can be seen on the first picture taken in 1946 when the car was bright orange (but without a Dutch connection). Dolf replaced the engine, - which was broken- by a Renault KZ 7 engine, after which he sold the car to a student in Temse. The chassis had been modified like a type 43 amidships, by which the wheelbase became 238 cm. The next owner Jean Dierckx sold the car straight to Uwe Hucke in Germany, depicted as chassis 918. Uwe took the Renault engine out and managed to obtain another engine, 614 ex 944, which was used for this car. He totally restored the car and sold it to Thuysbaert of the Garage Franco Belge in Villeneuve after which it went to Oliver Saipe. He in turn sold it to Lucas Hiini who registered it as 1920 VK 68 and who still owns the car. The car was listed as 918 with a Renault engine in the 1965 upgrade of the Bugatti Register'. Based on the new engine that Hucke had obtained David Sewell postulated that this engine 614 might have come back in its mother chassis 944, however without sufficient proof of such an unlikely reunification purely based upon chance. It was listed as 944* in Bob King’s book? and as 944 in Hans Matti’s?, The engine 568 ex 1070- stamped 918- as well as the chassis plate is at present still in the possession of Hugo de Ridder, the youngest son of Dolf. All parts are original Molsheim but basically it is a car built out of bits from various Brescias. The gearbox is 593 and the rear axle has a 13 x 45 ratio...