Bugatti: Le pur-sang des automobiles

by Hugh G. Conway

extremely rare,very good condition

408 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1968

About the author

Hugh Graham Conway, CBE, a tall, authoritative engineer who became the most influential Bugatti enthusiast of the post-war period writing most of the seminal articles and books on the subject over four decades. He was born in Vancouver in 1914, the son of a civil engineer who became the Chairman of the Mexico City Electricity and Public Transport Authority. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and studied Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge at the same time as Raymond Mays and Whitney Straight ; both leading drivers during the inter-war period. He had a life-long interest in motor sport and competed in the thirties with an Austin 7 Ulster in inter-varsity speed events and in high speed trials at Brooklands where he met his future wife Eva, a former racing driver. He served an apprenticeship with Petters in Yeovil before moving into aviation with the Bristol division of the French undercarriage firm Messier. This post afforded him the opportunity to visit France and fostered his love of French cars and cuisine and he became an enthusiatic bon-viveur with a love of French wines who frequently dined in the smart restaurants around London’s Sussex Square. The German invasion of Europe escalated the importance of his employers and he was promoted to the post of Technical Director before progressing to Dunlop Aviation and Dowty Hydraulics. In 1955 he moved to Northern Ireland where he was Managing Director of Short Brothers and Harland. He stayed there into the sixties living at Shanoge, Crawfordsburn, Co. Down. His first Bugatti was a type 57 which he had purchased in France in the late forties. The car (which is pictured in “Bugatti 57”, page 53) carried chassis no 57440 and the Northern Irish registration no. SZ 6600 and was fitted with a Stelvio drophead coupé body. It required mechanical repairs which were delegated to Jack Lemon Burton in London but he did not take to the car and J.L.B. provided him with a type 43 engine to enable him to start building a car of that type which most definitely was to his taste. He owned various Brescias, and types 35, 35B, 37 (37131), 37R (BC 021 with chassis plate stamped 1021), 40 (40795 with replacement engine no. 603 ex-40714), 43 and 44 all of which he rebuilt himself. He is best remembered for his dark blue type 43 (43214 with engine 149 ex-43307) which was the fastest of its type at Prescott for several years, and for winning the UK VSCC “Pomeroy Trophy” in 1975 and 1978*. He wrote, or co-wrote, several books on Bugattis as well as countless articles mainly dealing with technical subjects. His definitive study Bugatti “Le Pur-Sang des Automobiles”, first published in 1963, is one of the very best one-make studies. His wife Eva bore him two sons, Micahel and Hugh and they remained married until her death in 1980. He was a founder member of the Bugatti Trust in 1987 but died on November 27th 1989 after a short illness.