FIRST of the FEW

In 1925, Bugatti offered a more customer-friendly version of its Type 35 Grand Prix car, which it named the 35A. Mark Dixon drives the prototype 

Modern traffic can be a bit too slow for them, muses Stephen Gentry. We're standing beside a patinated blue Bugatti Type 35A, parked at the side of a country road on a scorching hot day. I’ve just had my first drive of the car and my head is still reeling with just how together, how joyful, how utterly fabulous this particular Bugatti is.

There’s a very good reason for that: it’s one of the most original examples left in the world, and it’s just emerged from a painstaking recommissioning by Stephen's company, Buckinghamshire-based Gentry Restorations. This car, chassis 4541, is special in another way, too. It’s one of the first batch of nine 35As made, and very possibly the first of a total run of 139: it still has engine no.1, front axle no.1, rear axle no.2 and gearbox no.12. That’s about as matchingnumbers as you can get with a vintage Bugatti.

What it doesn’t have is the Type 35 Grand Prix car’s high-maintenance engine. Instead of a five-main-bearing crank with roller bearings which could skid’ and wear prematurely it has three mains, and uses simpler ball races. The 35A is, effectively, a detuned version of the racer, a more affordable alternative for road as well as circuit use.

That doesn’t mean it’s at all slow, even though the engine puts out maybe 70bhp and its practical rev limit is 4000rpm rather than the 5500 or even 6000 of a Type 35. You don’t need to rev it high, explains Stephen. It has loads of torque and drivabilityI’ve already found that out for myself, while pootling about at relatively low speeds for our photographer first rule of car mags: always get the pics in the bag first). But, now that snapper Barry Hayden has pronounced himself happy, there’s time to take advantage of these deserted country roads on an afternoon in high summer.