1928 Bugatti Type 44 Roadster

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1928 Bugatti Type 44 Roadster
From Swiss Starlet to Copperstate Babe
LARRY EDSALL
Published Date: 7/25/05
Each year participants inthe Copperstate 1000 vintage car rally vote for the event vehicle they would most like to own. This year?s 15th annual Copperstate 1000 attracted a record 82 entries, from rare early-1950s Ferraris to a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C2300 Spyder, and from a just restored Shelby GT350 to a 1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. But the car most coveted was a Bugatti Type 44 roadster.

It?s easy to see why. The Bugatti is long and sleek, and its inline 3.0-liter eight-cylinder engine?actually a pair of four-cylinder blocks with a common crankshaft?carries the car, its driver and passenger along at speeds well above posted limits.

And then there is the custom bodywork and colors.

The 1928 Type 44 roadster received a one-off body from a Swiss coachbuilder. The story goes the custom body was done when the car was presented as a gift to a young Swiss actress. A dash plaque proclaims:

A. Pulver
Basel

Presumably, A. Pulver was the actress. A web search reveals the only Swiss starlet of the era named Pulver was stage actress Lilo Pulver, who later became known as Liselotte Pulver after launching her career in movies at age 20.

However, even the name of the coachbuilder cannot be substantiated. Car owner Steve Norman of Edmonds Washington, has been told that while his Bugatti doesn?t wear a Gangloff body, the famed Swiss coachbuilder that created metal skins for Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Packard, Nash and other marques acquired the firm that created the body for this car.

Making this Type 44 even more unique among the nearly 1100 Bugattis produced from 1927 to 1931 is its paint scheme, which shows an artistic flair the Bugatti family likely would have appreciated.

Carmaker Ettore Bugatti?s grandfather, Giovanni Luigi, was an Italian architect. Father Carlo was a painter and famous furniture designer, and younger brother Rembrandt was an acclaimed sculptor, especially of animal figures. Ettore?s art?and that of his son Jean, who took over the family business in 1930?was automotive.

The Type 44 has dark purple fenders, rear wheel skirts and body sides. Dark red paint colors the hood and a bulging tail section bisected by a dorsal fin. Red and purple sections are bordered by a blue stripe.

The car came to the United States sometime after World War II and was equipped with fairings between its fenders and body. It was advertised for sale by a P. Sager of Cambridge, Massachusetts, early in 1954 and ended up at a sports car garage in Rossville, Pennsylvania, where John Kiner of Westerville, Ohio, bought it in 1956. Kiner removed the fairings and had the car painted light blue, a typical Bugatti hue.

Richard Egen of Long Beach, California, owned the car from 1960 to 1989. He did not restore it and didn?t drive it after 1963.

Jack Goffette of Lynnwood, Washington, bought the Bugatti in 1989 and undertook a 14-month restoration. Goffette showed the car in its current colors at Pebble Beach in 1991, but it had not been run for years when Norman became its owner in 2000. Norman sent it to Phil Reilly?s shop for an 18-month restoration, including rebuilding the engine and installing a ceramic clutch and overdrive for the four-speed transmission.

Norman and his wife Anne picked up the car at Reilly?s shop north of San Francisco and drove it back to the Seattle area last summer, enjoying not only its performance but 16 mpg. The Copperstate marks the Bugatti?s first fast-paced adventure.

While driver and passenger sit cozily together in the cockpit, there is plenty of room for suitcases under the roadster?s finned rear end. The ceramic clutch takes getting used to, but once under way this unique Bugatti runs smoothly and into triple-digit speeds, a most coveted car indeed.