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Pocher 1933 Bugatti Type 50T


Harry P.

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I have finally found my holy grail. I have been lusting for a Pocher Bugatti kit for many years now to complete my collection of Pocher "classics." I already have the Fiat, two Alfas, two Mercedes, and two Rolls Royces... but until now never had a Bugatti. The price of a Pocher Bugatti was the problem. I just kept hoping that I would somehow stumble across one on ebay for a cheap price, listed by someone who didn't know what he had. Well, let me tell you, I've been waiting for years for that to happen... and it still hasn't. So I finally bit the bullet and paid the market rate for one. This is the kit...

Pocher actually produced three different Bugattis (same engine and chassis, different bodies), This is the earliest release of the first one, and includes the ultra-rare internal gearing in the differential, a feature that Pocher dropped very quickly (my guess would be due to the cost of manufacturing the gear set). This particular kit is in absolute pristine, factory-fresh condition...none of the plastic bags each of the parts trees are packaged in had been opened, none of the smaller bags of metal parts, nuts, bolts, and screws had been opened. Even the instruction manual is as crisp and fresh as the day it was printed decades ago. A totally untouched, complete, factory-fresh kit that I am very lucky to have found in this condition.

But not for long. I'm a builder, not a collector... B)

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A little history lesson before we begin building. Follow along, this gets confusing...

Bugatti was a French auto manufacturer founded by Italian Ettore Bugatti in the German city of Molsheim in 1909. Yes, you read that correctly...a French company founded by an Italian in Germany!

As many of you know, borders in Europe have traditionally been very fluid, depending on which world war was going on, which empire we're talking about, and who was invading/annexing who. Molsheim is in the extreme northeast corner of France, just across the German border, but in 1909 it was actually in Germany. It was within German borders between 1871-1918, then back to France, then again to Germany from 1940-1944, then back again to France, where it is today... hence Bugatti being a French company.

Anyway, Bugattis have traditionally been very exclusive, not meant for the average Joe. The Type 50T was no exception, and their exclusivity was guaranteed by their extremely low production numbers. Just 65 were built during the model's lifetime (1930-34). Power came from a supercharged straight eight (very Mercedes-like). They were very fast for their day, and today one of these cars is worth a fortune.

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As you all know by now, I skip around when building  model. I rarely (if ever) follow the instruction's recommended sequence. So here I'm starting with the feature that makes this kit unique–the differential. Here are just a few of the parts... the brass gears are beautifully machined...

Here is the planetary bevel gear set assembled. The level of precision of these gears is amazing. Building this is more like watchmaking than model building. Pocher must have spent quite a bit on these parts. No wonder all of the differential's internal gears were quickly dropped from subsequent releases of this kit...

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It's too bad all those details like that, the internals of parts, will not be seen. It's a shame with the motor for the same reason, piston rings! And they will not be seen. 

At least the rear wheels will turn with .. does the engine actually work? ;)

 

Those gears ARE beautiful!

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Getting the rings installed...

Since none of this will be seen when the engine is built, I'm not bothering to paint any of these internal parts. Pistons will stay black... and invisible on the finished engine. The wrist pins are a very tight fit. Too tight, as I shattered two pistons trying to force the pins into place. So I glued the shattered bits of piston together, and enlarged all the holes slightly. Should have done that in the first place...

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Building the crankshaft is pretty confusing. Lots of similar looking yet different pieces that have to be in the correct sequence or the crank will be off. Also had to keep track of each piston's position relative to the others on the crank. It took me a while to finally get it all together. The cylinder sleeves are aluminum tubes, the crankshaft front and rear ends are machined and threaded brass, and the rest of the engine is plastic. Here is the basic block with pistons and crankshaft installed.

b9_zpsechvydz7.jpg

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The engine is a dual overhead cam design, so you have to build two camshafts. The cam lobes are a friction fit on the shaft (a pretty tight fit, as they have to keep their position on the shaft when the shaft turns). Since this engine doesn't really run, the relative position of the lobes to each other doesn't matter. I just made sure no two adjoining lobes were in the exact same position. Again, none of this wiill be visible anyway once the engine is built. You can also see the installed valves in the heads in this photo...

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That is amazing. I'm curious what that monster costs. How can you tell if it is one of the earlier versions from the box art?

The box art tells you which version it is. The box of later editions is completely different...

b17_zpsds1nc2t3.jpg

But even on many of the first editions of this kit, the differential gears were already deleted. A kit with those gears is one of the earliest of all.

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By the way, just kidding about the chop to the throat. I find this build incredibly interesting. I've seen some of your work and can't wait to see this one. What an awesome model. I know you mentioned this was an early release. I am curious as to when this was made. 

Thanks, Mike.

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Interesting, I would have thought earlier with that kind of detail and craftsmanship. I always wondered why these kits warranted such a price tag. I get it now. 

They were very expensive while they were being manufactured, they're even more expensive now because they aren't making them anymore... and there are only so many unbuilt kits left on the market. As more and more unbuilt kits get bought by people like me who actually build them and not just re-sell them, prices are getting crazy. I've seen prices for certain Pocher kits (usually the Bugattis and Rolls Royces) in the $2,000-3,000 range, although prices can be all over the place, depending on who is selling the kit.

As the years go by, fewer and fewer kits are left and prices keep rising.

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Pocher kits were engineered to be assembled using either nuts and bolts and screws, snap fit, or friction fit... no glue. Because of that, there are often instances where screw heads are visible on the model that are not there in real life. A perfect example of that is on the engine cover plates. Using the screws Pocher wants you to use to install these panels results in out-of-scale screwheads, besides the fact they shouldn't even be there in the first place. The answer is to fill in threse holes with styrene rod (yellow pointers), then just glue the parts.

Also, I'm adding some details that Pocher left off, like the external engine oil lines... that means drilling holes wherever a fitting needs to be installed (white pointers)...

b14_zpsgcjhxsqu.jpg

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