1936 Bugatti Type 57SC #57383

[Hoffman]

This 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante, serial #57383, is a long term member of the incredible Bugatti collection at the Musée National de l'Automobile in Mulhouse, France. This was formerly the Schlumpf collection. Every Bugatti is special, hand made, with each one slightly different from the next. This one wears beautiful coupe coachwork by Kong.

[Hoffman]

Franklin Mint created a very nice model of this specific car. It took me a bit of research to determine exactly which original the Mint had modeled. I was pleased to find the original, but as I took in the beauty of the car and it’s fine details, I began to notice things that varied slightly with the model. I made it my goal to address some of the differences and make the model more like the full size automobile.

[Hoffman]

Wheels and Tires

Most Bugatti Type 57S and SC cars were fitted as standard with 18" wheels and 550x18 tires. This one has 17” wheels and unique bias ply tires with sort of a pie-crust perimeter. They’re different. Most restored Bugatti’s today are running Blockleys or Michellins. The Mint did model the wheels in a smaller diameter like the prototype, but to my eye they went too far. The chrome wire wheels look really good, but they’re a little too small. The rather generic tires are slightly too tall, don’t look so great and really detract from the model.

The solution I came up with is Heller wheels from the Delahaye Type 135 kit, adapted to pie-crust bias ply tires from a Jada diecast. The open area between the spokes is greater and allows you to see more of the brake drums, like the full size car. To model the drums, I came up with some fender washers with the right OD and ID. On the FM model, the wheel knockoffs are stationary; the wheels roll but the knockoffs stay put. That really bugged me! The rear axle was a large, solid steel rod. I replaced that with brass tubing and ran a separate axle through it to enable the rear wheels to roll, and the knockoffs to come along for the ride. Up front, the spindles were drilled for aluminum tubing axles. I used cut-down straight pins through the wheels and into the tubing to secure the wheels; all four roll now.

[Hoffman]

Suspension

The model sat too high and the front wheels needed to come forward a bit. I lowered the front 4 millimeters by cutting slots in the springs and dropping the axle down into the slots instead of sitting on top of the springs. If you look at a full size Bugatti, this is one of the unique design features of the cars. The parallel leaf springs actually pass through square openings in the front axle. As I lowered it, I also re-positioned the wheels forward and bent the axle ends to give the wheels some positive camber, as Bugatti’s typically have. The king pins were Phillips head screws. I replaced those with lengths of brass rod and gave the axle a shiny coat of Molotow chrome.

The steering needed some attention as well. The plastic tie rod and drag link were too large in diameter, out of scale. The drag link interfered with the springs after the axle was lowered. So, I modified the design of the drag link to clear the springs and made a replacement link and tie rod from smaller diameter aluminum tubing and straight pins.

The rear suspension was lowered 3.5 millimeters by rotating the forward spring mounts upward. There was some cutting and grinding involved and removal of the axle attachment points on the frame. That was necessary to raise the axle relative to the frame, thus lowering the ride height.

[Gramps46]

I like what you are doing to make the model look more authentic.  Please keep us posted.

[Hoffman]

Chassis and Engine

The bottom of the dry-sump oil tank proudly proclaims, “FRANKLIN MINT PRECISION MODELS”, and the gas tank reads “1936 BUGATTI TYPE 57SC”………or at least they used to. The chassis itself was repainted gloss black after all the suspension mods were sorted out. I cleaned up the casting flash on the exhaust system, drilled out the tips, repainted the pipes silver, and gave them a very light wash of black to bring out some of the detail.

I repainted the block, cylinder head, oil pan and transmission in combinations of Testors Steel, Argent Silver, and Aluminum. The cam cases and supercharger are covered in matte aluminum Bare Metal Foil. That was a bit awkward and time consuming, sort of like gift wrapping an elephant. The intake is Molotow chrome to mimic polished aluminum. The exhaust manifold was repainted gray/black and the ancillary bits, starter / generator / water pump were given more correct colors and finishes. I gave the oil pan a wash of brown/black between the fins. I’ve read that Bugatti engines have tight tolerances, few gaskets, but do tend to leak oil.

The engine compartment itself really didn’t need any changes. The one glaring point is the piano hinge in the center of the hood, visible when opened. I painted that black to match the underside of the hood.

[Hoffman]

Interior

The seats were cast in a slightly different color from the door panels; a little too pink. I painted them with Tamiya Desert Yellow and redid the silver painted seat frames with Molotow. They’re chrome on the full size Bugatti.

[Hoffman]

Body Trim

Atalante #57383 has had several owners over the years and they each made minor changes to the trim. The car originally came from the factory with the prototypical “grasshopper leg” front bumpers. The car was raced in hill climbs and club events, at which point it donned racing numbers ‘61’ and ‘64’, and the bumpers were ditched. When returned to street duty rather British looking vertical blades were fitted for a time, then back to no bumpers at all, which is as it is today.

The car had been licensed and registered with number NE1990 for some period of time, and NE2542 as well. When shown at events today it has no license plates. On display at the museum, some photos show it with no plates, and some with a placard affixed to the front which says, “MULHOUSE”, and below that, “Musée National de l'Automobile – Collection Schlumpf”. For my model, I elected to recreate an NE1990 plate for the rear and the Mulhouse placard for the front.

The car has had a spare chrome wire wheel and tire mounted on the rear deck in the past, but more recently has a black painted spare cover in place. The FM model has the wire wheel but I chose to replicate the covered spare. I found that a Johan ’31 Cadillac spare cover is the right size and look, combined with an Italeri Rolls Royce hub cap, modified slightly and with a knockoff added in the center. And lastly, the tail light lenses were too red. They’re pretty dark on the big car. A quick touch up with Testors Ruby Red Metallic cured that.

[Hoffman]

So what do you think? Lots of little changes added up to more work than I thought. I like it much better since the corrections were made. I feel like now it really is #57383, only 24 times smaller, and much, MUCH less expensive.

 

 

[Hard_2_Handle_454]

Amazing work

[PhilX]

Very nice improvements ... ?

I have also the Franklin Mint and want also improve it ... ?

[bisc63]

All those little improvements really paid big dividends! Good work.

[Hoffman]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:59 PM, Gramps46 said:

I like what you are doing to make the model look more authentic.  Please keep us posted.

Thank you, Gary, glad you liked it. I've long admired your work as well!

[Hoffman]

15 hours ago, bisc63 said:

All those little improvements really paid big dividends! Good work.

Thank you, Rusty! ?

[Hoffman]

22 hours ago, PhilX said:

Very nice improvements ... ?

I have also the Franklin Mint and want also improve it ... ?

Thank you, Phillipe! I think you have an advantage over me- you can go visit Mulhouse and see the full size Bugatti in person. ?

[Hoffman]

On 9/3/2022 at 4:25 PM, Hard_2_Handle_454 said:

Amazing work

Thank you, Sir!

[slusher]

Wonderfully done!

[PhilX]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:16 PM, Hoffman said:

Thank you, Phillipe! I think you have an advantage over me- you can go visit Mulhouse and see the full size Bugatti in person. ?

Yes, I visited this museum several times and I perfectly remember to have stood one meter in front of this car (and many others).

However, I think you have also several very interesting museums in California.

 

[1959scudetto]

Tim, model looks much better after all the modifications, especially the stance and the dimensions of the wheels.

Someday I will tackle mine also - it just doesn't look correct (stnce too high, wheels too small):

[David G.]

You've done a lot of work on this one, all of it exceedingly well done!

It's sometimes the subtle changes that make the biggest differences.

David G.

[CrazyCrank]

It's  gorgeous result for this iconic car...?

(That said, I'm a little bit disappointed you didn't replace the spoked wheels by better ones)

[Hoffman]

On 9/10/2022 at 9:19 AM, CrazyCrank said:

It's  gorgeous result for this iconic car...?

(That said, I'm a little bit disappointed you didn't replace the spoked wheels by better ones)

 

On 9/10/2022 at 6:13 AM, David G. said:

You've done a lot of work on this one, all of it exceedingly well done!

It's sometimes the subtle changes that make the biggest differences.

David G.

 

On 9/10/2022 at 5:48 AM, 1959scudetto said:

Tim, model looks much better after all the modifications, especially the stance and the dimensions of the wheels.

Someday I will tackle mine also - it just doesn't look correct (stnce too high, wheels too small):

Helmut, David and Thiery, thank you so much, Gentlemen!! I appreciate it. I've got two more Atalante coupes in progress. Both will be based on the red/black offerings from Franklin Mint, but both will be reworked and in different colors. One will feature Fernando Pinto wheels the other will be a replica of #57562 with covered wheels. Incidentally, #57383 has shorter height front fenders, compared to many of the other 57S Bugattis. The model is accurate here, compared to the original, but it is different from most of the other cars. Helmut's side profile of the red and black version illustrates this very well. Notice how the grille shell and hood are taller than the front fender? The Burago rendition of the #57591 Atlantic coupe has taller fenders that capture the shape of the original really well. Anyway, works in progress, mixing and matching to mimic the full size cars. More to follow....

[Old Nasty]

Saw one of these last weekend at Watkins Glen vintage event.  Gorgeous machine.  Black & orange.

[Bugatti Fan]

Tim, you have made a lovely job of improving the Franklin Mint model.

Incidentally, Pyro made a plastic kit in 1/32nd scale back in the 60's I think.I

Burago made a die cast model of a Bugatti Coupe in 1/24th scale from the same era with a different body style.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Bugatti Fan

[Hoffman]

23 hours ago, Old Nasty said:

Saw one of these last weekend at Watkins Glen vintage event.  Gorgeous machine.  Black & orange.