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VIDEO: A 91-year-old Bugatka goes on a rampage in Brno until cobblestones fly
The car should be running. Being idle doesn't do him any good. And this red knight has been through a lot. When you see its owner ride it, you'll understand.
Helge Haug is well-known in the Czech Republic, he often appears at veteran events. His red Bugatti T40 has an amazing patina. And Helge rides with him for dear life. With his white hair, beard and careless elegance, he is reminiscent of the driving masters of the past. But when he gets behind the wheel, he is a mercurial young man.
"Wind shield? I haven't flipped it up for about ten years, I drive without it," he says, putting his cigarettes on top of it. He drives his 1926 Bugatti T40 (first year of production, the last of approximately 800 units built in 1930) in hill climbs and vintage circuit races. That is, the ones that drive really fast.
His car, which was one of the stars of the race weekend at the Brno exhibition grounds, has a wonderful patina. Everything is original and functional. That is, except for the clock on the instrument panel, which measures time rather randomly. However, the paintwork is not original, the original blue color, typical for Bugattis, peeks out on the side due to two scratches. “I bought it many years ago from the original owner in Australia who had a collection of cars and all of them were red, so he had this bugatti painted red as well. So I left him like that," explains Helge. By the way, he's a dentist.
He skids through every, really every corner and fights with the big steering wheel with enthusiasm and bravado. He doesn't mind the rain, he performs an incredible show on the slippery wet blocks. It is worth remembering that the car has rigid axles sprung with leaf springs and damped by friction dampers. Drum brakes are purely mechanical.
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Not even a three and a half meter long two-seater sports car (the pilot and passenger are literally glued to each other) has a 1,496 cc four-cylinder engine under the hood with a power of 45 hp, which will accelerate the nine-meter car to 121 km/h. Towards the end of production, a larger engine with a power of 50 hp moved into the guts .
In addition to the roadster, Bugatti offered other body variants, including the four-seater "torpedo".
