{"id":370026,"date":"2012-11-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/?p=44717"},"modified":"2024-12-27T12:47:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T12:47:35","slug":"pur-sang-type-35b-driving-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/pur-sang-type-35b-driving-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Pur Sang Type 35B – Driven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report by Rick Carey, Auction Editor<\/p>\n

Think about a really good, solid, exterior door latch and lock, the precise snick as levers, springs and bolts slide into place.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Pur Sang Type 35, an assemblage of meticulously cast, precisely machined, artfully formed and carefully fitted parts that communicate exactly what they\u2019re doing, exactly what they\u2019re experiencing, back into the driver\u2019s hands, eyes, ears, feet and backside.<\/p>\n

Even the most fire-breathing, tire vaporizing modern supercharged road-burner is refined, comfy, cushy and loaded with power assists and computerized driving aids. Computer-designed mounts for anything that rotates, vibrates or reacts to the road isolate the passenger compartment and the driver from vehicle dynamics.<\/p>\n

Then engineers spend incalculable man-years and unimaginable hours of high-powered computer time refining power steering, power brakes, bushings and suspensions to restore road-feel, adding back the responsiveness lost in user-friendly design and packaging.<\/p>\n

The isolation becomes apparent when driving the Pur Sang Type 35, a nut-and-bolt reproduction of a 2.3 liter supercharged single overhead camshaft Bugatti Type 35B built in a self-contained enclave in Argentina using artisanal methods and craftsmen akin to those employed in Molsheim by Ettore Bugatti three-quarters of a century ago.<\/p>\n

The connection between the driver and the Type 35 \u2013 and between the Type 35 and the road \u2013 is tactile, immediate, intimate. Every control quivers in anticipation of the driver\u2019s input. There is no slack, no play.<\/p>\n

In March I had the chance to drive Pur Sang\u2019s 8C 2300 Monza at Amelia Island<\/a>. It was just a few miles and I craved a longer experience. The chance came at Pebble Beach with the Type 35.<\/p>\n

Pur Sang\u2019s Commercial Director for Anglo Markets John Bothwell brought the Type 35 to Monterey on a crisp Tuesday afternoon. Our goal was to drive it from the transporter parking lot at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center to Laguna Seca where it would rest overnight before joining the procession to Gordon and Molly McCall\u2019s Wednesday Airport Party.<\/p>\n

John drove down to Cypress Point for some stationary photos, but more importantly to demonstrate the technique of driving an uncompromising old-style car with straight cut gears.<\/p>\n

Oh, and a shift pattern that\u2019s upside down with first gear back and to the left.<\/p>\n

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Pur Sang Bugatti Type 35B<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our route to Laguna Seca was indirect, not only to avoid the Monterey crowds but also to experience the Type 35 on roads for which it was intended: narrow, winding and largely free of traffic.<\/p>\n

Setting off from Cypress Point we negotiated Seventeen Mile Drive past The Lodge. It was an ideal chance to become familiar with the Type 35\u2019s controls, light but also precise and with nearly negligible travel.<\/p>\n

This is an on-off car. Clutch, gearbox, brakes, even the engine, work through a nearly imperceptible control range that reflects the Type 35\u2019s heritage as a racing car of superb accomplishments.<\/p>\n

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Pur Sang\u2019s Commercial Director for Anglo Markets John Bothwell (left) with Rick Carey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bugatti favored his own clutch design. It\u2019s small. The pedal has a throw so short from off to on that it\u2019d barely take up the slack in a modern Corvette\u2019s or Mustang\u2019s pedal travel. It\u2019s more like a switch, working precisely with the tiny straight-cut gearbox that nuzzles up to the driver\u2019s and passenger\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n

Even with the nearly unmuffled eight-cylinder exhaust just behind the occupants\u2019 heads the sound of gears \u2013 in the transmission and in the gear trains to the single overhead camshaft and supercharger \u2013 is the Type 35\u2019s dominant note.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

The gearbox is the aforementioned crisp, solid, accurate analog of a quality door latch. It\u2019s in, or it\u2019s out. There\u2019s no in-between. When it works, it\u2019s as satisfying as a perfectly drawn draft beer.<\/p>\n

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Pur Sang Bugatti Type 35B on 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Heading up the hill to the Route One Gate the nightmare became real: one of the Pebble Beach Tour d\u2019Elegance cars had emitted its coolant at the top of the hill, slowing traffic to a crawl past it.<\/p>\n

John said, quietly, \u201cThe clutch doesn\u2019t like being slipped, and once it heats up, it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately the Pur Sang Type 35 has an electric radiator fan, and it was a cool day in the Del Monte Forest, keeping the driver cool, too.<\/p>\n

The technique is simple. Sit, in neutral with the clutch engaged. Wait for a gap to open up, then close up to the car ahead and repeat the process. The queue behind us were blessedly understanding and soon caught on to the sequence.<\/p>\n

The experience deserves a sidebar on Monterey week. Residents who don\u2019t understand \u201cMonterey\u201d decamp for somewhere not populated by strange old cars and their drivers. Those who remain, understand. Visitors cherish the experiences, like seeing a parade of Mercers rumble by or following a cranky Type 35 up the Seventeen Mile Drive hill.<\/p>\n

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Pur Sang Bugatti Type 35B on 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once past the gate instead of taking the 270 degree loop onto northbound 1 we cut left onto Aguajito Road, a blissfully empty road that dips and winds through the Del Monte hills. It\u2019s not the Targa Florio, but on Monterey week it\u2019s as close as it gets.<\/p>\n

Here the Type 35 shows its stuff: precise steering, wheels proudly out and in view, brakes that used judiciously with quick double-clutching downshifts for engine braking make it abundantly clear why Ettore Bugatti\u2019s cars \u2013 and the concept that guided their evolution \u2013 were so successful for so long. Not to mention why they are still so highly regarded decades later.<\/p>\n

Light, precise, accurate. Every piece working in gratifying sympathy with every other and integrating the driver as an essential cog in the machinery. The Type 35 runs best in the low three gears. Schooled in big displacement torque monsters the novice driver tried fourth gear a time or two. John Bothwell leaned over and gently mentioned, \u201cFourth is for open roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesson learned. The Type 35 loves to rev and runs happily in a range far higher than the Challenger SRT that brought us to Laguna Seca.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a hard car to drive. The engine has power throughout its range. The brakes work smoothly and efficiently.<\/p>\n

Its eight tiny cylinders sound glorious.<\/p>\n

After dipping through hills and canyons Aguajito Road runs back into Route One just before the Route 68 turnoff and the traffic to Laguna Seca and Salinas. We avoided a few traffic lights (thank you, CHP, for being absent), then negotiated another jam using the Seventeen Mile Drive technique before turning into the track.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lovely, winding hill up to the track off 68. Traffic was down in the valley.<\/p>\n

The Type 35 earned many laurels on hills like La Turbie above Monaco and Shelsley Walsh in Britain. The approach road to Laguna Seca showed the Type 35 at its best.<\/p>\n

Pur Sang\u2019s engine is nearly 50% more powerful than Bugatti\u2019s Type 35. Dyno tested before delivery, they deliver 170-180 brake horsepower. The Type 35 weighs something like 1500 pounds wet. Even carrying a hefty driver and passenger it\u2019s still under a ton and a weight\/power ratio of around 11 pounds\/horsepower.<\/p>\n

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Pur Sang Bugatti Type 35B on 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the time we reached the turnoff to Laguna Seca the funky upside down shift pattern, short clutch throw and no-nonsense steering were becoming familiar and it just flew up the hill, an exhilarating culmination to an afternoon\u2019s experience that was way too short.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t a Bugatti. There\u2019s an alternator hidden under the floorboards driven off the driveshaft and the aforementioned electric fan. The engine runs plain bearings for simplicity and long life \u2013 although purists can have Pur Sang assemble a built-up roller\/ball bearing crank like Ettore preferred.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s closed economy makes it impossible to import components. In the world economy that\u2019s silly, but for the Type 35, its Bugatti-based counterparts and the lovely Alfas like the 8C 2300 experienced in Amelia Island it means that everything, right down to the frame rails and tires, are made holistically in Pur Sang\u2019s self-contained atelier or to its specs from Argentine suppliers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a window back into a time when automobiles were built by artisans, not automatons.<\/p>\n

The cost of re-creating history is not cheap, but it is, roughly, 1\/10th the cost of a Molsheim-built Bugatti or a Milano-built Alfa 8C.<\/p>\n