French title
Chassis n°4920
Engine n°166

- Unmodified since 1931, unquestionalble history
- Prestigious racing history and drivers including 4th place in the 1929 Monaco GP
- Ex-Baron George Philippe de Rothschild
- Pierre-Yves Laugier history report
- One of the most authentic Type 35s in existence
- In the Bart Rosman Collection since 1997
- No reserve

The 2-litre supercharged engine 166 C was assembled at the factory in May 1928 along with 2-litre engines n°164 to 167 and 2-litre 300 engines n° 168 to 170.
The Type 35C chassis 4920/engine 166 C was delivered to the driver Guy Bouriat on 11 March 1929. He had taken delivery of the Type 35C chassis 4921/171 the day before.
The two vehicles were billed to him for 91.500 FF each.

Georges Philippe de ROTHSCHILD (1902-1988)
He was the son of Baron Henri James de Rothschild, the renowned playwright and a doctor by training. From 1922, having been introduced to the racing driver Robert Benoist by his older brother, the young Philippe began motor racing in events such as the Paris-Nice. In 1929, under the pseudonym " Georges Philippe ", this amateur driver began Grand Prix motor racing in earnest. Philippe de Rothschild had the two Bugatti Type 35s, at his disposal, delivered by Guy Bouriat at the start of March, for the start of the 1929 season. He made his GP debut at Juan les Pins on 1 April in the car registered 2678 RB 6, chassis 4921, and suffered an accident halfway through the race.
Therefore, for the Monaco Grand Prix on 14 April, he used 4920, its registration number 2677 RB 6 clearly visible in photos. He finished an honourable 4th place behind the Mercedes SSK of Caracciola.
In the first Grand Prix de Bourgogne, held at the circuit in Dijon, on 9 May 1929, the Rothschild team entered both 35Cs, the 4920 (2677 RB 6) for Bouriat and 4921 (2678 RB 6) for Rothschild. Bouriat quickly took the lead and Rothschild managed to follow him, in front of Gauthier. After a battle lasting 3 hours and 47 minutes, Rothschild claimed victory, after Bouriat gave way to his boss and finished a fifth of a second behind in the Bugatti 4920.
The team came together again for the second Bugatti Grand Prix, organised by the Molsheim boss at the Le Mans circuit on 2 June 1929. Bouriat took part in testing in 4920 N° 33 and Rothschild in a new and as yet unregistered 35C N° 34, (probably 4930 bought two weeks earlier). Having broken a rod in his Bugatti, Juan Zanelli acquired 4920 on the weigh-in day from Rothschild who decided to drive his Type 44, while Bouriat moved to the wheel of N°34. Zanelli, who was racing 4920 for the first time, won the Grand Prix. He repeated this feat in 1930, this time at the wheel of 4921 which he also acquired from the Rothschild team, before Hellé Nice took it over for the following two seasons.
In 1929, Guy Bouriat was in charge of Baron de Rothschild's racing team before becoming the director of sales for the new Bugatti showroom at 46, avenue Montaigne. Juan Zanelli (1906-1944), the young Italo-Chilean millionaire and vice-consul for Chile in Nice, had been racing Bugatti since 1926. It is believed he acquired, or was lent for the race, Bugatti 4920, just before the start of the Bugatti Grand Prix held at the circuit at Le Mans on 2 June 1929. The registration plate of the Chilean's winning Bugatti, 2677 RB 6, was clearly visible at the finish. At the Marne GP on 7 July 1929, Zanelli drove Rothschild's other Bugatti 35C, 2678 RB 6, namely 4921, and at San Sebastian on 25 July, Zanelli entered 4921 for Foresti as well as his new 4939, acquired ten days earlier. He appears not to have used 4920 in any other event during 1929.
Race results the car in 1929 :
- 14 April : Grand prix de Monaco , Rothschild : 4th
- 9 May : Grand Prix de Bourgogne, Bouriat : 2nd
- 2 June : Grand Prix Bugatti, Zanelli : winner

A life in Lyon.
The Bugatti 35C was registered in the Rhône region with number 7466 PF 1 in March 1930. It was acquired at the end of the 1929 season by a young enthusiast from Lyon, Marcel ROUSSELET (1904-1984). He was born on 24 April 1904 in Cublize, the village where his father worked as a pharmacist. In 1931 he lived at 289, Cours Lafayette with his mother and older brother Jean, who took over the family pharmacy at the same address. By 1933 he was a trainee lawyer at the Court of Appeal in Lyon, and would go on to become a judge. In all likelihood, he bought the Bugatti 35C at the start of 1930, when he was just 25 years old and not yet fully qualified as a lawyer. The purchase of the Bugatti 35C which was under a year old, required funds that probably came from the family. He married in Lyon in February 1939 and was awarded the Liberation medal in 1947. M. Rousselet died in Neuilly sur Seine on 19 July 1984.
As early as 1929, he acquired a Bugatti Type 37A which it is thought Eddoura used for testing during the Laffrey hillclimb on 18 August 1929. Using the pseudonym " Ralph " Rousselet began racing in his 37A from the spring of 1930. He took part in several hillclimbs, at Camp in May, and at Les Alpilles and Val de Cuech in June, again in the 1500cc class. In the summer of 1930, he lent his 2-litre supercharged vehicle, which he had not yet competed in, to the young motorcycle prodigy Eddoura.

Edouard GRAMMONT (1906-1930).
The Grammont business was founded in Pont de Cheruy in 1849. It became one of the largest groups in the world before 1914, comprising factories for wire drawing, foundries, rolling, and later the first underwater telephone cables before finally branching out into rubber and its derivatives. The various factories employed more than 2,000 people and the business continued to operate until the start of the 1960s.
Edouard Grammont was born at Château Grammont, the family home in Pont de Cheruy, on 30 January 1906. In July 1919, when he was just 13 years old, Edouard Grammont applied for an automobile driving licence. By 1920, he was already riding around on a 4 HP Koehler Escoffier. In June 1922 " Eddoura " made his first appearance, finishing 5th in Moto Club Lyon's kilometre sprint on a Koehler Escoffier. He had his first win the same year, on 24 September in the Planfoy hillclimb, competing in the 750cc class. The following year, in the same event, he set the outright record time. The young prodigy continued to clock up victories and on 18 August 1929, he set the outright record for the Laffrey hillclimb. He had familiarised himself with the route by driving day and night, at the wheel of a 37A, probably Rousselet's.
From September 1926, the grounds of the château Grammont resonated to the sound of Bugatti on an improvised circuit at the property. The young Edouard, who had just turned 20 years old, drove a Brescia and a Type 37, probably bought new. At the start of the 1930 season, Marcel Rousselet decided to put his faith in the young motorcycling prodigy and entrusted him with a drive in his powerful supercharged Bugatti 2-litre.
At the Lyon Grand Prix on 15 June 1930, Eddoura, competing in the 2-litre class, in the 35C 4920, was classified 6th despite retiring on the 24th lap.
On 20 July, Eddoura, driving the 35C, set the fastest time and the outright record for the race at Baraque, completing 10km in 5 min 44 sec at an average speed of 104,651 km/h. On 10 August 1930, the spirited driver lined up for the start at the Circuit du Dauphiné in Grenoble. Some of the best Bugatti drivers were amongst his competitors. On the first lap, Etancelin was in the lead with Eddoura second, followed by Lehoux who took over the lead in the fourth lap. On the sixth lap, Eddoura beat his own lap record at 127 km/h and overtook Etancelin, before running in first place during a pit stop by Lehoux. A few laps later, while overtaking Savora in his 2-litre Bugatti at the end of the straight, Eddoura caught his front left wheel. The driver was thrown out and died instantly, while the 35C rolled three times, hit a tree and came to rest on the rails of the tram line. The remains of the car were picked up along the entire length of Me. Delamarche's property. Photos show it was only the rear of the car that was completely destroyed. The radiator, bonnet, engine and bulkhead appear to have been left intact. The chassis was totally bent and the axle broken. An imposing monument in Eddoura's memory was erected on the site of the accident from a subscription made by the Moto Club Dauphinois. The brothers Jan & Joel Martel made four bronze plaques, recounting Eddoura's victories and passions. The Grammont family reimbursed M. Rousselet for the full cost of the car. In 1931, the owner of the 35C, while waiting for his vehicle to be repaired by the factory, competed in his Type 37A in various hillclimbs including Les Alpilles, Camp, Baraque, the GP du Dauphiné and Ventoux.
For the 1932 season, Rousselet - alias Ralph - got his Bugatti 35C back, which had been completely rebuilt by the factory at Molsheim. He participated in the Camp hillclimb, winning the 2-litre class. On 5 June, he was second in Les Alpilles hillclimb. He also took part in the race at Klausen in Switzerland on 7 August 1932.
His list of entries provide us with a wealth of information:
IX th Course Internationale du Klausen 1932 6-7 August.
Race number 84
Rousselet, known as Ralph, 289 laps, Lafayette to Lyon .
Race licence number N°387. ACF.
1930 2-litre Bugatti race: chassis 4920 /engine 166 , 60x88 1988 cc , 6000 tr .
Registration 7466 PF 1.
Axle ratio :13x54.
Ralph finished second in class with a time of 18 min 9 sec, behind a certain Louis Trintignant in a Bugatti chassis 4941.
In the Mont Ventoux event on 4 September 1932, Ralph won the 2-litre class ahead of Hellé. He was race number 44.
Race results for 'Ralph' in 1932 :
- 24 April : Camp hillclimb : 1st in 2 litres.
- 5 June : Les Alpilles : 2nd.
- 7 August Klausen : 2nd in 2 litres.
- 4 September Mont Ventoux : winner in 2 litres.
At the start of the season in 1933, he registered for the Val de Cuech event on 30 April, in the 2-litre class, but it appears he didn't take part. He used his 1500cc at Les Alpilles, Nîmes, La Baraque and finally Ventoux which would be his last competitive event in a Bugatti. He came off the road at the Saint-Estèphe bend and after that, Rousselet alias 'Ralph' took no further part in racing.
However, he kept his Bugattis for a while longer. On 7 October 1936, the last Lyon owner following Rousselet registered the 35C for a two week period, still with the number 7466 PF 1.
This was likely to have been an automobile dealer as, on 19 October the Bugatti was registered in Ain. This was in the name of Claudius Triffe, a grocer from the village of Hauteville, with the registration number 7997 AB 2. In 1923, his mechanics workshop had been declared bankrupt and in 1928, he sold a furniture business. He was no more than an intermediary in the sale of the Bugatti which he kept for under a week.
On 24 October 1936, the Bugatti returned to the Rhône department with the number 954 PF 8. Details of the owner are unknown as police records were destroyed.
The Bugatti 35C has probably not left the city of light and was re-registered in the new system on 11 July 1955, given the number 6397 AM 69. Around 1960, a young enthusiast by the name of Antoine Toti, confided to his friend Michel Payet, that he knew of a racing Bugatti that he hoped to recover. Toti told the Bugattist Bernard Viallon that he had got the information from his uncle Nazare Toti, the talented mechanic for the Malartre collection in Rochetaillé sur Saône since 1952. The car was believed to belong to a coal merchant by the name of Girard, whose company was located at the quays in Gerland in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon. The wholesale coal company supplied heating coal for the entire Lyon conurbation, and occupied these premises between 1946 and 1964. The date the company was sold may correspond to the purchase of the Bugatti, as it is believed that Antoine Toti, then 54 years of age, succeeded in acquiring the car in 1964. The vehicle was registered at his address, 12 rue du Repos Lyon VII, on 11 May 1965. Bernard Viallon came to work on the car in Toti's hangar in Corbas around 1983. He was asked to adjust the valves, but only the engine was made accessible to him. He was not allowed to uncover the rest of the car. After a week's work, the Bugatti was running again and was driven around the yard before being put away again for another fifteen years. Bernard Viallon remembers that the front axle was chrome with front and rear clips conforming to a 1931 Type 51. This is logical as the rebuild following the accident must have taken place that year.
The car was sold by Antoine Toti on 26 September 1997 to the Dutch collector Bart Rosman through the dealers Bruno Vendiesse and Jaap Braam Ruben.

The current vehicle :
We know that the original chassis, frame 617, assembled at the start of 1929, was destroyed in the accident in August 1930. It was replaced by the factory with a new frame, number 669, dating from the end of 1930. In photos taken after the accident, we can see that the front of the vehicle remained intact. The bonnet and dashboard were not damaged. The number of the current gearbox, 427, suggests this must be the original one. The axle was replaced in 1930 with case number 395, again by the factory. The rest of the body, including the fuel tank and all other parts that were damaged in the accident were replaced during the winter of 1930, and are therefore period parts supplied by the factory. Today, the car is in the exact configuration that it was after its retirement from racing with Ralph at the end of the 1932 season.
#4920 has been raced by such prestigious drivers as Guy Bouriat, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Juan Zanelli, Eddoura, and Ralph with notable successes in major events. It is one of the best preserved and most original and authentic Type 35Cs to survive, one of just 55 examples produced between the spring of 1927 and the summer of 1930. A thoroughbred of this kind rarely comes up for auction, the stables containing them jealously guarded by their enlightened owners.
The author would like to thank the historians Pascal Legrand and Didier Mahistre for their invaluable help in providing information on the drivers Eddoura and Ralph.

Pierre-Yves LAUGIER

Full catalogue and more photos https://www.artcurial.com/en/sale-4315-retromobile-2023-artcurial-motorcars