Dutch title
Chassis no. 43303
Engine no. 130

- Fascinating history, ex-Guillaume Prick, ex-Pim Hascher
- Unquestionable authenticity, one of the best 43s
- One of the best models built by Bugatti
- In the Bart Rosman Collection for 15 years
- No reserve

The Bugatti Type 43 we are presenting has the advantage of a continuous history which shows that it has remained completely authentic. This is confirmed by the study below by the Bugatti specialist Pierre-Yves Laugier.

Engine no. 130 was assembled at the works on 9 September 1928, but it was only at the end of 1929 that the chassis with engine no. 130 was dispatched from Molsheim to the showroom on the avenue Montaigne in Paris. And so, on 25 November 1929, the car, with the chassis plate 43297, arrived in the capital. It is possible that it remained in stock for some time, on display or as a demonstrator, before returning to Molsheim.
On 29 January 1931, with its definitive chassis number 43303, it was sent by train to Zurich on behalf of the company B.U.C.A.R. It remained in stock there for another few years, possibly in the free zone in the firm's premises at Saint-Louis (near Basel) as it was not cleared through customs in Switzerland.
It was only in 1934 that the torpedo GS 43303/130 was sold to the Bugatti dealer in Amsterdam, H. van Ramshorst, whose garage C.V. Albatros was located at 21-27 Pieter Baststraat. A Dutch insurance document even mentions 1932 as the year in which it left the factory.

The car's first private buyer was an amateur Dutch racing driver and pilot, Johannes-Willem Rens, who was quite a character. He was born in 1896 into a Dutch colonial family, whose company Fuchs & Rens distributed Chrysler, de Soto, Plymouth and Renault in the Dutch East Indies and also had a branch in Amsterdam. The family returned to Holland in 1902 and Rens had an eventful life in Brazil and then in Canada, serving a few months in prison for desertion, before his first marriage in 1919 and then a second in 1931 to a young woman from Burgundy, Georgette Gatheron, who held shares with him in a garage in Calais. They were a colourful couple, as in October 1934 Georgette shot him in the jaw with a revolver before he shot her in the foot.
As a result, they separated in January 1935 and Rens instituted legal proceedings to reclaim his shares in the garage in Calais which he ran jointly with a M. Rejeange. He returned to Holland for good and it was at this point that he expressed his interest in the Bugatti Type 43, which was for sale at van Ramshorst's Albatros garage. Rens started by renting the car from 10 May to 1 July 1935 and insured it for the substantial sum of 225 florins. He was then supposed to buy the car for 4000 florins.
Rens asked van Ramshorst to convert the Type 43 3/4-seat torpedo into a two-seater, most likely for tax reasons. The modification was carried out on 4 June 1935, but instead of being shortened, the car was fitted with a (removable) metal panel covering the rear seats. The panel can be clearly seen in family photographs from the time. The car was also fitted with a bonnet strap and stone guard.
The insurer J.-Herm Schroder recorded the registration number GZ 17555 for the insurance policy on 5 September 1935; the vehicle licensing records for Amsterdam also indicate that this number was transferred to Rens on 16 May 1935 at his address at 102 Euterpestraat.
Rens held out the promise to van Ramshorst of the French inheritance - his shares in the garage - he was due to receive. His lawyer was none other than the best man at his wedding in Paris, Maître Raymond Hubert, a leading barrister who had pleaded in the Stavisky affair. One wonders how he had become friends with the infamous Dutchman. Before the affair was settled, Rens managed in May 1936 to get his mother to pay for his latest fad, a secondhand Bugatti Type 51, which would be seized in 1938.
In April 1940, he tried to serve his country courageously by asking the Secretary of the Swedish Legation for the possibility of enlisting as a pilot instructor in the service of the Swedish government, pointing out his perfect knowledge of German, English, French and Dutch, but it does not seem that he was able to obtain this assignment.
On 17 August 1941, after a wild rant in front of one of his neighbours in Amsterdam with a revolver in his hand, he was arrested and sent to the Gross Rosen concentration camp at Rogoznica in Poland. He died there on 9 April 1942.

Meanwhile, the Type 43 was sold in spring 1939 to Bernard Cramer, the heir to a long line of Dutch industrialists who produced paper and cigars. Rens put a fanciful value of 3000 florins on his Bugatti, but Cramer finally bought it on 10 March 1939 for 475 florins plus his Hillman taken in part-exchange. The record from the Albatros garage states: "IR. B. Cramer Heerde-Ende Wapenveld (Gelderland) - Bugatti and chassis/engine 43303 'mit kompressor'".
In December 1939, Cramer bought a secondhand supercharger, no. 154, and had some work carried out on the car. According to the recollections of some local people, however, Cramer's young wife could not stand the noise the Bugatti made and he soon had to sell it back to the Albatros garage. As the marriage between Bernard Cramer and Anna Catharina van Marle was celebrated at Wapenveld on 4 August 1942, it may be assumed that the Bugatti was sold around then.

The Type 43 torpedo joined the stock of at least ten Bugattis tucked away in large premises known as 'The Temple', next to the Obrechtkerk church in Amsterdam. In an old photograph showing the Bugattis in this secret location, the Type 43 torpedo can be seen second from the left. It was registered in the name of van Ramshorst's garage as G 70670.
The hiding-place was kept secret through the war, and in 1950 van Ramshorst decided to shorten the Type 43 chassis to race it at Zandvoort. Several photographs show the modified car in the streets of Amsterdam, with the registration plates G 274, and then with the racing number 40 driven by van Ramshorst at Zandvoort.

A year later, the car was sold to the Bugatti enthusiast Guillaume Prick in a purchase agreement dated 16 July 1951. Prick registered the car as P 5198 and christened it 'Prima Donna'. In his ownership, the torpedo became part of the origin of Bugatti's legend in Europe, as from 1951 Prick spread his gospel at circuits and on rallies across the continent. For him, the world had begun the year in which the founder of the Molsheim company was born!
Prick founded the Dutch Bugatti Club in 1956 and also contributed to the creation of the Bugatti Club Deutschland that year. The car travelled to Ermenonville for the 1958 Rallye, then to Molsheim in 1961 for the Rallye International. Prick also went to Alsace as often as possible, bringing with him the first Bugatti collectors. For more than 30 years, he drove his Type 43 all around Europe; it was sold by his family the year after his death.

It was bought by Pim Hascher, an unconventional collector born into a family of musicians in Leiden; he became the proud owner of the Type 43 torpedo on 13 October 1984 and registered it as PX-51-RG. Hascher had driven Bugattis since the start of the 1950s, first a Chevrolet-engined Type 40 and then, from 1953, a Type 37. But for him, the Type 43 was the final stage in his initiation into the legend of Bugatti, the design of whose engines was instrumental in the revelation he experienced.
On 9 February 2008, at Bonhams' auction at Rétromobile, the Type 43 torpedo was sold to the engineer and Bugatti historian Bart Rosman for 1,327,500 €. The car joined his collection, which had long included a Type 40 GS, a Type 37, a rare 35C and a Touring-bodied Ferrari 340 America Barchetta, the last two of which are also presented at our auction.

Today, we can make the following observations based on an examination of the Type 43. The original chassis plate is engraved '43303 Bas Rhin', as it is a car sold after 1929. Engraved by the Dutch authorities, the plate shows the number 43303 in place of the engine number and below it the capacity of 2246 cc. There is no number visible on the front axle, which had been chromium-plated, but the chassis number 43303 and engine number 130 are present on the sump.
According to the notes from the factory, the original crankshaft was no. 165. It has not been possible to check whether this was noted when the engine was stripped down. The gearbox and its casing are numbered 131, and the strut 132.
The original rear axle, no. 132, was swapped for no. 52 from the Type 43 chassis no. 43196 which Prick also owned in the 1960s. No. 43196 still has the rear axle no. 132 previously fitted to chassis no. 43303. Bart Rosman and the other owner intended to refit these parts to their original chassis.
The original, shortened chassis frame is no. 131.

Pierre-Yves Laugier, December 2022
Combining the performance of a Bugatti 35 B with the comfort of a touring torpedo body, the 43 Grand Sport was one of the best models produced by the marque from Molsheim. We had the pleasure of spending several hours test driving this example, which can be considered one of the best performing cars in circulation today. In fact, beneath the superb patina of its bodywork, the mechanics are set up optimally, the result of a lifetime of observation and working on Bugatti. The car's acceleration is impressive, accompanied by the exhilarating roar of its supercharged 8-cylinder engine. Every start feels like the start of a Grand Prix, while the powerful braking allows full use of the car's capabilities. It is clear that in 1929, there wasn't a road in Europe that allowed you to exploit to the max the potential of such a car, which could be compared retrospectively to the philosophy of Supercars. Today, Prima Donna remains, more than ever, an invitation to take to the road, for no particular reason other than the chance to enjoy its performance and its fascinating history, etched into every detail of its bodywork.

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