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The Ex-Hamish Moffat, D. B Madeley 1923 Crossley Bugatti Type 23 Brescia Chassis No. CM 1614Engine No. 16Registration PD 8180• Believed to be the only complete example of the 25 Crossley assembled Brescia left in existence.
• Wonderfully complete and original with a well documented and rich history both pre and post-War.
• Owned from new and hill climbed in the 1920’s by one of the founding members of the Bugatti Owners Club D. B. Madeley.
• Present at the first ever meeting of the Bugatti Owners Club and the first running of the famous Prescott Hill Climb.
• Restored by, owned and campaigned by one of the most most charismatic and well know figures in the Bugatti and Vintage car world post the second World War, Hamish Moffat.
Few models have evoked the same passionate following within and outside of the Bugatti world as the Brescia. Whether you want to take on the muddy hills of the VSCC trials circuit, grace the winding roads of one of the many Bugatti rallies and events, or race up Prescott Hill; the Bugatti Brescia has to be one of the most exhilarating and usable Bugatti of all time. Derived from the 8-valve model introduced in 1910. It was uprated to carry Bugatti’s characteristic reversed quarter-elliptical springs in 1913. The 16-valve version of this model was designed and built for an important international voiturette race scheduled to be held at Le Mans on the 16th of August 1914 but cancelled due to the outbreak of war. With the war thankfully behind them, production began alongside the 8-valve model in February 1920.
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Production built up slowly but, as would become characteristic of the great marque, it was bolstered by racing success. On the 29th of August 1920 works driver Ernst Fridrich took victory at the Coupe des Voiturettes at Le Mans. On the 8th of September 1921 Bugatti entered a team of four cars into the Voiturette Grand Prix held at Brescia in Italy. They took the first four places with Fridrich taking overall victory at an impressive average speed of over 70mph. From this point on these fabulous little racing cars have been affectionately known as Brescias.
These early race cars with their 2m wheelbase were designated the Type 13. Although the Type 13 was the most famous, the majority of the models were either the Type 22 with its 2.4m wheelbase or the Type 23 with a 2.55m wheelbase. Fitted with a variety of striking and elegant sports as well as more conventional touring bodies, they were a huge success. When production of the 16-valve model came to an end in mid 1926 a total of just over 2000 examples had been built.
Bugatti’s staggering success with the Brescia both on the track and in sales, led to three other manufacturers taking up production of the cars under licence. With the Molsheim cars being taxed at at 33.3% upon entering the Britain it made sense to assemble some cars under licence in Britain and in 1921 a licence was agreed with Crossley Motors in Manchester. A series of 25 chassis were laid down, using imported Molsheim parts and with a number of minor improvements. Numbering chassis No. 1601-1625 overlapping the Molshiem cars built in the same series, their chassis numbers bore the prefix ‘CM’ before them. Although production did not continue past these 25 cars, the press commented they seemed better than Molsheim production.
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Chassis No. CM 1614 is remarkably one of only three of the 25 Crossley assembled Bugatti Brescia left in existence and is believed to be the only example to remain complete with its original engine. David Sewell also believes this is possible the only complete Crossley assembled Brescia engine left in existence and if not it is certainly the only once still complete in its original car. Wonderfully original, there are details, numbers and features on this car that we have not seen on any other car. Even all of the springs are dated and have all of their 1923 patent stamps still on them.
CM 1614 was sold new in 1923 to D. B. Madeley fitted with a four-seat touring body and carrying the registration PD 8180, which it still retains to this day. Mr. Madeley was one of the founding members of the Bugatti Owners Club. The fabulous picture above shows a line up of Bugatti at the first ever meeting of the Bugatti Owners Club, and as you can see CM 1614 is a proud member of said group. Mr. Madeley kept CM 1614 for 13 years. The extensive history file accompanying the car contains photographs of him hill climbing it on a number of occasions back in the 1920’s.
In 1936 Mr. Madly sold CM 1614 to Bachelier and Sons in perfect condition, having covered 49,620 miles. Bachelier and Sons for some reason removed the original body and sold the car to a Mr. M. Carrington that same year. CM 1614 was apparently entered into the first ever running of the Prescott Hill Climb in 1938 although what body it carried at the time we do not know. The car then passed through a number of owners - D. G. Darby, Mr. Stallard, T. B. Wilkinson, G. W. Nobles, D. Webb in 1955 and then Hamish Moffat in 1960.
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Hamish Moffat was one of the most charismatic and well know figures in the Bugatti and Vintage car world post the second World War. When he bought the car in 1960 it was complete bar its body, radiator and front axle. He set about collecting the original parts and by 1964, under the guidance and advice of its original owner D. B. Madeley he finished restoring it with the lightweight aluminium skiff body that remains untouched on the car today. The car is totally original bar the body. When I bought the car Hamish’s wife Bunty very kindly sent me a large envelope of history for this car with all of the original correspondence between Hamish and Madeley, the letters tracking down the radiator and front axle, and a mass of early photographs.
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Hamish was a larger than life character and he used this car as his every day car from 1964 to 1975. He raced it, I imagine competed at Prescott with it and as you can see even used it to tow his Type 35 Grand Prix car. Featured in a number of books and publications at the time. You can see from these pictures and those published that the car has not changed at all since then.
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When Hamish got divorced he sold the car to French collector Mr. Sedoux in 1975. He kept the car until 1988 when it was purchased by Mr. Aeshlimann of Basel Switzerland. He kept the car for a further 12 years until it was purchased by the last long term owner before me, Bernhard Simon in 2000.
A true enthusiast and co-author of the fabulous Bugatti Type 57S book, Bernhard cherished and sympathetically maintained the car through out his ownership. He had the engine rebuilt in Germany where, according to him, they fitted new bearings and valves and re polished, fettled and utilised all of the original parts.
I have had a lot of fun with this car. I took my then one year old daughter up the hill at Prescott in it two years ago at La Ville en Blue and my then 6 month old son up the hill last year. I took the car to Italy for the Vanasca Silver Flag hill climb where it received a standing ovation. I also took the car with my father to the fabulous Solo Brescia Rally. A delight to drive, CM 1614 recently featured in a seven page article in Classic and Sportscar written by Mick Walsh and I have discussed it with the selection comity at Pebble Beach about the possibility of taking it there.
Upon seeing the car and its comprehensive documented history it is clear that this is a unique opportunity to acquire the only complete example of its kind and as such an important piece of Bugatti history. With the demand for original Brescia ever increasing you will struggle to find a more complete, interesting and original example than this.
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