Bugatti 57 Tank.
  Amongst other goals we had been cruising Dole (France near Dijon) for a model car shop and by the end of the afternoon we found one, in a side street near the beginning of the main street where we had begun our stroll. The shop was far more sophisticated than we could have expected in such an old town, and the models they ran were as modern as the most up to date models that we had seen at Autopassion in Haarlem, or Le Petit Salon de l'Auto in Naarden Vesting. On the shelves with 1:43 scale models a Bugatti 57 Tank made an enormous impact, bright two tone blue, adorned with little details, a fine radiator front, racing number 1, filling caps, a grand aluminum, wood rimmed steering wheel, and impossibly refined wheels with innumerable, fragile spokes, undoubtedly as strong as the real thing in the scale of reality. Not before I was at the home where I was staying, as excited as while buying a real sports car, I noted that the windscreen lying flat on top of the bonnet was broken and a corner was missing. The small windscreen in front of the driver had been broken off and was gone altogether, as if the car had been in a racing accident, or in a turmoil after a race. This explained the surprisingly low price I had to pay, for which I even did not need to use my credit card. It was late Saturday afternoon. The dealer was far too far to drive back, and it had become too late. The next morning we would drive back home in Holland. For years and years I had hoped to hit upon a Bugatti Tank, and this exquisite model manufactured by IXO, was the nearest I got so far. Although this Tank was not the real Tank in my eyes it had been the winner in Le Mans in 1939, with Wimille and Veyron at the wheel, yes the Veyron! There's also a Tank that looks like it's constructed with Meccano material, with a hood that's bent with a single curve in the sheet of aluminum. This 57 was elegant enough to drive from castle to castle on the Loire. But the damage to the car was an awful setback. At home I hesitated to open the box. First I inspected the line of Bugatti's in my showcase. In the midst of the others stood a battered dull, dusty light blue 57 model by Sibur, with flat tires(!), in a dismal state of deterioration, but with the racing screen and the screen lying flat on the bonnet still intact. Thrilled I took them off and mounted them on the new model and so readied the racer for display on Pebble Beach. |
Latest Tank, the 1939 57C.
