Bugatti Type 55

The Bugatti Type 55 is a car from Bugatti, built from 1931 to 1935, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 2.3 L supercharged I8. Jean Bugatti drew it.

The background

The Bugatti Type 55 is a sports car produced by Bugatti from 1932 to 1935. It is a road-going version of the Type 51 Grand Prix car.

The engineering

Power comes from 2.3 L supercharged I8. It weighs 820 kg. It shifts through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2750 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Where it sits

Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Bugatti Type 51; assembly was at Molsheim, Alsace (Usine Bugatti de Molsheim), France. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bentley 4 Litre, the Alfa Romeo Tipo A — show what else the money bought that year. Its Bugatti stablemates include the Bugatti 57 Galibier and the Bugatti 8-cylinder line.

What it costs now

There is no federal ownership record for the Bugatti Type 55 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.