CRC Speedshow Bugatti Type 35A

The tale of Terry Roycroft and the Bugatti Type 35A spans three generations of his family, and connects them more closely than any other New Zealand family to the renowned French marque.

Terry's grandfather, AJ Roycroft, one of the country's trailblazing racers, bought his first Bugatti in 1925. Though a road-car design, this 1920 model was soon fitted with a special streamlined body and pressed into service as a beach-racing machine.

Around the same time, but half a world away, French-domiciled Italian Ettore Bugatti introduced his new racing model, the Type 35. The elegantly proportioned machine, which appeared in various models, won more than 350 races in the next two years, and secured the 1926 Grand Prix championship for Bugatti.

While AJ owned other Bugattis, a quarter of a century passed before the Roycroft family name connected with a Type 35, by that time the most famous Bugatti of all. That connection was made by AJ's son, and Terry's father, Ron.

Ron Roycroft was New Zealand's foremost racing driver of the 1950s, but his front-line racers were always newer, faster cars owned by his dad: a Jaguar XK120 sports car followed by a 1930s Grand Prix Alfa Romeo and then a 1950s F1 Ferrari V12.

However, Ron also wanted a second car to use in lesser events (and, if needed, as back-up machinery for a major race). Enter, in 1950, the Type 35A that has remained in the Roycroft family ever since. Today, Type 35s sell on an international market for vast sums, but back then Ron acquired it for $100 and a reconditioned American road car in part exchange.

"I can remember the day it arrived at home,'' Terry recalls. "We were a motor racing family so I was used to seeing some pretty special cars, but to a small kid the Type 35 made an immediate impression.''

Mechanically, though, the car was worn. That led Ron to create a "Bugatti-special'' by fitting a potent new straight-six Jaguar engine under the bonnet.

The Bugatti-Jaguar was handed its first tough assignment in 1954, when pressed into service for the Dunedin Street Race after Ron's Alfa was sidelined by an engine problem. Though the car was matched against far newer machinery, Ron duly won his second Dunedin title.

As late as 1956, the Bugatti-Jaguar was driven by Ron Roycroft to first Kiwi honours in the New Zealand Grand Prix. That same year it was said to have reached 155 miles per hour (almost 250kmh) powering down the main straight of the Ryal Bush road circuit near Invercargill. It also raced at Dunedin in 1956, but failed to finish.

After retiring as a racer, Ron Roycroft accumulated a massive collection of classic cars. He sold most of them before his death, in 2000, with the Bugatti being one of just a handful passed on to the next generation of the family.

By then it had been refitted with its original two-litre straight-eight Bugatti engine, and used in a few classic events before being laid-up from 1991 to 2005.

That fallow period ended when Terry Roycroft, the inventor behind the Gibbs Aquada amphibious car, found himself back in New Zealand with time to spend on returning the old Type 35 to the road and track.

"I had been too busy before developing the amphibious technology,'' he says. "In reality, the Bugatti was always going to be a retirement project.''

So far, that project has encompassed getting the car back on the road, a foray into the Kiwi classic racing scene and events such as Leadfoot and the VCC Roycroft Trophy meeting.

Though it is clear he adores the elegance of the Type 35's design, Terry Roycroft is realistic about the limitations of the car, explaining that its engine technology, in particular, was old hat even for its time.

"Its advantages were that it was small, light and lithe and with the very small frontal area of its radiator, aerodynamically efficient.''
Asked what he especially likes about it, Terry Roycroft homes in on two things.

"Getting a warrant of fitness is great fun - there are so many boxes on the form for things like lights, seats, a speedo and windscreen wipers which have to be struck through, because they simply aren't applicable to the car!''

"Also, it's really nice to have a car that's a two-seater. Most of Dad's racing cars were specialised single-seaters, but you can drive the Bugatti on the open road and take a passenger along.''

He might also add that, in continuing to own and use the Bugatti, he is continuing a family link with the marque that is now entering its 86th year.

Who: Terry Roycroft lives in Awhitu Central, Waiuku.

Occupation: Inventor and farmer.

Car: 1925 Bugatti Type 35.

Engine: 1991cc 24-valve overhead cam Bugatti straight-eight.

Suspension: leaf-springs with solid axles.

Brakes: Hydraulic drum brakes.

Dimensions: Length 3680mm, width 1320mm, weight 750kg
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