|
|
| John Edgar in his French Bugatti at Palm Springs in 1951- W.Edgar photo. |
My father loved this car and could drive it like crazy. Flat around the corners at
almost any speed, 0-110. Roger Barlow found it in a barn in New England and drove it west to California, where
John Edgar bought it, trading his wheezy '41 Cad covert and two grand in cash. The Bug was a family car for almost a
decade. My mother loved to drive it. We lived on the Sunset Strip and everybody knew the car. I learned
to drive in it. In 1954, my father sold it for $2700 and I hate to think about that today. But along the
line after our ownership the Bug was wrecked, then parted out. Today, I've been told, it exists in three separate Bugattis.
I'm writing a story on this Type 57C drophead. In 1939 it was in the French pavilion at the New York
World's Fair. At least the chassis was, with a different body. I've got all the details and am putting the thing back
together in words. By the way, that's Johnny von Neumann on the far left, wearing black. I took this picture with
my Kodak Brownie twin-lens in the Palm Springs paddock. Great times, those in The Springs. Never been anything like
them. See Vintage Motorsport for the two-part story I wrote: "Oh, The Roaring Springs." Have never gotten
over it, those fast hot days and long bongo nights.
|
