The Model
We built the chassis and the frame
out of 0.4 mm brasssheets, the hood was made from 0.4 mm coppersheet over a
counter form. The motor is made of milled aluminium and white metal casts. The BUGATTI
typical, wheels were cast with a specially made alloy of white metals to
resemble the original as closely as possible. The polished parts were plated
with nickel, chrome and a few with gold. Special polishing disks enabled us to
achieve the typicl look of the aluminium dashboard. For the faces of the
instruments we reduced pictures of the original to our 1/12 scale while the
steering wheel is made of many layers of micro-wood furnishing. The seats we
made out of best quality suede leather. Needless to say, the carburator link
moves if you “step” on the gas pedal and the handbrake button frees the lever. A special challenge were the many different louvres on the
curved hood. To resolve that problem we had to custom make punches which were
set in a press tool and moved with a die blade fitted with a guide rail along
which the pieces could be passed while pressing out the individual louvres.
Sorry the airvents of the original are not as exact as ours.
We’re happy to be able to present you our finished
“street version” of the BUGATTI 54 – after 14 years of work in our spare time.
The race version without lights and hood is currently still under construction
by Karl-Heinz Hornberg. To ensure that these two models will remain unique we
will destroy all the forms for them. The finished model weighs – without
cooland, oil and gas – 1.7 kg. Our special thanks to the owner of the original
for his great support, without him, these models could never have been built.
