Type 35 Blue

Type 35 Blue, the blue of the Bugatti Type 35

A shade from the Number Five brand carrying the name of the car that still counts as the most successful racing automobile of the 1920s. It is a deep, calm blue of the French national racing finish.

The car of 1924

Ettore Bugatti built the Type 35 for Grand Prix racing and first entered it in 1924. An eight-cylinder engine, a slim tail narrowed to a point, a horseshoe radiator grille and cast wheels with eight spokes that had the brake drums integrated into them: the forms that have since become shorthand for the prewar racing automobile. The supercharged 35B and 35C versions pushed the power higher and the collection of victories grew into hundreds of starts, and five consecutive editions of the Targa Florio between 1925 and 1929 are among the most quoted runs of all. Blue was not a choice of the stable on those cars but the national color of France, which the rules of the time assigned according to the country of entry.

Where the shade belongs

• bodies of the Bugatti Type 35 and of its supercharged versions
• French racing machines of the 1920s and 1930s
• cast wheels and chassis parts matched to the tone of the body
• prewar cars where the blue is meant to look deep rather than loud
• accessories of display scenes from the era of the first Grands Prix

The cars carried race numbers painted on a circular field on the flanks of the hood and at the tail, and otherwise the body is without ornament. On the Type 35 the blue makes large undivided surfaces without ornament, so on a finished model every detail of shape in the casting and every edge of the hood comes out.