Bugatti Type 18 Sports Two-seater ‘black Bess’

The famous French aviator and sportsman Roland Garros (1888-1918), a good friend of Ettore Bugatti, became the first owner of this Bugatti Type 18 in September 1913.

The famous French aviator and sportsman Roland Garros (1888-1918), a good friend of Ettore Bugatti, became the first owner of this Bugatti Type 18 Sports Two-Seater in September 1913. That same year Garros was the first pilot to fly non-stop across the Mediterranean Sea in a single-engine Morane-Saulnier. When the First World War broke out in 1914, he became a fighter pilot. In October 1918 he was killed in an air battle, three weeks before the end of the war and one day before his thirtieth birthday. His Bugatti was sold on to England and in 1922 came into the hands of the female racing driver Ivy Cummings, who named the car Black Bess, after the black thoroughbred of the legendary highwayman Dick Turpin. The car, with its very powerful 5.5-litre 100 hp engine, then passed through the hands of several more owners. The bucket seats, which still have their original 1913 leather upholstery, are positioned diagonally one behind the other so that the driver and the mecano do not get in each other’s way. This Bugatti is the fourth in a series of seven Type 18s. It looks slender, but can reach a top speed of 150 km/h. It is the only chain-driven Bugatti ever built. The bodywork is by Henri Labourdette, whose Panhard & Levassor Skiff can be seen elsewhere in the museum. Roland Garros was an avid tennis player. In 1927 the French Open tennis championships were named after him.