Bucciali

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Automobiles Buc (later: Automobiles Bucciali and Bucciali Frères ) was a French automobile manufacturer that was active from 1922 to 1932. The founders were the two brothers Paul-Albert and Angelo Bucciali.

Bucciali is a brand whose history is still linked with many question marks. Some things are still unexplained. This applies not only to the number of vehicles actually produced, for which very different, sometimes estimated, information is available, but also to the question of whether the company was even geared towards initiating series production, or whether it was the founders it was all about creating sensational dream cars and one-offs. There are hardly any original documents from the brand left. The public statements of the founders contradict the realities discovered later in some details. This also applies to personal information from Paul-Albert Bucciali, which he gave some journalists in their research in the 1970s at an advanced age.

The Bucciali brothers

The founding of the Automobiles Buc brand goes back to Paul-Albert "Buc" Bucciali (* 1889 † 1981) and Angelo Bucciali (* 1891 † 1946). The Bucciali brothers were born in Boulogne-sur-Mer to the blind composer and organist Joseph Bucciali and his wife. They were French with Corsican ancestry.

While Angelo Bucciali also became a musician, Paul-Albert Bucciali developed a passion for automobiles and aviation at an early age. He is said to have owned a car as early as 1911, at the age of 21, which he individualized - primarily optically - and given it the name "Buc". Even before the First World War , Paul-Albert Bucciali is said to have made a small fortune as a well-paid stunt pilot. According to his own statements, he fought in the "Groupe de Cignones" (stork group) squadron during the war. Years later, stylized storks were found in various places on Bucciali cars.

The company history

At the beginning of the 1920s, Paul-Albert Bucciali, according to his own statements, designed his first automobile, for the manufacture of which he founded the Société Bucciali Frères company together with his brother Angelo . The office was based in Courbevoie near Paris . In the following years a number of exclusive, sensational vehicles were presented under the name Bucciali (with changing company names).

The cars of the Bucciali brothers are generally divided into two phases. In the first generation, which lasted from 1922 to 1926, a number of small, unspectacular sports and road vehicles were built that saw the beginning of series production. In the second phase from 1927 to 1932, the Buccialis developed real dream cars with unusual, innovative technology and sensational bodies. As far as can be seen, the second generation only produced single copies. It is you who shaped the myth of the Bucciali brand.

The construction of the small sports cars was not cost-covering or profitable. Until the late 1920s, the company was financed at least partially from the family's assets, and in part also from the assets of Paul-Albert's wife. According to some reports, a continuation of the operation in the previous way in the course of 1926 no longer seemed promising. Either the family funds had been used up or Paul-Albert's wife was no longer willing to invest more money from her family in small-scale automobile production.

Due to the dwindling funds, the Bucciali brothers changed their business concept. Instead of mass-producing automobiles, from 1926 they tried to generate financial profit by developing and selling innovative drive concepts - namely front-wheel drive. It is doubtful whether the (series) production of own luxury vehicles with front-wheel drive appeared as an option. In any case, there is now broad consensus in the literature that the very luxurious and eye-catching front-wheel drive vehicles presented between 1927 and 1932, which were regularly shown at automobile fairs and were provided with sensational bodies, were primarily intended as eye-catchers for potential business partners. In the summer of 1930 this concept seemed to work. Initially, the American Peerless Motor Car Corporation showed interest in acquiring the Bucciali patents, possibly even in selling Bucciali vehicles in the USA. This connection was fruitless, however, because at the beginning of 1931, as a result of the global economic crisis, Peerless ceased automobile production (in favor of beer brewing). In the autumn of 1930, however, a French investor was found in Emile Guillet, the owner of a Parisian body shop, who was willing to finance further development work. He stayed with the company for about a year and a half. In the summer of 1932 they split up in a dispute. At the same time, Bucciali relocated the production of the wagons to Angers on the Loire ; only the company's offices remained in Courbevoie .

At the end of 1932, after the TAV 12 (Type 7) had been delivered to a customer, Bucciali had to stop vehicle production. The brothers had not been able to find a solvent investor or to sell their constructions at a profit.

Paul-Albert Bucciali continued to work on technical developments in Courbevoie. In 1934 he designed a small aerodynamic sports car for which an eight-cylinder engine was provided; for lack of financial resources, the project did not get beyond the study stage. In the 1930s he designed an eight - wheel off-road vehicle equipped with two Daimler-Benz engines, which was ultimately manufactured by Panhard & Levassor . After the Second World War , Bucciali worked for the French transmission manufacturer Cotal, where, among other things, he designed an automatic transmission. At the same time he designed a vehicle for his own use: a (rear-wheel drive) car with a lowered chassis and a Mathis engine that carried the radiator, and according to other sources even the body of a Bucciali TAV30.

Buc vehicles

Between 1922 and 1926, the Sociéte Bucciali Frères produced a number of smaller sports cars that were marketed under the name "Buc".

The company was founded in 1920. Bucciali set up a workshop in Courbevoie and hired a few mechanics. Initially, the company dealt with repairing and modifying street and sports cars of other brands; but from the beginning of 1922 Paul-Albert Bucciali began to design his own vehicle. In the following years, a number of different types were created in Courbevoie, which were designed as sporty road vehicles, but were also regularly used in competitions.

Overall, car production was only moderately successful. The Bucciali brothers presented a number of different concepts, but were only able to bring individual models to limited series production. In retrospect, Paul-Albert Bucciali put the production volume of the Buc brand at at least 100 copies. The specialist literature today assumes that a total of only 17 Buc vehicles were manufactured and sold. None of them exist anymore.

The following models of the Buc brand were created:

Buc prototype

The first vehicle, which - as far as can be seen - only appeared as a Buc (without any other type designation), was a small sports car with a 1.3 liter two-stroke engine with two cylinders. The engine is said to have been developed by a two-stroke specialist known at the time by the name of Marcel Violet. The car was entered by Paul-Albert Bucciali at the "Grand Prix des Voiturettes" in Boulogne in 1922 and finished third.

Buc AB 1

Based on the concept of this sports car, the Buc AB 1 was created , which technically corresponded to the specifications of its predecessor. Originally, the Bucciali brothers had provided a 950 cc four-cylinder two-stroke engine as the drive. However, the engine did not reach series production maturity, so the AB 1 received the same engine as the prototype. From the beginning of 1923 a small series was produced.

Buc AB 2

In 1923 Paul-Albert Bucciali developed a new chassis that was designed for a four-cylinder two-stroke engine by Marcel Violet and was to compete in the Grand Prix des Voiturettes in 1923. The engine was made and tested as a prototype; Bucciali did not find it to be mature. Therefore, the car called Buc AB 2 was again equipped with the well-known two-cylinder. The AB 2 is said to have achieved a victory in the "Under 500 kg" class at the Grand Prix des Voiturettes. The four-cylinder two-stroke engine was finally manufactured in 1925 in a separate chassis as type AB 5 in a single piece. He saw no series production, as the manufacturing process turned out to be too complex and expensive.

Buc AB 4-5

Between 1925 and 1927, Buc built and sold a number of Buc AB 4-5 vehicles . This was a conventional car with a 1.6 liter four-cylinder from SCAP , a manual four-speed gearbox and a top speed of supposedly 100 km / h. Buc offered various body structures - a sedan (berline), an open torpedo and a coupé - which were usually made by the Carossier Etablissements Paul Adineau , and occasionally by Bonnel . The Ty AB 4-5 is regularly described in publications as the most successful Buc model. However, the information on production varies widely. In 1975 Paul-Albert Buc spoke of a total of 120 copies; other publications assume 100 to 200 vehicles, still others speak of "a handful" or no more than 17 copies.

In the statistics of the Grand Prix of 1925 there are indications of individual racing participation of the Buc AB 4-5 in French races. The driver was mostly an Augusto Bucciali.

  • At the 2nd Grand Prix de l'Ouverture in Montlhéry , Augusto Bucciali finished sixth with 148 laps (out of 200). Jean Celerier, who also moved a Buc, was out of action for technical reasons.
  • Augusto Bucciali finished tenth at the 5th Grand Prix de Boulogne, 75 minutes behind the winner, Bunny Marshall, in a Bugatti T22.

Buc AB 4E Spéciale

A model Buc 4E Spéciale was derived from the type AB 4-5, which had a 1481 cm³ four-cylinder engine from CIME with supercharging and was supposed to be 150 km / h fast. Of this model, which was primarily intended for sporting events, three copies were made, but they were unsuccessful in the competition.

Buc AB 6

The last model from the Buc brand was the AB 6 , a small sports car with an in-house developed, 1.5-liter six-cylinder engine that was charged by a Cozette compressor and was based on a concept by the engineer Némorin Causan. Three examples of the engine were produced in the course of 1926; at least one found its way into a specially constructed chassis and is said to have "participated in numerous national and international competitions" according to the French font Gazoline . One publication reports that Buc AB 6 participated in the Spanish Grand Prix in 1927.

The front-wheel drive models

From 1926 onwards, the Bucchiali brothers' corporate philosophy changed. After the production of automobiles had not brought the desired success in the past few years, the brothers were now primarily concerned with the development of expensive luxury vehicles with innovative drive concepts. Particular attention was paid to the front-wheel drive technology, which was still young at the time, which first made a name for itself in 1925 with the American Miller racing car.

When developing front-wheel drive technology, the Bucciali brothers initially worked with independent technicians, such as the French engineer Robert Sensaud de Lavaud. As the project progressed, they also devised some stand-alone solutions. It can no longer be verified whether the detailed solutions could actually be traced back to Paul-Albert or Angelo Bucciali themselves or whether, as was repeatedly claimed in later studies on the brand, they were made use of an employed, unknown expert. In any case, the fact is that Angelo and Paul-Albert Bucciali were the owners of several French patents on individual designs in connection with the front-wheel drive.

Between 1926 and 1932, the Bucciali brothers developed and presented a total of seven different vehicle types with front-wheel drive technology, which were no longer shown under the name "Buc", but carried the full name "Bucciali". The presentation usually took place at the Salon de l´ Automobile in Paris in October of each year. Sometimes only chassis constructions were exhibited, some of which were not even ready to drive; some of the structures were equipped with extravagant bodies, which were the focus of the motor show. The designs of the bodies are likely to be traced back to the Bucciali brothers themselves, even if external bodybuilders were responsible for the technical implementation of the bodies. In at least one case, the Bucciali brothers also claimed to have designed their own engine. This sixteen-cylinder engine, known as the Double Huit , represents one of the great secrets of automotive history today.

The designation of the vehicles front-wheel drive vehicles was inconsistent. The Bucciali brothers mostly used the term TAV (Traction Avant for front-wheel drive), combined with a discontinuous numbering. Today there is often a - subsequently created - counting of the types in the order of their origin (type 1 to type 7); however, it is not used consistently.

Type 1 (Bucciali TAV 1)

The Bucciali brothers' first front-wheel drive design was created in 1926. It used - as Bucciali expressly pointed out - a number of ideas that had previously been developed by Sensaud de Lavaud, supplemented by an independent front axle design developed by Bucciali. The chassis had independent suspension at the front and rear. The vehicle had a purple painted coupé body, which Paul Audineau had designed as a faux cabriolet. A 1.7 liter four-cylinder from SCAP was installed in the engine compartment.

The TAV 1 was not roadworthy; Bucciali hadn't found a transmission compatible with front-wheel drive. The contemporary reporters recognized this shortcoming and commented on it with clear words in their contributions.

Type 2 (Bucciali TAV 2)

The second Bucciali model, called TAV 2, was characterized by a modified construction of the half-waves; Much work has gone into making the half-waves pivotable. Overall, technology was largely emancipated from the ideas of Sensaud de Lavaud. Most sources today assume that the TAV 2 was presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1927. A contemporary press report from 1928, however, attributes the TAV 2 to the year 1928. A faux cabriolet body could also be seen here, the well-known SCAP engine was installed in the engine compartment. The TAV 2 should have been functional.

Type 3 (Bucciali TAV 6 or TAV 15)

The third Bucciali design appeared at the Paris Motor Show in 1928. This vehicle used the frame of Type 1 from 1926, according to other sources that of Type 2. It again had modified details in the area of ​​drive technology. When it was presented, the car had the body of a large four-seater coupé in a faux-convertible design, which Bucciali had designed himself and which was characterized above all by the lack of running boards, which was unusual at the time. The car was also the first Bucciali design to have headlights positioned deep in front of the radiator, a feature that was typical of the brand and was to be found in all subsequent designs. The practical reason for this solution was the attempt to optically conceal the still comparatively bulky front axle loaded with drive technology with the headlights.

The Type 3 was equipped with an American six-cylinder from Lycoming , later from Continental . With regard to the six cylinders, the temporary use of the designation TAV 6 resulted, while the designation TAV15, which can also be found, was due to the fact that the car, with its displacement of 2.4 liters, was classified in the French tax class 15 hp.

According to Paul-Albert Bucciali, a total of three Type 3 vehicles were built in Courbevoie, all of which are said to have been sold. The bodies corresponded to the exhibition model. Paul-Albert Bucciali for a while named a company called "Labourdette" as a body manufacturer. It is certain, however, that this could not mean the carossier of the same name, Henri Labourdette, who manufactured sensational bodies for Delage and Delahaye in the 1930s .

One of the three TAV 6 was revised in 1929 in order to do a "Tour du Monde" for promotional reasons. According to contemporary press reports, the company ended up in the Paris area because no funds could be found to finance the expedition.

Type 4 (Bucciali TAV 8), "La Marie"

In the summer of 1929 Buccialis fourth construction was presented, the TAV 8. The chassis and the suspension technology should have largely corresponded to the TAV6 / TAV15; other sources, however, assume that the chassis of the Type 4 was identical to that of the Type 2. However, other engines have now been installed. The roadworthy prototype manufactured in 1929 and called La Marie by the Bucciali brothers used a 4.4 liter eight-cylinder from Continental. In a brochure, Bucciali announced that the car could also be “obtained with a Mercedes SS supercharger”. Possibly an association should be made with the 7 liter large and 225 hp engine of the Mercedes SS presented in 1928 , an engine that represented cutting-edge technology in the 1920s. However, later studies assume that Bucciali was referring to a much older, only 100 hp engine and that the deliberately imprecise information in the publications was primarily intended to arouse the interest of potential customers.

The prototype called La Marie carried a roadster body designed by Paul-Albert Bucciali. A special feature was - in addition to the missing running boards and the low-slung headlights - a stylized stork on the sides of the engine cover.

After the Paris Motor Show in 1929, Bucciali shipped La Marie to North America. There the car was shown at various exhibitions, and Paul-Albert Bucciali undertook extensive promotional trips with the car. The aim was to sell the front-wheel drive technology to an American company. There she aroused the interest of the Peerless , who were considering selling the Bucciali models in the USA. In the following winter of 1930/31 Paul-Albert Bucciali undertook another trip through the USA. Now there was a binding agreement between Peerless and Bucciali, which was ultimately not carried out, as Peerless went bankrupt shortly afterwards and ceased automobile production (in favor of beer brewing).

No further copies of the type 4 were built.

Type 5 (Bucciali Double Huit)

Inoperative engine block of the Bucciali Double Huit

The Type 5 presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1930 had no special features on the chassis. The chassis corresponded - apart from a significant extension of the wheelbase - to the TAV6 / TAV15, the front-wheel drive technology had been modified again in detail compared to the Type 4, and the rear axle was now rigid.

A special feature of the car, however, was the engine. It is said to have been a sixteen-cylinder engine (double huit = double eight). The engine block was angular and modeled extremely attractively. With regard to the inner workings, there was little useful information. The contemporary press reports contradicted each other, and the Bucciali brothers also provided contradicting information. The information is only consistent insofar as it is a question of an extremely long-stroke engine (bore: 72 mm, stroke 120 mm, a total of 7.8 liters displacement). Contemporary reports assumed that it was a construction with two independent, vertically side by side in-line eight-cylinders (from Continental ) that drove two separate crankshafts; other reports assume a conventional V design with a central crankshaft. The uncertainties were also fed by the fact that the staff at the Buccialis booth were unable to provide any conclusive information about the technology used.

In the 1970s, a double-huit chassis was found that also contained an engine block for the sixteen-cylinder. The engine block was opened during the restoration. Instead of a mechanical interior, however, the restorers only found French magazines from 1930. This raises doubts that Buccialis sixteen-cylinder was more than just an eye-catcher .

Paul-Albert Bucciali claimed in an interview in 1975 that a total of three Doule Huit vehicles had been produced; all were ready to drive and sold. In view of the observations of the American restorers, however, this appears very doubtful. The doubts are also supported by the fact that in 1931 a French banker ordered a sixteen-cylinder sedan for which Bucciali apparently could not manufacture an engine. This order ultimately resulted in the Type 7 (TAV 12) equipped with a Voisin engine.

The uncertainties surrounding the Bucciali sixteen-cylinder prompted the German trade magazine auto motor und sport to comment in its 1986 anniversary issue in a report on past brands: “If you happen to come across a - let's say - roadworthy Bucciali Double Huit in a barn while you are hiking you no longer need to worry about your retirement pension ”.

At the end of the 1990s, an American car collector commissioned a replica of the Type 5, which in any case should look exactly like the prototype. Nothing is known about the technology used.

Type 6 (Bucciali TAV 30)

In the course of 1930 the Bucciali brothers developed their sixth model, which was ultimately presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1931. The chassis essentially corresponded to the TAV 8, but the wheelbase was lengthened to 3734 millimeters and also reinforced to accommodate an even more powerful engine. After attempts to use a Continental engine again failed due to extensive conversion work, Bucciali installed a 5.2 liter eight-cylinder from Lycoming . Lycoming belonged to the group of the American Errett Lobban Cord , who also owned the car brands Auburn , Cord and Duesenberg and with the Cord L29 had the first mass-produced car with front-wheel drive on offer. The Lycoming engine was designed specifically for use in front-wheel drive cars; it was a better match for the Bucciali than the previous, conventional Continental engines.

According to Paul-Albert Bucciali, a total of three or four Type 6 vehicles were manufactured and sold. The existence of two vehicles is proven:

  • A large cabriolet with a body by Saoutchik that was the undisputed eye-catcher at the 1931 Paris Motor Show. It was the lowest car of its time. The wheels were one meter in diameter; the line of the bonnet did not exceed the height of the front fenders. The vehicle was 5.75 meters long.
  • A two-seater roadster. There are reports that the body was initially designed and built by Buccialis partner Guillet in his workshop. Bucciali is said to have been appalled by the quality and appearance of the body and replaced it a little later with a body designed by himself and manufactured by Saoutchik.
  • In addition, there are reports of a seven-seater sedan with a similar layout; H. a very low belt and roof line. Whether this body was realized or remained at the stage of pure drawing is disputed in the reports on Bucciali; there may be a mix-up with the (actually realized) sedan of the type TAV 7.

There are photographs of the convertible and the roadster that were taken in a street scene on the Mediterranean Sea. The German trade magazine Motor Klassik commented on this with the remark that the pictures "show that they could evidently move on their own".

In the summer of 1931, the Bucciali brothers considered realizing the TAV 30 in a sports version in order to tie in with the brand's sporting traditions. For this, in turn, the use of a Mercedes supercharged engine should have been considered. It is not clear whether it was still the outdated engine from 1924 or whether Bucciali wanted to fall back on a more recent design. The project failed even before a German engine could be installed in the chassis, due to financial hardship and the fact that the large, sluggish chassis of the TAV 30 was poorly suited for motorsport purposes.

Type 7 (Bucciali TAV 12)

The last model of the Bucciali brothers used a twelve-cylinder engine from Voisin. It was created in two versions one after the other.

The convertible

A first roadworthy prototype, completed in the summer of 1931, used the Type 6 chassis. The car featured a body designed and built by Guillet, which Paul-Albert Bucciali and some contemporary observers found extremely unattractive. The car was used to test the front-wheel drive technology in practice. Paul-Albert Bucciali drove from Paris to Nice in November 1931 to take part in a Concours d'Elegance. There he received the Grand Prix d´Honneur (the great honorary award).

La Flèche d'Or

The Bucciali TAV 12 "La Flèche d'Or"

After a practical test, the "final" TAV 12 was created, which had a chassis that was extended to 4.1 meters. It is not known whether the chassis of the prototype was simply extended or a completely new chassis was built. The second version of the TAV 12 was dressed as a four-door sedan. The body was designed by Paul-Albert and Angelo Bucciali and executed by Saoutchik. It was hailed in the press at the time as the lowest car of its time. The wheelbase was an enormous 4.1 meters, the overall height was only 1.45 meters.

The initiative for this vehicle came from Georges Roure, a Parisian banker. Roure had seen the "Double Huit" at the Paris Motor Show in 1930 and wanted to order a similar one for himself. According to several press reports, the Buccialis were unable to get a second sixteen-cylinder up and running within a year. Roure therefore initially switched to an eight-cylinder Lycoming, but shortly before installing it, he ordered a twelve-cylinder from Voisin.

The TAV-12 limousine was nicknamed "La Flèche d'or" (Golden Arrow) and remained a one-off. It still exists and is today - like "La Marie" - in California and repeatedly takes part in concours events. Sometimes it is misleadingly called TAV 8-32.

Motorsport

In 1923, two Bucciali were registered for the first Le Mans 24-hour race in motorsport history, but did not appear for practice and races.

literature

  • Serge Bellu: L'Attraction des frères Bucciali . Brand history and presentation of the Bucciali TAV 12. In: Automobiles Classiques. No. 116 (September 2001), p. 68 ff.
  • Griffith Borgeson: The Tale of the Stork. Biography of the front-wheel drive models. In: Motor Klassik . Issue 4 and 5/1989.
  • Eric Favre: Bucciali, la passion de la démesure. History of the Bucciali brand. In: La Gazoline. January 26, 2003.
  • Christian Huet: Bucciali. Self-published, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-9500432-3-2 .
  • HO (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt , issue 4/2016, p. 24 ff.

Web link

Commons : Bucciali  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. There is a replica of a Buc in an automobile museum in Los Angeles.
  2. One sources assign the vehicles of type 3 to type 2. HO (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 25.
  3. ^ At HO (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 24 ff., The English name Mary becomes.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c H. O. (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 24.
  2. a b c H. O. (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 25.
  3. ^ Eric Favre: Bucciali, la passion de la démesure. History of the Bucciali brand. In: La Gazoline. , January 26, 2003.
  4. ^ HO (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt , issue 4/2016, p. 29.
  5. a b H. O. (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt , issue 4/2016, p. 30.
  6. a b c Automobiles Classiques No. 116, p. 70.
  7. Griffith Borgeson: The Tale of the Stork. Biography of the front-wheel drive models. In: Motor Klassik . Issue 4 and 5/1989.
  8. a b c H. O. (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 26.
  9. a b H. O. (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 27.
  10. ^ HO (Hans Otto) Meyer-Spelbrink: The flight of the storks . The front-wheel drive models from Bucciali. Oldtimer Markt, issue 4/2016, p. 28.