Dietrich-Bugatti
Dietrich-Bugatti is the name for a series of passenger and racing cars that the young designer Ettore Bugatti developed for the German automobile company De Dietrich between 1902 and 1904 .
prehistory
Ettore Bugatti had built his first automobile for the bicycle manufacturer Prinetti & Stucchi before he was 21 years old and had successfully raced with it. He built his Type 2 with the support of his friends, the Gulinelli family, and exhibited it successfully at the International Exhibition in Milan in 1901 . So it came to contact with the Alsatian industrialist Eugène de Dietrich , who wanted to work with him. Because Bugatti was not yet of legal age at that time, the Baron de Dietrich concluded a seven-year agreement with Ettore's father, Carlo Bugatti, for the production of automobiles under license .
The plan was to develop new and larger models based on the Type 2. Ettore Bugatti worked at the De Dietrich plant in Niederbronn , Alsace , until February 1904 , which at the time was part of the German Empire . In addition to licensed passenger cars from Turcat-Méry from Marseille, De Dietrich mainly manufactured buses and other commercial vehicles.
Idiosyncratic technical solutions
Bugatti developed three models for De Dietrich. Today they are known as the Bugatti types 3, 4 and 5 . Its construction is heavily influenced by the Type 2, from which features such as an engine with four cylinders cast in pairs, eight valves, right-hand drive and chain drive were adopted. The difference was in size. The engine had evaporative cooling ; the cylinders were surrounded by a copper jacket (later: aluminum) that was connected to the cooler. Again there were two valves per cylinder. However, they were attached at the top of the cylinder head and thus probably the earliest application of an OHV valve control in a European automobile, which was otherwise unusually designed with tappets controlled via angle.
It was also rather unconventional to mount the two camshafts exposed on the engine; it was driven by gears on the front. This solution was neither quiet nor particularly reliable. The routing of the exhaust gases inside the cylinder block over its entire height almost certainly caused thermal problems. Bugatti also had its own ideas for the ignition. Each cylinder received its own ignition coil, the spark being controlled by a rotating distributor. Finally, Bugatti also did without an oil pump, which suggests that the lubrication was carried out using a “droplet counter” from a tank.
The engine was blocked with the clutch . An underlying strut connected it to the chassis at the front. The four-speed gearbox was attached to the chassis. The drive shaft to the gearbox was mounted higher than the cardan shaft . This transmitted the power via a differential to gear wheels, which in turn drove the two chains that passed the power on to the rear wheels.
De Dietrich, License Bugatti
Because Bugatti had already dealt with types 3, 4 and 5 before he was employed in Niederbronn, it is not known in which chronological order they were actually created. In total, fewer than 100 Dietrich Bugattis were built. Two of them were type 5 racing cars. The official model name was De Dietrich, License Bugatti. Accordingly, the manufacturer kept it with the models based on the Turcat-Méry.
The American Brigadier General McCoskry Butt toured Germany and France with his Type 4 for several months in the summer of 1904. The stages were between 150 and 440 km, whereby he noted a travel time of 11 hours for the latter. He was full of praise for the reliability and performance of the vehicle.
A special feature of the Type 5, in addition to the unusually large engine, was the driver's seating position above the rear axle, which, due to the lack of clarity, led to the exclusion from the Paris – Madrid race , for which both Type 5s were registered. Ettore Bugatti should drive one. The race was stopped prematurely due to numerous serious accidents.
| Name Bugatti | De Dietrich License Bugatti | power | Bore × stroke | Displacement | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type 3 | 16 CV | 16 hp | 114 × 130 mm | 5300 cc | |
| Type 4 | 24 CV | 24 hp | 130 × 140 mm | 7400 cc | |
| Type 5 | 60 CV course | 60 hp | 160 × 160 mm | 12,867 cc | Racing car, 2 copies |
separation
Ettore Bugatti seems to have spent a lot of time developing new ideas and experimenting on racing cars, so that he neglected the model maintenance on the passenger cars and saw too little usable for De Dietrich. The baron decided to give up the loss-making business in Niederbronn. The formal separation from Ettore Bugatti took place on February 3, 1904, but the relationship between Bugatti and De Dietrich remained cordial.
During his time in Niederbronn, Bugatti worked with Émile Mathis , who ran the general agency for De Dietrich automobiles in Strasbourg. A friendship arose, which in turn - after the collaboration with De Dietrich ended - ended in a new car project, the Hermes or Hermes-Simplex .
source
- Hugh G. Conway: Les Grandes Marques: Bugatti. Gründ, Paris 1984, ISBN 2-7000-5175-8 , pp. 8-10 (French).
